Tompkins Trees – Loyan Beausoleil
Monday, November 4th, 2013
Longtime East Village neighbor and Tompkins Square Park birdwatcher talks about her love of the park.
Gargoyle Mechanique Laboratory.
Onomatopoeia
Great Horned Owl
Rusty Blackbird
White Crowned Sparrow
Krishna Tree
1988 Tompkins Square Park Riot
28 Ave B Today
This interview has such resonance on a historical level…and she’s lovely and someone I, and so many from the 70s and 80s, am familiar with….THANKS, GAMMA!! Brilliant work again!!!!.. My thoughts on EV birdwatcher/birdwatching and life in NYC now?…: If you don’t know what Eugene, Oregon, is like–or was like–I’ll tell you: small quasi-city of very interesting people, a good university population, and lovely environs–that is, to restate, SMALL. And, being an NYCer relocated to OR, I can say that the complexity a town (and the EV) offers the mind and spirit, is definitely good food for the soul and intellect. Both places can rock, but nothing beats numbers and diversity (the two combined). I can so understand the evolution of her community, and the desire to stay there. I, however, was raised in the boroughs, left and then lived in NYC for nearly 20 years from 20 to 40 yrs old, and though I miss the diversity and teeming people and choices for cultural engagement and great conversation, I’m comfy with my gentle noise and tree- and brook-trickle softened environs. NYC was not much interested in trees and birds then–so, “back to the earth” now is better than never. But NYC is sadly a trove of robber barons in a way it’s never been before–and we artists and creatives who can’t really mete the devourer mentality, don’t feel at home there any longer (per my sampling of “interviews”).
Fascinating. Descriptions of an entirely different kind if city life, are wonderful for those of us who only know it as it now. Great to have the opportunity to listen to Loyan’s story.