Where to Stay and What to Eat

The registration fee for the entire Green Fest weekend is only $85. This includes all plenary sessions, workshops and activities. Meals and lodging are additional, but very reasonable. If you would like to reserve a camping space, dorm room or meals, you may do so online at http://nygreenfest.org/registration.html, or by printing out and mailing in our registration form.

Dorm rooms and the Saxon Inn are available for lodging on campus. Camping is available at a beautiful lake 2 miles from campus. Transportation will be provided from the campus to the campground. Local bed and breakfasts are also available. Meals prepared from locally-grown food will be served at the Alfred University dining hall. Meals may also be obtained from area restaurants and grocery stores.

Dormitory lodging is available on campus in the Brick Residence Hall, across the campus green from the Powell Campus Center for $25 per person per night. Kids 4-12 are $11.00 per night. Kids 3 and under are free. Bring your own sheets, blankets and towels. Bed linens are available for $10. Apartment suites on campus are also available for $35 per person per night. Each suite has 3 doubles, 1 bath, 1 kitchen, and A/C . There is a maximum of 2 adults and 2 children per room, 6 adults and 6 children per suite. On campus lodging must be reserved before August 3, 2009.

CAMPING: Tent camping is available for $10 per person at Foster Lake, a 25-acre lake 5 min. from the Alfred University campus. Children 12 and under camp for free. Fires are allowed in the grills. Boating is available. Swimming is not allowed in 2009 due to water quality concerns. Transportation will be provided to and from the lake upon request. Showers for campers are available on campus in the McLane Athletic Center. Campers and RV's may stay at Foster Lake or in assigned parking lot on campus (no hook-ups). Camping must be reserved before August 3, 2009.

Getting to Green Fest

Green Fest 2009 will be held on the campus of Alfred University in Alfred, NY. Alfred is in rural Allegany County, 80 miles south of Rochester near the Pennsylvania border. The Short
Line Bus runs several buses daily between Alfred, Westchester, New York City and Long Island. The bus stop in Alfred is just a couple of blocks from the Green Fest location. Click here for driving directions to Alfred. Offers and requests for rides may be posted on the Green Fest ride board.

Kovel and Gronowicz to Speak on Politics and Nature

Joel Kovel and Tony Gronowicz will be the speakers for a plenary session on politics and nature, Saturday, August 8, 7:00 pm — 9:00 pm in Nevins Theater, Powell Campus Center, Alfred University, Alfred, NY. Joel Kovel will speak about revitalizing the relationship between humanity and nature and Tony Gronowicz will speak about the history of political efforts to protect and give rights to nature in the US. Crow Weaver's musical performance will open the program and a musical performance of the Tom Persichilli and Meg Krywe will close the program.

Joel Kovel is the editor of the quarterly journal, Capitalism Nature Socialism. From 1988 to 2009, he was Professor of Social Studies at Bard College. Joel has published nine books and over a hundred articles and reviews. His books include White Racism, which was nominated for a National Book Award in 1972; Against the State of Nuclear Terror; In Nicaragua; The Radical Spirit; History and Spirit (1991); Red Hunting in the Promised Land (1994), a study of anticommunist repression in America; The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or The End of the World (Zed, 2002); and Overcoming Zionism (2007). As an activist, Joel has been engaged in struggles for peace and justice since the Vietnam War era. He has worked within the antiwar and antinuclear movements, the solidarity movements in Central America and the Caribbean, the movements for democratic media, and, increasingly, for ecological transformation. Joel joined the Green Party since 1990. In 1998, he was the Green Party candidate for US Senator from New York, and in 2000 sought the party's Presidential nomination.

Tony Gronowicz teaches U.S. history, global civilization, political science and human geography at the City University of New York. He edited Oswald Garrison Villard: The Dilemmas of the Absolute Pacifist in Two World Wars (1983); and authored Race and Class Politics in New York City Before the Civil War (1998) and Last Western Empire: A History of the United States from Spring to its Fall (2006). Tony was the 2005 Green Party candidate for Mayor of New York City and a 1996 Green Party candidate for State Assembly. He serves on the International Committee of the Green Party of the United States.

Crow Weaver is the founder of the Native Earthling Band in Ithaca. He was born in Virginia and grew up listening to blues, deep southern rock, and rockin' gospel. He started playing guitar when he was 13 and later picked up silver and Native American flutes. He has explored his Native American and Celtic ancestry to create a blend of spiritually-minded, earthy and edgy rock-and-roll. He calls his music Tribal Rock, as it transcends all race and creed to bring people together as one.

Tom Persichilli and Meg Krywe are members of the Lucky Pluckers, a band that performs folk/rock/old-timey music on mostly acoustic instruments built by Tom. Meg will speak at Green Fest about her work in the fight against a nuclear waste dump in Allegany County.

Kauffman, Jemison and Gerry to Speak on Sovereignty and Sustainability

Bill Kauffman, Peter Jemison and Lyn Gerry will be the speakers for a plenary session on sovereignty and sustainability, Sunday, August 9, 2009, 9:45 am — 11:15 am , on the solar stage on the Alfred University Campus Green, Alfred, NY. Bill Kauffman's talk is titled "Look Homeward, Greens: Why Localism Matters." Poetry readings by Michael Czarnecki will open and close the program.

Bill Kauffman is the author of eight books, including With Good Intentions? Reflections on the Myth of Progress in America (1998), Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette: A Mostly Affectionate Account of a Small Town’s Fight to Survive (2003), Look Homeward, America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchists (2006), which the American Library Association named one of the best books of 2006 and which won the Andrew Eiseman Writers Award, Ain’t My America: The Long Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle American Anti-Imperialism (Henry Holt/ Metropolitan/2008), which Barnes & Noble named one of the best books of 2008; and Forgotten Founder: Drunken Prophet: The Life of Luther Martin (2008). Bill is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, the American Conservative, the Independent, Counterpunch and Orion. Bill is a critic of development, writes approvingly of distributism and agrarianism, and is strongly anti-corporate. He has described his politics as "a blend of Catholic Worker, Old Right libertarian, Yorker transcendentalist, and delirious localist."

G. Peter Jemison is the manager of Ganondagan State Historic Site, a recreation of a 17th-century Seneca village, located in Victor, New York. He is the editor of Treaty of Canandaigua 1794: 200 Years of Treaty Relations between the Iroquois Confederacy and the United States (2002), and the director of the film, Hanondagonyes 'Town Destroyer,' in which Seneca tribe members re-enact events of the 18th-century colonial wars and the campaign against them. Peter represents the Seneca Nation on repatriation issues, and serves on the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and formerly served on the board of directors of the American Association of Museums. He is also an artist whose work has been widely shown for more than two decades. His paintings and drawings have shown in solo exhibitions at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo and at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York. He was the founding director of the American Indian Community House Gallery in New York City.

Lyn Gerry is the host and producer of the Unwelcome Guests radio program about wealth, power, and peoples' resistance to the corporate world order. Unwelcome Guests is broadcast on 20 radio stations across the US, including WEOS Geneva, WXXE-FM Syracuse and Ithaca Community Radio. Lyn is a founder and collective member of the A-Infos Radio Project, and a founder of the revived Watkins Glen Farmers Market.

Michael Czarnecki is a poet and a poetry publisher from Wheeler, NY. Mike, his wife Carolyn, and their sons Grayson and Chapin operate Foothills Publishing, now in its 24th year publishing poetry.

Weaver and Miner to Speak on Sustainable Energy

Art Weaver and Dan Miner will be the speakers for the plenary session, Saturday, August 8, 9:45 am — 11:00 am, on the solar stage on the Alfred University Campus Green, Alfred, NY. Art will speak about "Renewable Energy, the Audacity of Hope, the Reality of Change." Dan Miner will speak about how to create a post-carbon economy. Carl Lundgren's musical performances will open and close the program.

Art Weaver is President of Renovus Energy, a renewable energy systems design and installation company in Ithaca, NY. Prior to founding Renovus Energy, Art was a staff scientist at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron, conducting research in x-ray biophysics and proteomics. The accelerating pace of environmental degradation and social upheaval caused by increasing global population, in conjunction with a diminishing global petroleum resource, motivated Art to establish Renovus Energy.

Dan Miner is the chair of the Sierra Club NYC Group, and founded its Beyond Oil NYC campaign. He is the organizer of the Peak Oil NYC Meetup, the NYC affiliate of Post Carbon Institute. Dan, an attorney, is Senior Vice President of the Long Island City Business Development Corporation.

Carl Lundgren is the Chair of the Bronx County Green Party and a member of the best (and possibly the only) country band in the Bronx, Troy Willy.

Celebrating the Elie Siegmeister Centennial

Leonard Lehrman and Helene Williams will open the concluding session of Green Fest Sunday, August 9, 2009, at 1:45 pm in Alfred University's Howell Hall, Alfred, NY, with a program Celebrating the Elie Siegmeister Centennial and Other Music Relevant for Our Time. Their concert is dedicated to the memory of Susan Blake and
Maria Kuriloff.

Program (the music is by Elie Siegmeister unless otherwise noted):
A Song to Begin - by Gerhard Bronner (Helene Williams-Leonard Lehrman)
Johnny Appleseed (Rosemary Benet,)
Two Songs of the City (Langston Hughes):
Chalk Marks on the Sidewalk
Childhood Memories
A Dream Deferred - by Leonard Lehrman (Langston Hughes)
Abraham Lincoln (Rosemary & Stephen Vincent Benet, ed. Leonard Lehrman)
Conspiritor Reality - from ALGER by Leonard Lehrman & Kim Rich
Guns Don't Kill People - by So-Hee Youn (Jamie Jackson)
Harvest Time
Conscience - by Leonard Lehrman (Abel Meeropol)
John Reed (Abel Meeropol)
Why Am I Painting the Living Room - by Lou & Peter Berryman
Where Do I Belong? - If I Can't Dance from E.G.: A Musical Portrait of Emma Goldman - by Leonard Lehrman & Karen Ruoff Kramer
Elie Siegmeister (Leonard Lehrman)

Leonard Lehrman, the former Assistant Chorus Master of the Metropolitan Opera, founded and directs the Metropolitan Philharmonic Chorus. He is also the Co-Director of the National Committee to Reopen the Rosenberg Case, and Co-Author of the forthcoming bio-bibliography of Elie Siegmeister (1909-91), one of America's most prolific and socially-conscious composers. Leonard was Siegmeister's youngest and longest composition student (he also studied at Harvard, Cornell, Indiana, and with Nadia Boulanger in France), and has organized 23 of the 36 concerts honoring the Siegmeister Centennial this year, throughout the US and Europe, including this one. With Helene Williams, Leonard co-founded the Elie Siegmeister Society and Court Street Music in Valley Stream, Long Island. Leonard's own works (192 to date, including 10 operas) have been heard in 24 US States, 9 European countries, Russia, Israel, Australia, at the UN, and at the annual Northeast Naturist Festival in Moravia each August since2003. His current project is the opera ALGER, on Alger Hiss.

Helene Williams is co-founder of the Bronx Opera Company, Court Street Music, and the Elie Siegmeister Society. A faculty member at Queensborough Community College, she majored in Drama at CCNY and appeared Off-Off-Broadway and in summer stock, as well as on TV and in films. A professional concert, theater and opera singer, she has performed throughout Latin America, Australia, Israel; and all across Europe and North America in Leonard Lehrman's E.G.: A Musical Portrait of Emma Goldman, New World, and Superspy!: The S-e-c-r-e-t Musical. Since beginning to work with Leonard in January 1987, she has performed together with him over 400 times; they were married July 14, 2002. They have recorded for Opus One, Premier, Capstone, Albany, and Original Cast Records. A Bronx Council on the Arts Career Development winner, Helene founded and directs Accent Reduction in English Speech.

Rasmussen and Mychelako to speak on the Politics of Sustainability

Virginia Rasmussen and Cyril Mychelako are the speakers for the opening plenary session of Green Fest, Friday, August 7, 2009, 7:00 pm — 9:00 pm in Nevins Theater in the Powell Campus Center at Alfred University, Alfred, NY. Virginia will discuss who has the power to implement sustainability and the political changes that need to be made if we are to achieve real sustainability. Cyril will talk about rights for nature, including the rights to nature clauses in Ecuador's new Constitution, the challenges Ecuadorians face in seeing them upheld, and the lessons for activists here in the United States. Deborah Magone's musical performances will open and close the evening.

Virginia Rasmussen is a principal with POCLAD, the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy and co-founded the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Corporations v. Democracy campaign. She previously directed the Education Program at the New Alchemy Institute on Cape Cod and headed the Environmental Studies Program at Alfred University, Alfred, New York. Virginia lives in Alfred and is a trustee of the village of Alfred.

Cyril Mychelako is an editor at www.UpsideDownWorld.org, an online magazine covering politics and activism in Latin America. He won two Project Censored awards this year for his critical coverage of the "Rights to Nature" clauses in Ecuador's constitution and for an article about the Bush Administration withholding lifesaving aid from Haiti. His writing and analysis has appeared in publications such as the BBC, The New York Times Online, The Miami Herald, New Politics, www.CommonDreams.org, NACLA online, and Z Magazine. In 2006, he worked as an Intag Solidarity Network human rights observer - working in solidarity with communities resisting mining in Ecuador. Cyril worked in the Southern Tier in the summer of 2007 to end the war in Iraq. He serves on the board of the Canary Institute, a transnational collective of individuals engaged in research, writing, teaching, solidarity, and action that address the problem of catastrophic systemic collapse.

Deborah performs solo and with her rock band, The Deborah Magone Band. Deborah's CD, "Blues, Boogie & More......", was chosen as "2004 Best Blues CD" by Walkin' Willie of WDYN 90.1 in Rochester. Her television show "Greenline" aired on Greece, NY Cable Access Channel 12 and Rochester RCTV Channel 15. Her show, Iraq: War of Choice, can be viewed on Google Video.

Maria Kuriloff

The Green Fest planning committee and the Green community lost a key member on Wednesday. Our deepest sympathies to Ron.

I always enjoyed working on projects with Maria, but it took a few years of working with her for me to realize how well Maria worked with everyone. In her good-natured way, she treated everyone in a friendly, respectful manner and got everyone to work together and get things done. Maria made things happen. She contributed tremendously to the Green Party at every level. Just one example: It was Maria who convinced Malachy McCourt to be our gubernatorial candidate in 2006.

We will have a tribute to Maria at Green Fest in August. Please bring your remembrances to share and post them now on the website set up by her son Matthew, http://www.mariakuriloff.com/.

Green Fest will Use Solar Stage

Many of the programs and performances at Green Fest will take place on an outdoor stage with amplification provided by the portable solar sound system created by Crow Weaver and the Native Earthling Band in affiliation with the Center for Environmental Sustainability in Ithaca.

The solar sound system collects sunlight via three photovoltaic panels. Each SunWize SW115 panel outputs 115 watts of power, for a total of 345 watts. The panels provide direct current at 16.7 volts. The SunWize panels have a "rated" working life of about 50 years, at which point the cells will still put out 85% of their design power.

The solar panels are wired into a charge controller that regulates the current supplied to the battery. This is the heart of the Solar Stage. The charge controller keeps the battery topped up while protecting it from being damaged by overcharging. The life of the battery is directly impacted by the quality of the charge controller. The Solar Stage uses the Solar Boost 2000E from Blue Sky Energy.

For more information about the solar stage, visit http://nygreenfest.org/solarstage.html

SEEDS Festival at Earthdance Community

Rafter Sass, who is doing a Liberation Ecology workshop at Green Fest 2009, will be participating in the SEEDS Festival Sunday, June 14 - Thursday, June 18 at Earthdance Community, Plainfield MA. Rafter's workshop in June will combine the participatory exploration and design studio of the Liberation Ecology workshop, with the mushroom-centric permaculture of Mycoscaping.

We'll weave back and forth between tools for designing healthy, abundant landscapes, and strategies for creating the vibrant and just society that can care for those landscapes. Social design and ecosystem design will enrich and empower each other.

This four-day participatory workshop gives participants the tools to start reclaiming ecological and social health - from specific techniques to broad strategies. Come prepared for a hands-on experience - we’ll be wrestling with hard questions, and going outside and getting our hands dirty!

In the Mycoscaping stream, we'll be learning about - and implementing - a variety of mushroom species and cultivation techniques in the landscape. We'll be looking at growing food and medicine everywhere, enriching the health of our veggie gardens and perennial plantings with fungal polyculture, bioremediation, wild mushrooms and forest ecology, and more.

In the Liberation Ecology stream, we'll be learning how to design collaborative projects that support the health of vibrant, whole communities. We'll map our relationships with natural and human communities, and create strategies to methodically connect our own desires for change with large scale transformation.

We'll all be collaborating to discover the emergent patterns and principles that arise from this hybrid workshop.

Introductions to Permaculture, to edible forest gardening, and related topics, will be incorporated along the way.

For more information, visit http://earthdance.net/seedsfest.htm

Workshops and Panels

As of today, we have about 30 workshops and panels scheduled for Green Fest. This schedule is likely to change, so please check back.

Fri., Aug. 7, 1:45 pm - 2:45 pm, Session 1

48 hour Rap on Sustainability and Green Politics, Chris Defendorf
Gas Drilling and Local Sovereignty, Rachel Treichler
Earth Oven Building Workshop

Fri., Aug. 7, 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm, Session 2

Progressive Video Workshop, Wilton Vought
Green Media Panel: Deborah Magone, David Doonan
My Name is Allegany County discussion, Gudrun Scott

Sat., Aug. 8, 8:30 am - 9:30 am, Session 3

Nut Tree Workshop, Tom Potts
Activism for Social Change, Paul Zulkowitz
Learning from Abandoned Houses, Jane Pearson

Sat., Aug. 8, 11:15 am - 12:15 am, Session 4

Zero Waste Workshop, Chris Burger
Liberation Ecology, Rafter Sass
Poetry Workshop, Mike Czarnecki
Economics as a Cultural System, John Doscher

Sat., Aug. 8, 1:45 pm - 2:45pm, Session 5

Green Media Panel: Sander Hicks, Ann Link, Lyn Gerry, Steve Welzer
Tickletown Sustainability Projects, Lois Hilton
Out of Time: Global Warming, Extinctions and Energy, John Doscher
Importance of Political Theory, Darin Robbins

Sat., Aug. 8, 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm, Session 6

Build Your Own Wind Turbine Workshop, Barry Miller
From Empire to Earth Community, Tim Bancroft
Sustainable Gardening, Carol Doscher
It Ain't Easy Being Green, Carl Romanelli

Sun., Aug. 9, 8:30 am - 9:30 am, Session 7

Tofu Making Workshop, Sam Weinreb
Building Local Community, Tony and Mary Lipnicki
Third parties and the U.S. experience, Tony Gronowicz
What is Sustainability? Douglas Clarke
The Spiritual Basis for Green Living, Bill Huston

Sun., Aug. 9, 11:15 am - 12:15 am, Session 8

Pollitical Organizing on Campus, Peter LaVenia, Jane Pearson
Living off Grid, Steve Nicholson
Panel on Third Party Barriers: Carl Romanelli, Rome Celli and Jerry Kahn
Sustainable Cities, Dan Miner, Carl Lundgren, Bob Kehoe

Draft Schedule for Green Fest 2009

Here is our draft schedule for Green Fest 2009. As of today, we have 46 confirmed presenters.

Friday, August 7, 2009

10:00 am — Registration opens
12:00 noon — Exhibits open
1:45 pm — Workshops and Panels, Session 1
3:00 pm — Workshops and Panels, Session 2
4:15 pm — Swimming, hiking, yoga
5:30-6:30 pm — Dinner in Dining Hall
7:00 pm — Forum on the Politics of Sustainability

Saturday, August 8, 2009

7:30-8:30 am — Breakfast in Dining Hall
8:30 am — Workshops and Panels, Session 3
9:45 am — Forum on Sustainable Energy
11:15 am — Workshops and Panels, Session 4
12:30-1:30 pm – Lunch in Dining Hall
1:45 pm — Workshops and Panels, Session 5
3:00 pm — Workshops and Panels, Session 6
4:15 pm — Swimming, hiking, yoga
5:30-6:30 pm — Dinner in Dining Hall
7:00 pm — Forum on Politics and Nature
9:30 pm — Music and Dancing

Sunday, August 9, 2009

8:30 am — Workshops and Panels, Session 7
9:45 am — Forum on Regionalism and Sustainability
11:15 am — Workshops and Panels, Session 8
12:30-1:30 pm – Lunch in Dining Hall
1:45 pm — Forum on Visioning a Green Future
3:30 pm — Adjourn

For more information, visit http://nygreenfest.org/