Harlem tour and South Bronx community gardens

Entering into Harlem for our tour of the history of the architecture of the area, we didn’t really find gender and sexual discrepancies, but were subject to a race and class differences that were apparent through our interactions wit the locals. I cannot blame them for being offended by our presence, with our white skin and upper class clothes we represented gentrification, especially in a time where buildings are being boarded up and deserted due to the difficulties of the recession. We entered their space and inspected the place as if we were shopping, tourists looking at the beauty of the buildings and the history of the space.

The South Bronx made a very different experience, as we entered the community gardens in the spaces that were deserted of buildings and had the chance to meet four men who help run the gardens, self identified anarchists. My favourite of these men had a feminist power tattoo on the side of his neck and a skirt; he was quick to mention that there is a strong representation of women at the gardens as well, only they were busy that afternoon. The gender of the space did not seem masculine despite it being four men running the tour; the green spaces of the yard seemed neutral to gender, more about the connection of the body to the land rather than the social construction of gender. The only indication of gender I encountered in these spaces was the division of food gardens, which were mostly controlled by the men, and the flower gardens which tended to have female gardeners. This was by no means a trend that I would allow me to divide the gardens into gender as many women also grew food, but I was unaware of any male gardeners with a purely flower garden.

They were dedicated to bringing healthy food and teaching gardening skills to the locals of the community after realizing their own health issues due to the lack of availability of fresh food during their childhood. The gardens represented a community movement that took their health into their own lives despite the lack of help from their government. The gardens could be used for decoration, if you were looking for a meditative experience in the garden, but generally food was being grown, eaten and shared with others in a way that defied gender and sexual distinction.

I questioned in the Saskatoon part of this blog whether nature was feminine or masculine, and which circumstances would define the space in either direction. This garden as contrast to the strongly urban space of the city made me realize that nature does not have a gender. Gender is a socially built construct that exists within culture, and nature is outside of social control. Spaces existing as wild nature develop independently from gendered culture, though I suppose culturally developed spaces of nature can carry gendered influence.