For Friday, May 8th, were in Brooklyn at the Pratt Dye Garden testing soil from 12 noon - 4 pm in collaboration with Sam Asher as part of the Soil First Aid testing event, so come through. Because this event includes educational workshops, the format will be a little different than usual - Testing will happen in batches from 12:00 - 12:30, then half an hour of group interpretation and discussion, followed by a project presentation from 1 - 2 pm, then more batch soil testing, interpretations/discussions in the same tempo until 4 pm. 

About the project: Soil First Aid is an interdisciplinary soil testing project in Pratt’s Dye Garden, examining the existing conditions of the garden’s soils along the North wall and analyzing the impacts of three improvement techniques: compost, red clover cover crops, and biochar. Through the use of chemical soil testing and soil chromatography, Soil First Aid reveals the graduality of human-perceived change in a system dominated by microbes through quantitative analyses and visual chromatograms. 

We are at Snug Harbor Botanic Garden to provide monthly Free Soil Testing workshop as part of their plant sale! This event is happening on Sunday, May 3rd from 12 noon - 4 pm.

Soils are one of our most important resources, but they can become contaminated as a result of industrial activity and legacy pollution. Common soil contaminants, such as lead or arsenic, can cause negative health effects to folks who work and play with soils, with young children at particular risk.

Finding soil contaminants requires special equipment – that’s where we come in! Our state-of-the-art handheld pXRF analyzer quickly screens soil samples for heavy metals content and we can let you know if remediation is recommended. Remediation involves covering contaminated soils with layers of clean soils, compost & mulch, and can be performed on your own.

We have partnered with our wonderful friends at Newburgh Food and Farm Initiative (NUFFI) to provide Free Soil Testing workshops at the Downing Park Urban Farm Fair in Newburgh, NY. This event is on April 25th, and soil testing will proceed from 12 noon - 4 pm.

Soils are one of our most important resources, but they can become contaminated as a result of industrial activity and legacy pollution. Common soil contaminants, such as lead or arsenic, can cause negative health effects to folks who work and play with soils, with young children at particular risk.

Finding soil contaminants requires special equipment – that’s where we come in! Our state-of-the-art handheld pXRF analyzer quickly screens soil samples for heavy metals content and we can let you know if remediation is recommended. Remediation involves covering contaminated soils with layers of clean soils, compost & mulch, and can be performed on your own.

Dear Urban Soils community, 

We are excited to invite you to join us for a large gathering in North Brooklyn on Sunday May 4: LIVING SOILS RISING!

Living Soils Rising on the Newtown Creek

On Sunday, May 4, 2025, join hundreds of artists, activists, neighbors, ecologists, dancers, healers and dreamers for LIVING SOILS RISING: four creative acts for climate justice and healing at Under the K Bridge Park.

Join the puppet costume-drag procession, water ceremony, soil dreaming vibration, and a seeding-the-future activation at Under the K Bridge Park at Newtown Creek. Hundreds of us will gather where Indigenous land was taken for the birth of the fossil fuel industry from 1867 until today. We will witness, remember, and honor the harmed land and envision a livable energy future together. Costume: Dress as your favorite fungi, plant or animal local to Northern Brooklyn.

LIVING SOILS RISING has four creative acts: 

1. (3:00 - 4:30 PM) Puppet-Drag Procession: Dress as your favorite fungi or plant. Gather 3 - 3:45 PM. Parade procession begins at 3:45 PM.

2. (4:30 - 6 PM) Opening Water Ceremony & Soils Movement Dreaming
   A collective meditation, sound vibration & performance.

3. (6 - 6:45 PM) Mini-Walking Tours 

Learn about the history of this land, the fossil fuel facility right next door & the effort to close the facility and remediate the land. 

1. (6:45 - 7:30) Seeding the Future - Closing Ritual 

A participatory earth-magic closing. 

Sunday, May 4 from 3:00 - 7:30 pm

Under the K Bridge Park

RSVP: bit.ly/may4soilrising

9th Annual Newburgh Urban Farm Fair + Free Soil Testing by USI

Live music and performances, fresh food, local vendors, workshops, tours, crafts, games, and farm fun. Learn about urban farming and gardening. Enjoy hands-on demos to learn skills you can use in your own home and neighborhood.

Then, join USI for our Free Soil Testing workshop. Bring your soil samples and get them tested at the Newburgh Urban Farm Fair. Check out the attached poster for sampling instructions and more info.

🗓️Saturday, April 26, 2025

⏰: 12:00 noon - 4 pm

📍Downing Park Urban Farm at 207 Carpenter Ave, Newburgh, NY 12550 

APRIL 21: Fungi and Hat Making Workshop for LIVING SOILS RISING 

Create hats and wearables of fungi and plants local to Northern Brooklyn that are soil remediators – meaning they help to repair toxic, polluted soils!

Join four experienced costume, mask and head-piece makers and learn basic headpiece construction techniques while contributing to the artistic process of LIVING SOILS RISING! Our goal is to make 20 Fungi & Plant Hats to be worn by the 20 tour guides who will be leading mini-walking tours during LIVING SOILS RISING, a large participatory performance on Sunday May 4 2025 in Northern Brooklyn to seed the future for climate justice and healing at the place where the fossil fuel industry was first born, and still stands today. 

All materials will be provided, including images of specific plants and fungi that we will be creating, as well as design ideas, models and approaches.

🗓️Monday, April 21st

⏰: 5:00 - 9:00 pm

📍Jim Henson Carriage House, E. 67 Street, Manhattan 

APRIL 20: Create 600 Seed-Balls for LIVING SOILS RISING closing earth-magic ritual 

Join North Brooklyn Parks Alliance, Under the K Bridge Park. Art Jam Collective and Planet Over Profit to create 600 seed balls for the closing earth-magic ritual of LIVING SOILS RISING.

 🗓️Sunday, April 20th

⏰: 10:00 am - 12:00 noon

📍Under the 'K' Bridge Park, Greenpoint, Brooklyn 

APRIL 19: Visible Soils-Mending & Crip Stitch Workshop for LIVING SOILS RISING at the 4th Annual Earth Month Convergence!

A workshop to leave visible stitches, in an act of suturing/repair, on 60 soils meditation objects/puppets that will honor disabled soils on May 4 for LIVING SOILS RISING.

These 60 soils-objects will honor and remember the land where the fossil fuel industry was first born and where currently stands the largest fossil fuel facility in NYS.

Disability and chronically ill folkx warmly welcome to this workshop; open to all!

All materials will be provided; no experience necessary! Any access questions please contact Marina at soilspiritforest@gmail.com

🗓️Saturday, April 19th  

⏰: 1:00 - 4:00 pm

📍Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens 

Join the NYC Urban Soils Institute for Super Science Saturday on Saturday, March 15th from 11:30 am - 3:30 pm at PS29, located at 425 Henry St, Brooklyn, NY 11201.

USI will be holding our Get SOIL-ed educational workshop covering exciting topics about urban soils in the cafeteria, among many other exciting events happening that day! For more info, check out the activities and agenda below.

Get to know your tree neighbors!

Learn the names, shapes, and ecologies of the 
overlooked woody perennials we interact with daily.

This workshop includes movement improvisation, 
collage-making in the shape of leaves, and a discussion about urban ecology and ecological art.

“We spend our lives hurrying away from the real, as though it were deadly to us. ‘It must be somewhere 
up there on the horizon’, we think. And all the time it is in the soil, right beneath our feet.” 
William Bryant Logan, Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth

When: Tuesday, December 3rd, 7:00 to 9:00
Where: Erf World, 349 Suydam St #3L, Brooklyn, NY 11237
Cost: $10
Link to RSVP: https://alisonbsiegel.cargo.site/