New Earth Resiliency Training Module

Tattfoo Tan

Project Description/Goal of project

(NERTM) New Earth Resiliency Training Module is a combination of life and spiritual skills presented as classes, workshops and ceremonies. It teaches an ethos of self-reliance and of living closer to the earth with an animus world view. Drawing upon our surrounding resources, it treats the city as a catalyst for building relations with various neighborhoods and communities. This earth based education syllabus strengthens the resiliency of the neighborhood by activating the public and youth by equipping them with skills, knowledge, and a sense of self. This project consists of studying folk craft and tracing the genesis of ideas, objects and beliefs in an effort to re-wilding ourselves. Due to the flood prone nature of Red Hook, these skills are crucial in facing future challenges.

NERTM consist of two components, Skill Based and Spirit Based. These syllabus are replicable and students are encourage to teach others.

The Skill Based workshops range from Sauerkraut Making, Sewing, Cooking, Knot Tying, Natural Dyeing, Mapping, Pemmican, Bug out bag, Natural dyeing, Jam making, Herbal tinctures and more.
This grant will enable us to activate the NEW Rite-of-Passage workshop as its Spirit Based component that will benefit the youth in the community. It is 3 weeks long and co-taught by Dane Zahorsky whom had extensive experience in leading ROP workshop. Students will be recruited in partnership with local organization, like Red Hook Initiative and others.

Inspired by the Asafo flag of Fante people of Ghana, participants will learn about the visual cue of a symbol or logo and how various cultures have them, like the Adinkra Symbols of Ashanti of Ghana, The coat of Arms of Europe, Kamon Symbols (Family Crest) of Japan. One of the components is to design a neighborhood flag; identifying the history, landscape, waterfront, people and character of Red Hook. The visual results of this workshop will be the public installation component.
NERTM will be documented as a syllabus book at the end of the project. Completing NERTM vol. 1 & 2. It will be available online and limited printed copies for those involved in the project.

NERTM as a whole celebrates the waterfront by fostering ecological and community resiliency through culture. The neighborhood flags improve the experience of public space. NERTM-Fake Attraction promote exploration by providing intuitive wayfinding & place-based cultural awareness through interventions, by building shine and creating fictional narrative and maps as it is part of the syllabus.

What will be different in this community when this project is completed?

NERTM reaches out to the community at various locations, it is visible and inclusive to all people. Customizing the workshop to the community and learning from them. Leading the youth in a Rite-of-Passage experience and recognized passing of an individual from one state to another. Whether transitioning from childhood through puberty to adolescence, from young adulthood to middle age, from late middle age to elderhood, and from elderhood to death or any kind of life change or transition to be marked. In so doing the individual’s societal role is changed and transformed. This change is often reflected in a shift in their title. They step into a new role with new privileges and responsibilities recognized and celebrated by their community. The lack of this type of recognition by elders often forces urban youth to initiate themselves into joining gangs, with negative consequences. In Western culture we commonly refer to the ability to vote or get a driver’s license as rites of passage. While these may invoke the spirit of a rite of passage they lack the enduring transformational impact of a fully integrated experience. Most commonly (but not necessarily), rites of passage are rooted in the natural world, to firmly ground the initiate in a deep sense of PLACE, and to connect their sense of self to a much larger context. Creating a pancultural ritual is crucial because modern society is a melting pot of races and lineage. They are celebrated by their community by displaying what they have learned in various public installations in their own neighborhood. As a community we are experiencing a certain transition too, with the new development and new people moving into the neighborhood. We need to open up, connect and talk about these new changes.

Video about NERTM Skills: https://vimeo.com/187690039