Earth Day at the Urban Ecology Center

Just last week I'd mentioned wanting to visit Milwaukee's Urban Ecology Center in the near future.

This week, I was hoping to partake in an Earth Day observance of some sort.

Yesterday afternoon, the stars aligned with the Earth Day Celebration at the Urban Ecology Center, which is located in Riverside Park on Milwaukee's East Side, on the corner of Oakland and Newberry.



Rain threatened to ruin the outdoor festival, but thankfully, it never came. The expansive park was filled with families enjoying the jungle gyms, performance artists, hay sledding, carriage rides, softball games and art projects inside the Center.

Dave and I circled the perimeter of the park and took it all in. The whole park smelled of birch chips, which must have been freshly laid for spring. I couldn't get enough of that smell. Around us, young women were teaching a group of young girls to belly dance, small groups of people were sitting at picnic tables digging into pizza from the nearby Little Caesars, a band was setting up to play to a group of onlookers outside the Center, and two softball games were going on, the players yelling "heads up!" every time they smacked the ball past the outfield and into the path of festival-goers. (dangerous, yes, but it sure kept people on their toes!)



We went inside the Ecology Center to see what was going on but didn't spend too much time since we were mostly just in the way. Kids were running around, eating popcorn and hot dogs, showing off the kites they'd just made out of construction paper, sliding down the indoor slide, and checking out the aquariums in the animal room.



When we went back outside, we found ourselves under the platform that we'd been supposed to repel down during the Urban Tadpole race last summer. The view from up there is supposed to be pretty nice, but we didn't venture up this time. We made our way back to the park where we saw another group of artists getting ready to perform.

They were dressed all in white, and as they began to beat on their drum, they instructed the audience to clap along with them. Once they established a rhythm, they began a tribal singing/chanting. Two people at a time came forward and danced together, doing martial arts moves in a very precise, fluid manner. They kicked and turned and stood on their hands, never touching the other person. They looked very strong and graceful and it was just a really cool thing to watch.



I had never seen anything like it and I was unclear what exactly they were doing. Their shirts said "Capoeira." My full-of-knowledge fiancé told me that he thought it was a form of dance that slaves did to practice combat moves without getting in trouble for fighting. When I looked it up when we got home, sure enough, he was correct.

We watched for about 20 minutes, and I felt like I could watch them all day. I loved the way they looked, I loved the way they sounded, it was just awesome – the highlight of the festival for me.

Riverside Park is spacious and lush and the fact that it's smack in the middle of the bustling East Side makes it even more appealing. The Ecology Center sits on the far end of the park and offers programs, classes, trail runs, and numerous other events year-round.

The park borders the bike trail that leads all the way to downtown by the art museum, and hiking paths run throughout the woods and along the Milwaukee River just on the other side of the park, too. For a picnic, a pickup baseball game, a bike ride, a jog, or just for a nice walk or nap, the park is a definite perk for Milwaukee.

Comments

[Daisy]

Hi Erin. Michele sent me.

It looks like Milwaukee is a happening place, Erin. I tend to think of it just as cold with beer. I guess I should rethink things!

Weirdly enough the part of your post I focused on the most was your mention of Little Caesar's. They've pretty much all dried up down here in the South--back in their hayday there had my favorite pizza, but that was a long time ago.

[Andre]

Dave, how the hell did you know what Capoeira was?

[Erin]

Because he's a genius. =)

[Amanda]

That Dave - he's so freakin smart. That dancing looked really cool! And hay sledding...? Never heard of it, but it looks so fun! It sounds like a lovely way to spend a spring time afternoon.

[Mark]

Capoeira is some amazing stuff... every once in a while I play drums for them down at the lakefront in the summer. Now that you know what it is, you'll probably see a lot of it.

Glad you had fun on Earth Day! One of my favorite days of the year... but that's because I'm kind of a hippie.