Volunteer plants penetrate harsh landscapes, thriving under conditions of poor soil and post-industrial waste. These spontaneous plants blanket spaces of transition by creeping into slivers of dirt and emerging year after year, far from their places of origin. Wild plants are often labeled as “weeds” or “invasive,” yet, they are opportunists that queer the urban landscape.

Join us on this series of “weed” walks to explore the edge landscapes of Red Hook where many salt-loving marshland plants thrive in the cracks along sidewalks. Join us again in August as we continue to explore Red Hook.

We will meet at the Pioneer Works garden gate on the corner of Pioneer and Conover Streets.

Marisa Prefer is an educator, urban ecologist, and amateur herbalist who works across disciplines to translate knowledge between plant and human communities. Prefer has previously helped to run the Children’s Garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, is a current collaborator on “Carbon Sponge” at the New York Hall of Science, is the Programs & Permaculture Manager for floating food forest Swale, and is the Landscape Steward at Pioneer Works.

This series is presented as an extension of a yearlong collaboration between Pioneer Works and The Vera List Center at The New School called Seeds of Change.