Transition Longfellow artists light up the night at Northern Spark

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By LESLIE MACKENZIE

Northern Spark is one of the biggest art events in the Twin Cities, attracting upwards of 50,000 people over the course of an evening, from 9pm to 5:30am. This year’s event, on June 10-11, takes place at locations all along the Green Line, from downtown Minneapolis to Lowertown in St. Paul. It features the work of more than 70 artists, including two from the South Minneapolis neighborhood sustainability group Transition Longfellow.

Peter Foster and Leslie MacKenzie are part of a 9-person artist team from Transition Town groups in St. Anthony Park, Northeast Minneapolis and Longfellow. With the theme of “Climate Chaos | Climate Rising,” the artists felt Northern Spark was a perfect venue to share the Transition Town message of personal and community action.

Foster is responsible for the design of an installation of a grove of trees next to Golden’s Deli in Lowertown, St. Paul on the night of Northern Spark. “The goal of the project is to help people understand how their daily actions and commitments add up, and to see the range of actions people can take,” he said.

“Most people know that climate change is real, and many people are already doing a variety of things to reduce their impact. They’re biking or taking the bus, eating less meat, composting, insulating their homes. Some people are making big commitments, like home sharing, going solar, or choosing not to fly,” Foster said.

“Most of these commitments aren’t visible to others,” Foster continued. “They’re done privately, and no one knows. What TransitionNOW! Twin Cities is trying to do is make these everyday actions and private commitments visible so people can see that they are not alone and what they are doing is not unusual. We’re all in this together, doing what we can.”

Project organizers printed 100 T-shirts and invited people to come to Community Day events in April and May to customize their shirts with logos of actions they have taken in their own life. They will then wear those T-shirts to Northern Spark.

PeterScreenprintingPhoto right: Kirsten Olson (left) watches as Transition Longfellow artist Peter Foster works his screenprinting magic! Foster is responsible for the design of an installation of a grove of trees next to Golden’s Deli in Lowertown, St. Paul on the night of Northern Spark. (Photo submitted)

“At the Grove of Life in Lowertown, we will be inviting the community to help us turn eight dead trees into a beautiful forest of light and poetry and music,” said MacKenzie. “People will be invited to write their actions and commitments on a colored paper leaf and add it to the trees. We have 4,000 leaves ready for people to use.”

“Northern Spark won’t be the end of life for these trees,” she said. “There is a national gathering taking place July 27-30 at Macalester College. Transition Town organizers and community members who are working to build more climate-resilient, socially connected, low-carbon communities will be there. This is the first ever national gathering, and it’s open to the public. We’ll bring at least part of the grove to that event and invite people to continue to add leaves.”

TransitionNOW! Twin Cities organizers invite community participation in their project. If you would like to help on the night of Northern Spark, contact Leslie Mackenzie at 612-724-4265 or by visiting the Transition Twin Cities website: www.transitiontwincities.org.

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