On Friday, April 21st, Stony Brook University celebrated the third annual Earthstock – a home-grown campus holiday that is intended to correlate with Earth Day, on Saturday. Over sixty organizations and schools were involved, contributing to the expansive border of green-clothed tables surrounding the academic mall, distributing fliers, pansies, and Frisbees made of recycled plastic. The theme: “Sustainability: The Future is Today.”
Beginning early in the morning, scores of student volunteers were seen in their pale green t’s, unloading tables and bustling about as the construction of two elevated stages commenced on either side of the Melville Library lawn. Throughout the day, acts like Little Toby Walker, Buddy Merriam, the Mary Lamont Band, and Afro-Dysia mounted the stages to provide the “-stock” element, and invoke the already sunny day with a further festive, celebratory atmosphere. Furthermore, the air was constantly rattled by the sounds of Native American and Korean drumming, and the day concluded with a performance by Grammy-winning folk artist, Tracy Grammer.
Earthstock was co-chaired by Malcolm Bowman, a scientist at Stony Brook’s Marine Science Research Center and a local environmental activist, who also presides over the Stony Brook Environmental Conservancy, and Jenny Wang, a biochemistry major and student activist. The event was largely staffed by student volunteers, like freshman Clare Tao. When asked why she volunteered, Tao said, “I’m a first-year freshman – The first day I came to Stony Brook to visit, it was on Earthstock day, so it’s a good thing, and it’s a special thing for me.”
New to Earthstock was the Green Pledge Ceremony, where attendees become part of a promise to spend their lives focused on reducing their “ecological footprint.” Also, Earthstock featured a recycled art show and design contest, where novel artists have a chance to display their earth-friendly work at the Shirley Strum Kenny Arts Festival. Toward the end of the evening, Robert D. Cess, a professor of atmospheric science here at SBU, gave a lecture on global warming.
In the middle of the day, performers dressed as flowers and trees, and people on stilts, paraded the academic mall. When Munirah Hasan, a SBU student who attended Earthstock, was asked whether the characters made her want to save the environment more or less, she replied, “More – if someone’s going to do that to themselves, they’re really passionate about it.” She continued to say that the stilted performers were, “a little creepy.”
Despite the passion that went into the event, though, some students felt that Earthstock wasn’t fully appreciated. Tao, the volunteer, said, “I don’t think a lot of people were interested in it,” and said she hoped for, “other ideas, more activities,” in future years. Hasan said, “People were there just for the free stuff.” Tejas Gawade, who also attended the event, said, “I don’t think they advertised it enough – all the friends I brought with me had no idea what it was.”
However, whether Earthstock’s message was received or not, it is swiftly becoming something that students look forward to in the springtime, along with the multitude of other events that populate the university’s calendar at this time of year. With questions of oil and energy rising to the top of the national debate circle, it also threatens to become an increasingly relevant and political statement for students in future years.
