GOINGS ON IN THE CACTUS STORE AND NONHUMAN TEACHERS UNIVERSE....
UPCOMING
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April 7th (NYC) 3PM - 6PM
Ecological Storytelling: Susan Orlean + George Greenough
At long last, Nonhuman Teachers returns to the Lower East Side for the first 'HORT/CULTURE' event of the 2024 season! We're overjoyed to be hosting two of our heroes: author Susan Orlean and filmmaker/surfer/inventor George Greenough.
PAST EVENTS
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November 30, 2023 (Online) 7PM - 8PM EDT
HOW TO GROW MEDICINAL TOADSTOOLS FOR CHEAP
A huge number of edible mushrooms have medicinal properties! All the supplies that you need to grow dung-loving mushrooms are cheap and easy to find online. In this Zoom, we'll teach you the easiest and cheapest way to grow medicinal toadstools.
October 18, 2023 (NYC) 11AM - 7PM
Bliss: Laraaji & Liquid Light Lab
Please join us in the West Room of Nine Orchard for the final HORT/CULTURE event of the 2023 series for an evening of synaesthetic collaboration featuring Laraaji and Liquid Light Lab.
October 7 - 8, 2023 (NYC) 11AM - 7PM
LESCSS Show & Sale
Join us in the Cactus Store NY bamboo garden at 5 Essex Street in New York's Lower East Side to see a collection of the finest homegrown oddities from NYC's leading group of xerophiles. There will be a wide array of plants, seeds, ceramics, minerals, fossils, books, zines and various other horticultural esoterica for sale and trade from dozens of NY-based vendors.
September 21, 2023 (NYC) 6PM - 8PM
PLANT ON PLANT: Intro to Grafting
We are lucky be joined by two grafting and Astrophytum masters for an evening of skill sharing. Workshop participants will leave with a godless chimera masterpiece of their own making! All supplies, including plant materials, tools, and libations, will be provided.
September 20, 2023 (NYC) 7PM - 10PM
Citizen Science: Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't & LESCSS
Please join us in the West Room of Nine Orchard for the penultimate HORT/CULTURE event of the 2023 series for an evening celebrating some of the intrepid souls working on the fringes of urban ecology.
August 23, 2023 (NYC) 7PM - 10PM
Mary Lattimore & Cecilia Vicuña
Please join us in the West Room of Nine Orchard for the August installment of our HORT/CULTURE series. We are honored to be joined by Mary Lattimore and Cecilia Vicuña, titans of their respective fields, for an evening of ecstatic beauty. Afterparty to follow at the CS NYC bamboo garden where we'll be pouring the finest selection Grecian wines, lovingly curated by ZRS Wines and KNiT Wine.
August 5, 2023 (NYC) 12PM - 8PM
De Suelo al Cielo (From Soil to Sky)
Please join us in the bamboo courtyard of Cactus Store NYC for an afternoon and evening of slow cooked music (by Chuquimamani-Condori and hellotones “El Hijo de PueblaYork”), food (by Ix Restaurant) and conviviality.
Organized by New York based artist Giguel Maybach, "Del Suelo al Cielo (From Soil to Sky)" is a decelerationist music and food project that invites folks to slow down and get closer to the earth. It centers around a social sculpture that incorporates a barbecue and sound system for blending ancient and contemporary sounds, flavors, and geologies, all to undermine the accelerationist project of modernity.
July 27, 2023 (LA) 8PM - 11PM
Free the Land!
Come to our LA studio/greenhouse for an evening with Free The Land!, an international multi-media collaborative art project/affinity group started in Los Angeles. FTL will be screening an omnium gatherum of archival & new materials composted, propagated & and brain-farmed through the pandemic years, screened in person at Cactus Store Studio for the first time. This along with sculptural whatnots, drinks, camaraderie, and a live scoring of the work of lost-and-recently-found French Surrealist nature filmmaker, Jean Painleve!
July 26, 2023 (NYC) 7PM - 10PM
Rats: Mark Lewis & Ryders Alley Trencherfed Society
We are honored to be joined by Emmy award-winning documentarian Mark Lewis from his home in Mullumbimby, Australia, for a screening of his 1998 documentary Rat, chronicling the eternal rivalry between man and rat. We will discuss the film and the city's perpetual rodent mitigation efforts with members of Ryders Alley Trencherfed Society aka R.A.T.S., the fearless citizens group committed to eradicating Gotham of rodents, one terrier at a time. The Q&A and discussion will be moderated by LES resident, de facto rat czar and Emmy award-winning writer Collier Meyerson.
June 21, 2023 (NYC) 7PM - 10PM
Lecture: Alexander Liebermann & "Pigeon Pat" McCarthy
We're thrilled to host these two New York-based artists whose work uniquely involves collaboration with birds. The artists and some of their winged counterparts will join us in the West Room of Nine Orchard for drinks, conversation and multimedia presentations on their respective work.
June 8, 2023 (LA) 7:45PM - 10:45PM
Lecture: HOW TO BE AN ARTIST WHILE THE WORLD IS ENDING
We've invited curator Laura Copelin and filmmaker David Fenster to share their work and unique perspective on this question, with special video appearances by Chilean artist/poet Cecilia Vicuna and author/ecological systems designer Nance Klehm, who each made videos specifically for this event. Also, artist and medicine maker, Saewon Oh, has concocted a custom flower essence for this special evening. A sensorial feast that you won't want to miss!
May 25, 2023 (LA) 8PM - 10PM
Lecture: Peter Warshall & The Maniacal Naturalist Society
Parker Hatley, Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology and Critical Media Practice at Harvard University and the editor of Peter Warshall: Squirrels on Earth and Stars Above, forthcoming from Edition HS (Zurich, Switzerland) in Spring 2023, will be discussing the life and work of Peter Warshall (1940-2013), an everythingist ecologist, bioanthropologist, environmentalist, essayist, self-described “maniacal naturalist” and community servant. We're excited to have Parker in from Guatemala to present on one of our heroes!
May 19, 2023 (NYC) 7PM - 10PM
Lecture: The Nature/ Culture Cross-Dissolve
To kick off this season's events series, come to Cactus Store's multimedia presentation on the pourous boundary between nature & culture as it relates to natural selection and symbiosis. This is followed by a performance by LA based Ambient duo Green-House.
May 19, 2023 (NYC) 10pm - 1am
Opening: CACTUS STORE
Come help us celebrate the opening of our 6th season on the Lower East Side @ 5 Essex St.
April 9, 2023 (LA) 7:30PM - 10PM
Watership Down Easter Screening
Watership Down (1978) is an animated feature about a collective of anthropomorphic rabbits that are facing threat of human development, predation, and violence. It follows these brave bunnies as they search for a new home (spoiler alert: rabbid rabbit violence and new-age spirituality ensue). Watership Down is often credited with inspiring a generation of conservationists by depicting a fragile natural environment threatened by human activity.
March 30, 2023 (LA) 7:30PM - 10PM
CANE TOADS (1988), a screening and Q&A with Mark Lewis.
Famously one of Werner Herzog's favorite films, CANE TOADS (1988) gives a toad's-eye-view of one of Earth's most invasive species, Humans. Nobody does nature docs like the legendary Mark Lewis, and we're absolutely delighted to have him here from Mullumbimby Australia to screen and talk about his work. YOU WON'T WANT TO MISS THIS!