installation donated to Bronx org
On Friday, Rockin’ the Boat received enough wood to build fi ve more boats from the deinstallation of a Manhattan art installation.
Photo courtesy Joaquin Cotten
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, N BTR OV. 26-DEC. 2,2021 15
ing a part of Rocking the Boat has
pushed him out of his comfort zone
and helped him grow as a person. He
is excited to use the wood on the next
boat building project.
Jaymi Lopez, a boat building apprentice,
said she is grateful that
people are trying to help the Earth
through reusing the wood and that
people care where the wood goes.
Tri-Lox is also working to build a
system of reuse and salvaging trees
that can be used for wood and incorporating
that wood into the New York
cityscape, said Alexander Bender, cofounder
of Tri-Lox.
“We’ve seen too many trees in
New York go into the chipper, and we
(Tri-Lox) felt like it was time to create
a more sustainable circular system
that gives New York City trees
a second life,” Bender said. “I think
being able to salvage the trees form
the Ghost Forest, being an exhibit
that focused on the fragile state of
our ecosystem is really the perfect
opportunity to both respond to Maya
Lin’s deeply moving work and to also
expand our mission at Tri-Lox of
salvaging trees so it really has this
beautiful synergy.”
The smaller sections of the trees
that cannot be milled will be turned
into mulch to use in the park, and the
conservancy’s arborist will use some
smaller pieces to make tree props.
“One hundred percent of the tree
is being recycled in one fashion or
another. We’re really excited that
this has all come together,” Reidy
said. “It was a really fantastic exhibition
and this is a sweet and appropriate
conclusion to the show.”
Rocking the Boat’s beginnings
Green was volunteering with a
junior high school in East Harlem
in 1994 when the teacher he was volunteering
with said he had a dream
to build a boat with his students but
was never able to do it on his own.
Green grew up on the 11th fl oor of
an apartment in New York City but
always loved being outside and creating
things with his hands. When the
teacher asked if Green would help
turn his dream into a reality Green
decided to “give it a shot,” he said.
The pair worked alongside seventh-
and eighth-graders.
Eight months later, the fi rst boat
was fl oating in the swimming pool in
the basement of the school.
Green immediately noticed the
connection the seventh- and eighthgraders
were making to learning
when they realized there was a practical,
relevant purpose to it and that
they could use what they learned in
the classroom to create a boat out of a
pile of wood.
“They were learning things and
actually using them,” Green said.
Before, many of the students did
not know how to read a ruler, but
through the process of building the
boat, they learned how. The interrelationships
that formed during the
boat building process was also transformative,
he said.
“It was magical,” Green said.
“There was just this feeling of connection
and sort of a bond that we all
had because we were doing this really
special thing.”
What started with eight kids in a
small classroom in Harlem, turned
into an organization serving about
4,000 people.
“I was really excited about connecting
kids to nature and understanding
how that nature affects
them and how they affect it,” Green
said.
Historically, the Bronx community
has had very little access to
parks and green spaces. People living
in the area have the highest levels
of asthma in New York City because
of the air quality.
Rocking the Boat gives kids the
opportunity to be in nature and to
have extraordinary experiences that
give them the opportunity to discover
skills, talents and possibilities
in their own selves, their lives and in
their own communities and then use
those skills to go out into the world
and be successful, Green said.
“This (the Bronx River) is an
amazingly rich resource that improves
the quality of life, not just for
the animals, but for the people of the
Bronx,” Green said.
The group recently received funding
to start growing seaweed at the
mouth of the Bronx River to use in
community gardens as fertilizer. The
group has also built boats for other
organizations such as a whaleboat
for the Mystic Seaport Museum and
a steamboat for the Stevens Institute
of Technology.
The trees from maya Lin’s Ghost Forest
ready to be milled for Rocking the Boat.
Photo courtesy Joaquin Cotten