||| FROM EARTH DAY ORCAS |||
Islanders are joining hands to celebrate Earth Day in meaningful and joyful activities as a way to honor our amazing blue and green planet and also to sound-out our concerns and solutions for the challenges we face on local and global levels. On Orcas Island, a team of over 24 local organizations and individuals are celebrating Earth Day through art, ecology, science, music, dance, poetry, stories, parade, food and ceremonies.
Earth Day Orcas will be weaving through Eastsound with a variety of fun learning and celebratory experiences and welcomes the community to participate.
Friday, April 19, the Earth Day festivities begin with a Poetry Reading at Emmanuel Episcopal Church that features Jill McCabe Johnson, Quinn Bailey, and Derek Sheffield. Doors open at 6:30 pm for this reverential sharing of the written word through voice, music, and a concluding luminaria lighting on the labyrinth.
Saturday morning, April 20, a Procession of the Species Parade trumpets the full day of Earth Day activities, taking to the streets to celebrate the wonderful animals, plants and natural resources of our blue green home (and imagination). Parade assembles on the back lawn at the library starting at 11am and the procession heads down to North Beach Rd at 11:30am. Earth Day theme costumes and revelers of all ages welcome.
On the grounds of Emmanuel, from 12 to 5pm on Saturday the 20th, and stretching this year down along the waterfront to the park at the entry to Eastsound, celebrants are taking part in a lively Eco Fair, art and sculpture exhibits, a local plant identification walk, hands-on arts and science projects, a community soup lunch, music, community drumming and dancing, educational games and film, and kinetic artworks honoring our amazing natural world.
New Film Festival Online. Honoring our Planet Earth – its beauty and its perils – continues through the week thanks to the new Earth Day Island Film Fest, running April 19-28, presented in collaborative with the Friday Harbor Film Festival. Two thought provoking feature films and six shorts will be available for streaming at no cost from your home computer or phone. Free.
To get a film fest pass, or learn more about the Earth Day Orcas poetry, parade, festival and film activities, see sanjuanmakersguild.com/Earthday24.
