Bringing QUEER ECOLOGY Home to the Castro

Experience visions of future eco-topias at the EcoHomo Action Center, part of the Faetopia Festival during all of Pride week. Creating a unique space in the Castro, EcoHomo brings together local artists, community-led workshops, urban greenspace and hands-on exhibits to explore the connection between our actions and the environment around us.

The Center opens Sunday, June 20^th with “Crude Boys” oil wrestling, a fundraiser for Gulf Coast organizations working to rescue wildlife affected by the Deepwater oil spill. Watch oiled-up, muscled studs slip and slide against each other to raise money for the Gulf while learning cute sustainability facts.

Come explore your energy addiction, its effects and how we start coming clean at the “Crude Habits” exhibit. Learn ways to reduce your own consumption whether its playing with plants, eating healthier, or getting some more exercise on the bike. Tap into the visionary energy that exists locally, the people and organizations shaping the future utopias of tomorrow. See the effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, support organizations doing wildlife rescue and take action to help prevent future catastrophes.

EcoHomo Event Schedule

All events located at the Tower Records venue, Market & Noe St.

Sunday June 20

2pm – 6pm: Crude Boys Oil Wrestling – a fundraiser for Gulf Coast organizations working to rescue wildlife affected by the Deepwater oil spill. Watch oiled-up, muscled studs slip and slide against each other to raise money for the Gulf while learning cute sustainability facts. Shows every half hour. $10 admission.

Monday June 21

7:30 pm – 9:00 pm: Urban Farming and Growing Food in the City – Come to this workshop to learn about the many growing opportunities in Urban Agriculture in the city by the bay. Wanna get your hands dirty with other eco-fags and dirty-dykes?  Come to this workshop to get some garden basics and hear about the budding farms in gardens in San Francisco.

Led by Markos Major, an Urban Farm Educator based in San Francisco.  Working as a co-chair of the Friends of Alemany Farm he co-manages the Alemany Farm (www.alemanyfarm.org) a 4.5 acre organic farm on the south side of Bernal Hill in SF.  As co-founder of the Rainbow Chard Alliance (an LGBT/queer farmer organization) he is out in the field as well as the classroom.  Teaching youth k-4 at the Children’s Garden at the SF Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park, or adults at Alemany Farm, Markos has worked in Environmental Education for over fifteen years.

Wednesday June 23

2:30pm – 4:00 pm: You Are What You Eat – Are you living alone or as part of a small household and looking for new ways to eat cheap without sacrificing nutritional value? This interactive workshop, led by Zac Benfield, founder of Feral Fruits Farm, and survivor of a wide variety of poorly actualized dietary experiments, discusses the trials and tribulations of trying to stay nourished in a semi-starved yet overfed culture.  Open to all dietary types, this workshop focuses on the personal/emotional process of attempting to shop, prepare, and eat whatever diet you endorse.

As part of a walking tour of a local farmer’s market, we’ll demystify the vegetable kingdom by identifying even the weirdest farmers’ market items and providing user-friendly recipes to prepare them.

4:30 pm – 6:30 pm: Farmer’s Market Tour and Eating in Season Workshop: Learn to cook easy, fruity and (relatively) healthy summer desserts. Come put together these seasonally-adjusted treats from farm-fresh ingredients that we find at the Castro Farmer’s Market. Then eat! Led by Mark Freeman this workshop is an introduction to eating with the season and more locally.

Thursday June 24

3pm: Walking Plant Tour to Hayes Valley Farm Play Day – Starting at the Faetopia/Tower Records space at Market & Noe, join us for a tour of plants of the city as we walk to Hayes Valley Farm, a budding urban garden. Then, spend a couple hours playing with plants as we get dirty volunteering at this new community garden.

Located in the center of San Francisco, Hayes Valley Farm, is an education and research project with a focus on urban agriculture. Situated on city-owned lots bordered by Oak, Fell, Laguna, and Octavia streets, the project is organized by an alliance of urban farmers, educators, and designers that comprise the Hayes Valley Farm Project Team. Hayes Valley Farm is a Parks Partner, a fiscally sponsored project of the San Francisco Parks Trust.

Saturday June 26

1pm – 5pm: Crude Habits Photo Fundraiser – fabulous photographer Tom ‘Dot’ Schmidt takes portraits as a fundraiser for Gulf Coast wildlife rescue as we ask people to take actions around their own crude oil habits. Have your “energy addict” captured in this exciting photo series

Extraordinary local photographer Dot aims to capture visionaries recovering from a “crude” drinking problem & pledging to end their bad oil habits.  Photos will be part of an “Energy Addict” exhibit at Faetopia that showcases concrete steps everyone can take to “drink” less oil while raising money for Gulf Coast wildlife rescue organizations.