Louie's reflection page
6/3/2016
Week one
What a week! It feels like a lot has happened in my first four days of research. During the first two days I spent alot of time getting organized. This consisted of things like making a reading list, prioritizing my reading list, looking for useful texts, organizing my notebooks into different sections (Journal, work log, to do lists, reading notes, creating plans for my days the rest of a week). In addition to those things I also read and article called vacant plots to vibrant lots. This article so far has been very insightful in expanding my understanding of the impacts of community gardens; especially the social impacts. The article has a thorough overview of all the many benefits of community gardens and urban farms in the communities they are in. The social impacts section of the article was especially useful to me because it is exactly what my research is about. Another thing that was useful about the article was that it also discussed the limitations of urban farming and how they can be constraining to communities if implemented wrong. This part of the article was especially important to me because it go me thinking about an aspect of social impacts I had not considered before. After reading the article I decided that my research should also include looking at the limitations and potential unintended constraints urban farms can pose.
Tuesday was a day where I had made some mistakes and made some important realizations. The first mistake was missing two events I completely forgot about. After missing those events I realised how unorganized I was in the facet of scheduling and daily planning. I was pretty disappointed with myself since it was only the second day of my research and I didn’t do two things that would have been useful to me. Even though I was upset with myself I decided I should be compassionate and understanding with myself and my learning process. Instead of dwelling on my mistakes I decided to create a better system. I then created planner in a blank section of a divided notebook that I would use to plan my weeks and days. I also began putting that same information on google calendar. With my new organization I hope my days will go much smoother.
Wednesday was a great day for me. The research meeting made me feel much better about where I was going with my research. It was also a nice break from sitting along and reading/writing. At the meeting I also came up with the idea of creating a supplementary piece of art for the Hamline garden in addition to my final poster. I also decided that I wanted to make the Hamline garden and Hamline community either the focal point or a strong emphasis of my research. I think this would be good because It means I’ll be actually working in a community I’m from instead of trying to insert myself in someone else's community for a short period of time. Not to say I won’t be involved with other community gardens. I think that is still an important part. I’m just starting to think that if I am studying how community gardens socially impact the communities they are in then maybe I should focus on my community's garden and community I am the most deeply connected with. I feel like this is a more grassroots approach and I feel that grassroots is how urban farming and community gardening works the best.
For the rest of Thursday and Friday I did some more reading, daily journaling, note taking, gardening at green spirit garden, began planning the appreciation garden, and began thinking about what artwork I could create. I also went to the social measurement meeting. While I was in that meeting I realized how awesome, wise, and thoughtful the people involved with the urban farm and garden alliance are. I felt like I learned some really cool things from that meeting. I wrote down some great quotes and also got some good book recommendations. I also definitely want to speak with Melvin some more about some of the things he spoke about. Some of the things he talked about are lots of things I try to bring out in myself like being present. By the end of this week I’m feeling excited and confident for the future even though it is unclear. I guess something that Melvin said during the meeting on Friday afternoon exemplifies this attitude well. “I just try to stay present and trust the universe as we go”.
Week Four
Monday I started out my day watering some cucumbers that I planted the day before at green spirit garden, and filling out timesheets. Then I read a chapter of the color of food and read some of Community the structure of belonging. I then wrote about those two readings for the day and how I felt about them.
I’m very much enjoying reading the color of food. I’ve been taking many notes about how people from various cultures view things like food, growing food, nature, living communally, and how to interact with nature. I’ve especially been looking out for parts about community and different people's perspectives on living communally. Some parts of the book also discuss how community gardens farming reconnect people and communities with nature. I have found this aspect of the book particularly interesting. It gave me a new idea for my research project. For my project I’ve been primarily investigating how community gardens and urban farms socially impact communities in the facet of social cohesion. However, through reading the Color of food and being in community gardens myself, I came up with an additional social impact to explore in my research. That impact is how community gardens and urban farms reconnect people and communities to nature. If I were to pursue this subject further in my research I would most likely convey what I learn about it in a piece of art. Although I find this subject interesting I am also a little concerned that It might stray a little too far away from my research question. This is something I will be contemplating more on my fifth week.
Later that evening I met some folks at the peace gardens and did some gardening work. We ended up going to a plot that is a couple blocks away from the peace gardens and did work with Metric. I believe the plot we were at was the site for Rondo Plaza. Metric assigned me the job of digging in the word RONDO very largely into the boulevard next to the plot. Metric is then planning to plant flowers in the ditch of the word rondo and have the flowers spell it out. In addition to digging in the word rondo I also dug another ditch with some other volunteers and planted some plants. I ended up working there for about three and a half hours. By the end of the day I had ended up digging in two of the five letters and tracing the other three. I decided I would come back on another day that week and finish the others. I got home feeling exhausted and covered in dirt. A long day but a productive one.
I woke up and was quite sore. The first thing I did was water the same cucumbers I planted at green spirit garden. After that I went to the Hamline garden and watered the plants there. After that I then just read the color of food for a while and took notes on that. I also spent a while reading community the structure of belonging. Tuesday was largely a reading day and a recovery day for me. I didn’t quite work seven hours that day but I decided to accept that because I knew I would be working at green spirit garden come Sunday. Tuesday was a bit hard for me to work through. The work from the night before really wiped me out. I ended the day by writing a list of rules/lessons to abide by to help me stay healthy during these weeks of research.
Wednesday was quite a busy day. I spend a decent chunk of the day biking. It was the first time I used my new bike in the cities. I biked back to the Rondo Plaza and spent a couple hours finishing digging the word Rondo in the Boulevard. After that I biked to the grocery store in the hot summer heat. Weak, weary, hungry, covered in dirt and sweat I stumbled into the whole foods. I had never been so happy to be at a whole foods. Anyway I didn’t count that as my research, I just thought it was funny. When I finally arrived home I was sunburned and exhausted. I think that being sick is physical activity significantly more tiring for me than usual.
I took a few minutes to rest when I got home and then I went and read for a couple more hours.
On Thursday: I started the day planting tomatoes and basil with Madison and Elise. Naomi met us and we talked about our projects for a while. Then we looked in the sustainability office for more plants to seed. We also planned a meeting to be held the following day between us and other college students doing sustainability work this summer. I read more of community the structure of belonging and I’m starting to get into it more now that I’m past the first two chapters that sort of laid the groundwork. The book points out the dysfunctional views and attitudes of how our society view communities. I also read some more of the color of food on Thursday.
Friday: I started the day reading. After that I went to Como lake with Madison where we met Naomi, Kiersty, Ollin, Elise and a few other people doing related work. We discussed what each of us was doing and ideas of future collaboration. After that I came back and read more and wrote. I finished the day of work by brainstorming art project ideas for my research.
Thoughts this week:
I’m finding that I really appreciate having a variety of things to do instead of just doing one or two things for my research.
End note for Valentine:
I feel like my summery might be a little bit long. It took me kind of a while to write it. Maybe I shouldn’t write them this long. What do you think? I hope I didn’t leave too many typos!
Also I’m hoping to talk with you a bit about my research. Maybe Wednesday would be a good time?
Week five
For this week’s reflection I’m going to take a different approach than before. This is because my last couple reflections have ended up being very long.
This week I felt like I did quite a lot. I’ve nearly finished reading the color of food and I’m continuing to read community the structure of belonging. This week I also had a few meetings. I met with Elise to discuss the books we are reading, I met with Rachel, Madison, and Elise to discuss how our projects are going, and I also went to that meeting on Thursday. This week I also worked quite a bit in gardens. I worked in Green Spirit Garden, The Hamline Garden, The Peace Garden, and the Rondo Plaza site. Through working in these gardens I’m getting to meet and get to know some really amazing people. Two people I am really glad to have met are Melvin and Metric. To me Melvin has a really positive presence. He acts in a way that is inclusive and thoughtful. Metric is also a very kind, gentle person who is incredibly to his community and making Rondo and St. Paul a better place.
I feel like traveling in St. Paul, working in different sites in St. Paul, meeting new people in the area, and meeting people who care deeply about their communities is making me feel more connected to the city and care about it more.
This week I’ve had a few insights. One of them came during and after the meeting on Thursday. I realized that as somebody who is entering a community I am not a part of that it is important be humble and to act with humility. I’ve also learned that this way of acting is the foundation for being a member of a community. This way of acting and carrying one's self is a sharp contrast to how one is encouraged to act in an academic setting.
Another insight I’ve had is one about the nature of my project and the things I am investigating. I feel like this is something I would have an easier time explaining verbally. My research is how urban farms do and community gardens socially impact the communities they are in? When I started this research I mainly was mainly looking at social isolation and broken communities as a problem that is due to our current structure of living that is very individualistic. I didn’t take into consideration how racism and prejudice are major contributors to low levels of social cohesion and fragmented communities. As I’ve been doing this project I have been able to understand how important the effects of Racism and prejudice are in understanding social isolation and broken communities. Because of this I have begun to think about how community garden can break down barriers of racial divide and how that is a social impact I can investigate further. This is a dimension of my research that was completely unanticipated but is becoming a very central piece of what I’m learning about.
Week Six:
This week was a four day work day because of the holiday. This week I finished the color of food and did more gardening at the Hamline garden (there was no significant damage from the storm), green spirit garden, and Rondo Plaza. I had a group meeting other summer research/intern students. We had good discussions about the various challenges we have each been facing and gave each other advice on how to handle them. We also enjoyed some delicious food from Naomi. On Thursday I spent alot of time with a big group of people touring and learning about gardening and sustainability features at Macalester and St. Thomas.
One thing I started doing was researching a man named Eugene cook, the work he does, and his philosophies on gardening and food systems. He is someone who is interviewed in the color of food and I thought he was very interesting. I’m planning on learning more about him in the future.
During this week I’ve started reading more of community the structure of belonging and am planning to start focusing alot on finishing that book.