Nina Berman: Bronx Gardens

On View: Feb 11-Mar 26, 2023

Bronx Documentary Center
614 Courtlandt Ave, Bronx, NY 10451

“. . .Whatever rocky soil she landed on, she turned into a garden.” – Alice Walker

Today, more people live in cities than at any point in history. As a result, urban gardening is blossoming in the Bronx and throughout the world. Working in formerly abandoned lots, on rooftops and in backyards, urban gardeners continue a rich cultural practice. They forge a connection to land lost through migration, land reform, and industrialization. The community garden can be described as a place of solace, a spiritual sanctuary, a site of creativity, a center for community building, a springboard for micro-economies or an act of resistance. These spaces are “a little piece of heaven,” as Bobby Watson from the Bronx’s Taqwa Community Farm puts it,

This exhibition is curated by Mike Kamber.

This exhibition was made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

Thanks to the efforts of committed volunteers of all ages, more than 100 community gardens are thriving in the Bronx. As photographer Nina Berman writes, the gardeners are “motivated residents who saw possibility where others found wreckage, cleaned out abandoned sites and created green spaces. . . . in the most unlikely places – tucked near train tracks, below highways, sandwiched between housing projects.”The photographs in Ms. Berman’s Gardens series capture these efforts to redefine the possibility of urban life. The work is an artistic departure for Berman, best known for projects on the impact of war and militarism.

Bronx Gardens has been exhibited as a unique series and as part of a larger collaborative project with the photo collective NOOR Images on the consequences and solutions to climate change. This is the first New York exhibition of the work.

The Bronx Documentary Center will use its garden to host workshops and organize public programs for all ages. These programs recognize gardens as a site of nourishment and a springboard for food justice and environmental awareness.