Black Forest is partnering with Bronx is Blooming and One Love Community Fridge to organize our 2nd community event to plant over 40 trees for Black lives in the South Bronx 10am–1pm on June 7th. RSVP for event location and name submission. FYI you don’t need to attend to submit a name.
People of all ages and abilities as well as families are invited to attend and participate. After serving you with food and drinks, we'll guide you through a series of activities including saying the names of Black ancestors, listening to the trees and planting them.
About Black Forest
Black Forest is a tree planting and story telling initiative founded by artist and researcher Ekene Ijeoma at his former MIT lab Poetic Justice (2018–2024). Starting in November 2022, he's organized all-age events with local governments, organizations, and communities to plant over 500 trees of many species and sizes in parks, lawns, and sidewalks across 8 states: Michigan (Melvindale), Massachusetts (Boston), California (San Francisco), Florida (Florida City, Miami), Missouri (St. Louis), Rhode Island (Providence), Washington (Seattle), Bronx (New York). He’s also directing and producing a short film series documenting our efforts to plant over 40,000 trees across all 50 states in the next 8 years. Please help by participating, sharing and donating at black-forest.us.
Ekene Ijeoma
Ekene Ijeoma is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He researches how sociopolitical systems unjustly affect people and develops sculptures, installations, and performances that poetically expose their inequalities or engage people in collaboratively changing them. His work has been presented by the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Contemporary Art Museum of Houston, The Arts Club of Chicago, and Museum of Modern Art. From 2019–2024, he was an Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT and the Founder of Poetic Justice, the first artist-led and arts-focused group at MIT Media Lab.