Podcast

Harnessing The Power of We

February 29, 2020March 4, 2020 Mike Nowak 8 Billion Angels, Bob Dolgan, Chicago Community Gardeners Association, COOKED: Survival by Zipcode, Dan Gibbs The Chicago Backyard Farmer, eco-influencer, Judith Helfand, Monty and Rose, One Earth Film Festival, Peggy Malecki, Terry Spahr, The Mike Nowak Show, The Power of We

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(March 1, 2020) Harnessing the power of we is just another way of saying working together. Or, perhaps, getting on the same page. Or (and I’ve learned to hate this word) winning. In the context of this radio program, we’re talking about our world and its health. And, as you might have noticed, The Power of We is the theme of the 9th Annual One Earth Film Festival.

Our show has been covering this event for years–even when we weren’t on broadcast radio. Because we believe in its mission.

One Earth Film Festival is the Midwest’s premier environmental film festival, creating opportunities for understanding climate change, sustainability and the power of human involvement. We showcase top-issue, thought-provoking environmental films and lead audiences in interactive post-film discussions focused on solutions. One Earth Film Festival is a production of Green Community Connections.

From March 6 to 15, the festival features 48 film/events at venues across four counties in the Chicago area. Today, we welcome three filmmakers from the event.

COOKED: Survival by Zipcode is directed by Peabody award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand.

Chicago suffered the worst heat disaster in U.S history in 1995, when 739 residents – mostly elderly and black – died over the course of one week. As “Cooked” links the heat wave’s devastation back to the underlying manmade disaster of structural racism, it delves deeply into one of our nation’s biggest growth industries: Disaster Preparedness. Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand uses her signature serious-yet-quirky-style as interlocutor and narrator to forge inextricable connections between the cataclysmic natural disasters we’re willing to see and prepare for, and the slow-motion disasters we’re not.

Viewings:

Saturday, March 7, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. [West]
Chicago Public Library, Austin Branch, 5615 W. Race,
Auditorium, Chicago
(Meet Director Judith Helfand and local advocate Orrin Williams)

Sunday, March 8, 2 to 4 p.m. [South]
Windsor Park Evangelical Lutheran Church, 2619 E. 76th St., Chicago

Sunday, March 8, 2 to 5 p.m. [Lake County]
St. Joseph Catholic Church, 121 E. Maple Ave.
Koenig Center, Libertyville

Sunday, March 8, 2:30 to 5 p.m. [Central]
Old St. Patrick’s Church, 625 W. Adams
Fellowship Hall, St., Chicago (entrance on DesPlaines)
(Meet Director Judith Helfand)

8 Billion Angels is produced by environmental and sustainability leader Terry Spahr.

CHICAGO-AREA PREMIERE. “8 Billion Angels” tells the truth about the conflict between the size of our global population and the sustainability of our planet. It dispels the misconception that technology can save us, that reducing consumption is the answer, and that the blame lies solely in the developing world. With passion, humility, and honesty, experts explain the indisputable connection between our environmental catastrophes, unsustainable population and increasing consumption.

Viewings:

Saturday, March 7, 12 to 2 p.m. [Central]
First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple
77 W. Washington St., Chicago
(Meet producer Terry Spahr)

Saturday, March 7, 2 to 4 p.m. [Lake County]
Catlow Theater, 116 W. Main St., Barrington

Monty and Rose is directed by Uptown resident and birder Bob Dolgan.

“Monty and Rose” tells the story of a pair of endangered piping plovers that successfully nested at Chicago’s Montrose Beach in the summer of 2019, the first of the species to nest in Chicago in 64 years. The film chronicles these special birds and an unpredictable series of events including a proposed music festival that propelled the birds to national headlines. “Monty and Rose”features interviews with an array of key players in the story, including biologists, birders, volunteers and the advocates who spoke out when the music festival was proposed.

Viewings:

Saturday, March 14, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. [W Suburbs]
Thatcher Woods Pavilion, 8030 Chicago Ave., River Forest
(Meet Director Bob Dolgan)

Another visit from the Chicago backyard farmer

In case you haven’t looked at the calendar, spring is only three weeks away. Even though it hasn’t been much of a winter in the Midwest, it seems like a long time since the last growing season. Then I received a notice the other day about an event by the Chicago Community Gardeners Association featuring friend of the show Dan Gibbs, aka The Chicago Backyard Farmer.

CCGA is having a Vegetable Workshop and Tool Distribution on Saturday, March 7 at what used to be the Chicago Center for Green Technology, 445 N. Sacramento Avenue in Chicago. It’s open to community gardens.

Dan Gibbs will give a workshop on early season vegetables you can get started soon in your community garden (or on your window sill). Each attending community garden will receive packets of the appropriate seeds. Also, the Resources Committee has purchased brand new garden tools from Lowes (at a big discount). We will distribute a tool to each community garden attending Dan’s workshop.

Registration is at 9:00 a.m., the workshop starts promptly at 9:30, and it’s only $5! To pre-register, you MUST INCLUDE the contact name, the name of your community garden and address to mamiegray2012@gmail.com.

Meanwhile, Dan Gibbs returns to the studio today to talk about opening the garden in the spring and early season veggie items that can be growing while preparing for the main season planting. He’ll get into specific cool weather crops, and will emphasize the idea of extending the season for greater production.

Ladles and Genomes, start your enzymes!