Join us for a conversation between historian and journalist Jessica Hester and artist sTo Len, exploring the topic of waste and its impact on human systems through the intersection of art, science, and history.
Jessica, author of the recently released book “Sewer,” leads readers through the past, present, and future of the system humans have created to deal with our own waste and argues that sewers can be seen as a mirror to the world above at a time when our behaviors are drastically reshaping the environment for the worse. Sifting through the muck offers a fresh way to approach questions about urbanization, public health, infrastructure, ecology, sustainability, and consumerism- and what we value. Without understanding sewers, any attempt to steward the future is incomplete.
Sto, Artist-in-Residence at the New York Department of Sanitation, is an interdisciplinary artist whose work has centered on collaborations with abused landscapes that have included printmaking polluted waterways, 3D scanning Fresh Kills landfill, recycling waste into art materials, and performing at Superfund sites. This in-person event will engage these two related approaches while also revealing unexpected connections between them.
This in-person event will be held at Center for Book Arts, 28 W. 27th St, 3rd Floor, on Wednesday, November 16 at 6:30pm. Participants are required to follow CBA’s Covid-19 health and safety measures; masks required at this in-person event.
If you are joining us virtually, please use the following Youtube link to tune in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL5xjO9gur8
Presenters
Jessica Hester is a science journalist and author of Sewer. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, New Yorker, New York Times, Atlas Obscura, and more. She is also a PhD student at Johns Hopkins University, studying the history of medicine.
sTo Len is based in Queens, NY with familial roots in Vietnam and Virginia, and his work incorporates these bonds by connecting issues of their history, environment, traditions and politics. Len was the first artist in residence at AlexRenew Wastewater Treatment facility in Virginia and is a member of Works on Water, a group of artists and activists working with and about water in the face of climate change and environmental justice concerns. He is currently the artist in residence at the NY Department of Sanitation as part of the PAIR program with the Department of Cultural Affairs.
