Where Have You Been?
Posted February 18, 2008 by k_c_ in Events
My favorite event in NYC is coming up this Wednesday!
Its not a art-theme party of ridiculous proportions, not a yearly shopping cart race, nor a dumpstered meal cooked by friendly folks and served for donations.
When I was a kid all I wanted to do was travel when I finished High School. I became very successful. I would circulate around the continent aevery few months in a seasonal cycle for years. Now even though I tell myself im settled, I've had 4 apartments in the first 2 years of living in Brooklyn. (I'm on number 5) I never found the best way to share my experiences with other people. No slick zine, slideshow, or lecture to share with my friends. Now there is Where Have you Been?
Where Have You Been is an event hosted by Jeff Stark, creator of the NonsenseNYC events list, he interviews three people about "travel, adventure, and activism in front of a curious audience." The travel stories have varied from freighthopping adventures across the USA to direct actions at the base camp of Mt Everest.
I started the show in 2006 because I wanted a place to share stories about what happens in the rest of the world. New York has a way of swallowing homecomings. We are a notoriously self-interested city; circle the globe and your friends just tell you what you missed. This show is a forum for intrepids to bring the world home and share it with the rest of us — travelers as well as those of us who don’t get out much.
Whenever I'm in town for this monthly event I'm always entertained. Most presentations are humorous and all that I've attended have exposed me to perspectives. How else am I going to know what the Hajj is like for a queer muslim from the States, or that there is a program in the UN to map natural disaster areas?
One of my favorites was learning about Ethnobotany, the study of the relationship between plants and people, from Nat Bletters. He recounted a trip to Peru where he researched local herbs and created an audio book to preserve the indigenous knowledge.
I have always found opportunities to engage more with the presenters in Q&A and potential future exchanges. Nat pointed me in the direction of some good books about the histories of vegetables, and Leonardo may post photographs of Venezuelan Murals here on the Justseeds blog!
The next Where Have You Been? is this Wednesday, February 20th 7-8:30pm
It will feature interviews with three intrepids: Jef Wolfy Scharf
investigates the toilets of Europe, Ida Benedetto and Tim Kantz team up with fair trade coffee farmers in Western Guatemala, and Anastasia Andino palled around Thailand with a monkey. Bonus: slides from a pauper’s cemetery in New Orleans.
Bluestockings Bookstore
172 Allen Street, Manhattan
$5 sug donation
Some of the presentations have been audio-recorded, and available online. this is an aspect I wish would continue. I wish I could check out the ones I missed.
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