About a santa cruz almanac
Bird songs, rushing waters, swaying trees are walking songs spring. They inform movement, mood, meaning and meanderings. A Santa Cruz Almanac is an orchestra of walking songs, an art experiment, it is an alchemy of both zine and almanac in hopes of creating a collective conversation around the seasons, tending the wild, and land-based language. It brings many perspectives together and can be added to throughout the seasons. The sections of the almanac guide the reader through the senses and don't take categorization too seriously. Monsters is a section that evolved from the confusion of sorting and is an amalgamation of eyes, mouth, heart, and many other sensations. Monsters are not to be feared nor creatures of destruction necessarily they are manifestations of vulnerabilities, the unknown, disquiet...
Zines are short, easily printed & distributed, periodicals that are sometimes radical. An almanac is a periodical that supports farmers in stewarding lands by calibrating their crop plans, sowing schedules and harvest times, with the chaos of the environment. It notes idiosyncratic ecological events and tracks the predictable ebbs and flows of seasons.
Other pieces like this have been published recently, and inspired this project, The New Farmer’s Almanac published by Greenhorns Press and the Inverness Almanac by Mount Visions Press.
In The New Farmer’s Almanac, David Abrams describes waking up in the morning and reading the newspaper. In this interview, Loving Outward, Abrams reminds me that a newspaper is just shapes of ink on a page. And within seconds of looking at the figures, we hear voices and stories, we are taken places and we are shown worlds. This almanac project is an ode to the magic of the everyday, written, drawn and photographed.
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A great thanks to the Naturalist program at the UCSC Arboretum that gathers many naturalists every year to hear talks on everything from fungal hyphae beneath our feet to the greater climate patterns we are witnessing. This program also allows students to visit our surrounding natural reserves. Many contributors to a Santa Cruz Almanac were a part of this course in Spring of 2018.
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Also many thanks to the Sub Rosa Cafe which is a hub, and part of The Hub, full of inspired individuals creating community with infrastructure so folks can bike, dance, make music, collaborate, discuss, read from the anarchist lending library, share zines, and much more! This has been a space for a santa cruz almanac to be shared.
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Thank you to all who contributed your art, time, and support!
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