Music, speakers encourage sustainability for Earth Day

By: Melanie Zilora

Posted: 4/21/08

The Kid Fresh and House Party took the stage with two guitars, a bass, a drum set. As he took the microphone, the audience started cheering and shouting, "What's poppin', Kid," getting ready for a good show.

After opening for Nas in Syracuse University's Goldstein Auditorium on Friday night, Kid Fresh, a LeMoyne College alumnus, spent Saturday helping an environmental cause.

The concert, which brought more than 250 students and community members together at the Thornden Park amphitheater Saturday, was part of the larger annual Syracuse Earth Day Festival. It was organized through a joint effort by the Syracuse Peace Council, New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CCE), Syracuse Real Food Co-op and the Onondaga Creek Conservation Council.

Earlier in the day, representatives from the Onondaga Nation, Syracuse Real Food Co-Op and Robin Kimmerer, a professor of environmental and forest biology, spoke to community members at the festival.

"You see this place empty all summer; it's great that it's getting some use," said Justin Mrazik, fifth year industrial interaction and design major.

Other performers at the event included: Jamian Shapiro, a freshman television, radio and film major at SU, Sophistafunk, a band featuring local Funk n' Waffles owner Adam Gold, Eli, a local Syracuse resident who recorded with SU's Marshall Street Records, The Mustached Riders and Luna Ticks.

Hannah Gibbons, a sophomore environmental studies major at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and a leader for NYPIRG's environmental project, said the music helped NYPIRG achieve its goal.

"We wanted it to be free so that people would be drawn to it," she said. "It shows that there's no cost to be more green."

Gibbons pointed to a table of handouts that gave examples of green behavior, such as unplugging chargers or not using plastic bags. She also emphasized bioregionalism - buying local food - and the myriad of tables staffed by local co-ops proved its ease.

Gibbons said though NYPIRG had been planning the event all semester, this is not their only environmental initiative. They have also been working on passing the Bigger Better Bottle Bill, an update to New York state's bottle recycling and deposit policy. "We want to promote how easy it is to just change little things about your lifestyle," Gibbons said.

Shapiro took the stage after Kid Fresh. His original pieces intermixed with pickle jokes brought a group of girls who Shapiro referred to as "the Brockettes" out of their seats to the pit area. "I've never played at a venue this big; it's usually more of a broom closet," he said.

Katie Wolcott, a freshman biology major, was enjoying the event but questioned the occasion. "I don't think there needs to be an Earth Day," she said. "Every day should be Earth Day."

Despite this sentiment, she planned to stay until the end. "It's a really great venue. People can play soccer or hacky sack or drink their beer or just chill out and fall asleep to great music."

Shapiro summed up his reasons with ease.

"I'm a big fan of the earth - I live on it."

mazilora@syr.edu