Raíces is growing and selling seedlings to benefit our Eco-Culture program.  Interested in purchasing some to support Raíces?  Check out the list below and contact us at 732-236-7618 or raices [at] raicesculturalcenter [dot] org ASAP to get your order in.

Here’s what we will have available (more herbs will be available and posted by the early summer):

50 cents/seedling or $5/dozen:

Vegetables
Broccoli DeCicco (limited #, must pre-order)
Broccoli Waltham (limited #, must pre-order)
Cabbage-Red and Green
Cauliflower-Goodman (limited #, must pre-order)
Kohlrabi-Koridor
Kohlrabi-Azur Star
Kohlrabi-Early White
Collards
Chard-Fordhook Giant
Cucumber-Straight Eight
Eggplant-Black Beauty
Eggplant-Listada di Gandia
Pac Choy-Prize Choy
Lettuce-Lettony
Lettuce-Pirat
Hot Pepper-Purira
Bell Pepper-Green/Yellow
Winter Squash-Honey Nut
Tomato-Red Cherry
Tomato-Brandywine
Tomato-Kellogg’s Breakfast Tomato (from saved seed)
Spinach
Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled Cress
Honey Nut Butternut Squash

Herbs
Caribe Cilantro
Garden Sorrel (A green to eat)
Dill-bouquet

Flowers
Nasturtium
Marigold

$1/seedling or $5/6:
Mint
Thornless black raspberry
Strawberry
Borage
Anise Hyssop
Columbine
Genovese Basil
Mini Basil
Lemon Basil
Holy Basil/Tulsi

$2/seedling or $5/3 (limited #, must pre-order):
Wild Thyme
Oregano
Lemon Balm
Chives

A HUGE thank you to our friend, Raíces volunteer and local community member and gardener Ellen R. for leading the February 2012 Raíces Eco-Culture group meeting.  Everyone was ready to get their hands in the dirt and begin their gardening early this year.  Ellen led participants in a winter sowing workshop and seed swap and made sure that everyone took home a fully sown container ready to be put outside to start their winter gardens!

Next month we will continue on the topic of gardening, exploring the subject of community gardening and community supported agriculture.  Join us on Monday, March 5, 7-9pm to join in the discussion.

Raíces needs your help!

As a non-profit organization, we are always seeking donations, not only monetary donations, but also materials, supplies and items.  Not only do these donations help us save money, but also create less waste by reusing and repurposing things that you don’t use anymore!  Every month we will send out a wish list of what we know we need here in the studio and for our programs.  If you have something on this list to donate, let us know.  We will provide you with a receipt for tax purposes, because even donations of items are tax deductible!  Contact us at 732-236-7618 or 908-227-5671, email raices@raicesculturalcenter.org or even leave a comment on this note!

This month, we are working on renovations and building a library/on-site archive reading room, a dance class area and a gallery space.  Your donations will help us make these improvements to make the Raíces studio more functional, accessible and comfortable forall who come through our doors, allowing us to provide more services and programs to the community and make Raíces’ roots grow!

RAÍCES WISH LIST-January 2012

• 2 4′ x 8′ plywood sheets
• 8 through 16 feet of 1″x4″ lumber
• guage wire
• weights
• screw rings
• instruments
• books about culture, music & music theory, art, travel, spirituality, ecology, natural living, gardening, sustainability and human
• bookshelves
• a comfortable chair for our on-site archive library/reading room
• white fabric and thread
• seeds (for the springtime, but never too late to start collecting them!)
• instruments
• a wooden dance floor and/or huge pieces of industrial carpet!
• desks
• folding tables
• folding chairs

Please pass along and help us spread the word!  Thank you!

Sincerely,

Nicole Wines and Francisco G. Gómez

Co-Directors, Raíces Cultural Center

image copyright bizarro.com

As the new year unfolds and December 21st. draws closer again, thoughts of apocalyptic events trouble the minds of many believers who are sold on the idea that the world will end on that date. Given the levels of global pollution, disease, poverty, starvation, war and the alignment of earth with the other planets in our solar system on that day, it leaves us with many things to ponder!

On the lighter side of 2012 Doomsday stories, Carlos Barrios, a Mayan priest and researcher,   interviewed around 600 traditional Mayan elders to obtain more information and knowledge about these predictions of doom. He concludes that:

….We are no longer in the World of the Fourth Sun, but we are not yet in the World of the Fifth Sun. This is the time in-between, the time of transition. As we pass through this transition there is a colossal, global convergence of environmental destruction, social chaos, war, and ongoing Earth Changes.” He further states that: “The indigenous have the calendars and know how to accurately interpret them— not others. The Mayan Calendars comprehension of time, seasons, and cycles has proven itself to be vast and sophisticated. The Maya understand 17 different calendars such as the Tzolk’in or Cholq’ij, some of them charting time accurately over a span of more than ten million years.“All was predicted by the mathematical cycles of the Mayan calendars. — It will change –everything will change. Mayan Day-keepers view the Dec. 21, 2012 date as a rebirth, the start of the World of the Fifth Sun. It will be the start of a new era resulting from and signified by the solar meridian crossing the galactic equator and the Earth aligning itself with the center of the galaxy. (http://truththeory.com/2012/01/03/1480/)

Global leaders, especially those of indigenous backgrounds, are taking a proactive approach to governing with Mother Earth in mind.  President Evo Morales of Bolivia takes on his people’s and environmental rights, implementing legislation like “La Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra”

(Law of Rights of Mother Earth) …. that intends to encourage a radical shift in conservation attitudes and actions, to enforce new control measures on industry, and to reduce environmental destruction. (PV Pulse)

And, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Wikileaks article
The Prior Consultation law will require that indigenous people be consulted before any mining, timber or petroleum projects are begun on their traditional lands. Private companies will have to seek agreement with rural communities for projects that affect them or their ancestral territories. (PV Pulse)

Environmental and social abuses have created a renewed consciousness of survival, one that can no longer be overlooked because the very existence of humanity depends on it. At the core of this renewed consciousness is the question of a reevaluation and introspection of ourselves as individual human beings. Perhaps we must take a long, hard look at the way we conduct our lives, and if we take into consideration Nature in relation to all the things we do in our daily activities.

Photographs taken by Angela Lugo.

Festival for the Dead:

Ancestral Musical Traditions in the Diaspora

Egun, muertos, caboclos, ancestors, the dead…on November 12, 2011, Raíces Cultural Center celebrated and honored the dead with music, song and dance in their 2011 production Festival for the Dead.  The Raíces Cultural Center Ensemble and Grupo Ribeiro along with guest and student performers presented some of the ancestral musical traditions of Cuba and Brazil.

Raíces and Grupo Ribeiro filled the Crossroads Theatre in Downtown New Brunswick with rhythm and movement, dedicated to those who came before as the culminating event of the 2011 Day of the Dead/Día de los muertos: Ancestors and Art project

This program has been made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts; through a grant provided by the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission/Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Crossroads Theatre was made available through the generosity of Johnson & Johnson, Inc., Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission/Board of Chosen Freeholders and the New Brunswick Cultural Center.

Additional support for the project was provided by our Board of Directors, volunteers and local business sponsors Zajac’s Pharmacy, Filippo’s Famous Pizza and the Sixth Ward Service Center.

Thank you  to everyone who contributed to making the Festival for the Dead a huge success.  Maferefun egun!

Ancestors and Art Exhibit in the Breezeway of the First Reformed Church of New Brunswick

The exhibition and cultural display featured local and international artists, from as close as New Brunswick and as far away as the Ukraine.  During the opening reception, Dee Jay Kava provided the music and curator Amy Garas co-created an interactive painting with event participants.

Dee Jay Kava at Ancestors and Art

The event was creative and inspirational.  Community members were touched by the church’s willingness to open its doors to the exploration of culture and creativity. One of the church’s pastors, Reverend Susan Kramer-Mills, spent the evening painting with event participants and Raíces members and said she was inspired to contribute her own addition to the exhibit before it closes on November 13.

A Community Creation!

Open hours will be held on Saturday November 5, during the project event Family Arts Day.  Participants in the Family Arts Day will explore the exhibit and create their own works of art to remember and honor their ancestors.

Ancestors and Art

Altars for the Ancestors

Egun Altar: Francisco G. Gómez, Raíces Cultural Center Co-Director

Dia de los muertos Altar: Erick Gaspar, Raíces Cultural Center Intern

Ancestor Altar: Amy Garas, Raíces Cultural Center Visual Arts Coordinator

Oyá Altar: Gatekeeper of the Cemetery, Orisha of the Whirlwinds and Change, Painted by artist and Raíces Visual Arts Coordinator Amy Garas

Were you at the opening reception?  Please share your experience as a comment on this article.

For most people the ancestors are a picture on a mantle, a necklace that grandmother left in her will, a pen knife that belonged to their beloved dad or an old guitar that a favorite uncle passed down to them before he entered the hereafter! Sights, sounds, smells and a whole host of other stimulus bring back that particular remembrance of those that came before you.

Memories of the dead contain many ways of honoring or venerating them. Marc Cohn’s interpretation of the “King” really brought this home when I first heard Walking in Memphis. One of the stanzas in the lyrics reads:

“Saw the ghost of Elvis On Union Avenue. Followed him up to the gates of Graceland, then I watched him walk right through. Now security they did not see him, they just hovered round his tomb, but there’s a pretty little thing waiting for the King, down in the Jungle Room”

We may never really know what motivated Cohn’s notion of seeing Elvis walk through the gates of Graceland or ever understand what it is that awaits the King down in the jungle room. Perhaps what’s most inspiring and touching about these lyrics is that in Cohn’s mind he sees the Ghost of Elvis somewhere and somehow in his remembrance.

As the Day of the Dead approaches, I reflect on how much we humans have forgotten the importance of those that came before us. As you pass cemeteries in the cities, suburbs and countryside, you see row after row of headstones for the dead. You also see sporadic wreathes and flowers, occasionally some type of memorabilia left at a gravesite. You may even notice older grave sites that haven’t been attended to for some time. It occurred to me that after a generation or two memories of the dearly departed are left for specific days like birthdays, date of death, holy days or any other days for remembering individuals that mean or meant something in your life.

We’ve even been programmed to believe that the dead are relegated to places like graveyards, mausoleums or urns where the deceased’s ashes are placed after cremation. Perhaps that’s why most modern day people view the dead with such finality.

Given the fast paced life that most of us lead, there never seems to be enough time to sit daily at a given time and place, to break bread and possibly talk about our ancestors. Is it no wonder that generations to come will never really know who  grandma or grandpa were.

Some ancestor worship from places like China, West Africa, Mexico or the Caribbean don’t view the ancestors as most westerners do. Having a private altar dedicated to deceased family members, or even revered non family members would be alien to the western conception of referencing the dead. Burned candles, pictures, food, talismans, incense or any other object left on a homemade altar would seem out of place in North America, for example. However, altars become quite acceptable and even welcomed when they are found in established places of worship, like a Christian church, Synagogue or Mosque.

What makes remembering ancestors so cold and impersonal on the one hand and warm, nurturing and spiritually sustaining on the other, you might ask? In a world of religious fanatics, agnostics and atheists, that’s a rather difficult question to answer! No criticism here on the latter, we are all entitled to believe or not believe the way we wish. But, if we respect, venerate and revere our ancestors in an untraditional way that is alien to western thought of the dead, we could understand that what we hold most memorable about ancestors emanates from our mind, from the essence of that remembrance.The way we choose to express the remembrance, as you may have already understood, is expressed in many different ways, and rightly so.

As November 1st. approaches, and the Day of the Dead comes closer, you may want to reflect on your loved ones who have passed, Those that made a lasting impact on your life and possibly were instrumental in molding the person you are now. Remember, their physical bodies may be gone and yet their energies will live on forever. Maferefún to the ancestors!

September 27 Topic Guide

by Nicole Wines, Raíces Co-Director

To put it bluntly, many of those who live in the community around Raíces live in a toxic environment.  Clean air, water, food and energy are not so easy to come by.  The air and water here in the northeast and many other parts of the globe, land and oceans, are filled with pollutants, toxins and waste.  So much of our food is grown industrially and covered with chemical residues from pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and fungicides.  Materials we often believe are safe can have adverse effects on our health and environment.  Our natural resources and open spaces are continually threatened, polluted and quickly diminishing.

Bank of the Raritan River at low tide in Highland Park, NJ

We were recently recommended the film “Tapped” and after watching this true life horror film, we made the determination to end the use of bottled water in the Raíces Cultural Center.  We are convinced that our tap water is truly unsafe to drink, especially knowing that the there are two chemical lagoons at Pfizer’s American Cyanamid Superfund site leaking benzene 20,000 times the regulatory levels into the Raritan River, our community’s source of drinking water. Raíces Directors decided to purchase 5-gallon glass jugs from a local brewery to fill with natural tested spring water and continue to explore ways we can reduce our daily exposure and contributions to toxins in our environment.

Eco-Culture Sustainability Discussion Group Flyer September 2011

Even if you can’t attend the discussion group meeting or the date has passed, you can help us by collecting and sharing information and joining in the online dialogue!  Here are some questions to start.  Make sure to include links or references to your source of information so readers can do further research on their own and make their own determination about the information:

What tips can you suggest to reduce exposure to toxic substances in a person’s daily life?

Can you identify and document any sites of concern in the Central NJ area and list links to any resources that identify toxic sites?

Do you have any references to organizations or groups who work monitor, sustain and advocate for clean air, water, food and energy?

What steps can one take in a particular campaign or with an organization to take action regarding access to a clean environment?  Please list details of what is happening in local environmental campaigns.

Do you know of any substances, materials or products that have been reported to leech toxins or cause adverse health reactions?

***Make sure to check out the film “Tapped” on hulu.com and come back to the blog to let us know what you think! CLICK TO WATCH TAPPED

Raíces Cultural Center is currently working on a series of events to celebrate the Day of the Dead and honor the ancestors through art.  For many cultures, death has always been felt with such finality.  There are those, however, that have maintained a reverence and veneration for those that came before them.  Raíces is seeking video testimonials from individuals of diverse cultural backgrounds to speak about the traditions celebrating the ancestors in their culture.  These videos will serve the purpose of  documenting and preserving a history of cultural traditions devoted to the veneration and celebration of the ancestors.

We want to hear from you, in your own words:

…how your cultural traditions celebrate and honor the ancestors

…why you believe it is important to practice traditions dedicated to the ancestors and how you  participate in these traditions

…how these traditions have evolved and why you feel it is important for you to carry them on

Testimonials will be catalogued as part of the Ancestor Project in the forthcoming Raíces Roots Online Archive.  If chosen to be featured in the archive, these videos will be available for viewing by the general public.  Selected testimonials will be edited and screened in part at the 2011 Raíces Production Festival for the Dead: Musical Traditions of the Ancestors.  All participants will be asked to sign a release form prior to filming or submitting a testimonial.  Participants will be notified if their video will be used in the archive and/or production.

To participate in this project, please call Nicole or Francisco at Raíces Cultural Center 732-317-2649 or e-mail raices@raicesculturalcenter.org