My name is Annemarie, and this is the planet I live on; Earth.

This is the air I breathe.

This is the water that sustains my life.

This is the soil where my food grows, and where all my ancestors are buried. 

This is me with one of my favorite bodies of water.

 This is my watershed, and I feel immense gratitude for it! It is called Cayuga Lake by settler culture. Right now, it suffers from harmful algae blooms, which are toxic to people and other animals. Use of industrial fertilizers, in agricultural, and “concentrated animal feeding operations”, are both part of our food system, and are both contributing to the poisoning of our water. Under Cayuga Lake are both an industrial salt mine and a geological anomaly—an unstable rock formation that the state has recognized could cause leak or collapse to the Cargill operation, and change the lake as we know it.

All life needs clean water. Water is life. I stand with water protectors everywhere in raising awareness, and taking action to protect the waters that sustain all life.

The yellow line indicates the demarcation, between that which is called New York, and that which is not-New-York.

In 2022, I was selected to be part of “Creatives Rebuild New York” artist employment program.

It is certainly a settler concept, referring to our colonial history. The old “York”, implied by the mention of a “New” one, is in England, one of the European countries that sited Doctrine of Discovery, as justification, for claiming indigenous land.  It was George Washington who ordered the burning of Gayogohó:nǫˀ crops and homes down the street from where I now live. I live here, enjoying the view, the waterfalls, the lake, while most modern Gayogohó:nǫˀ have never even visited here.

I would like to identify the stories we tell ourselves, as we swim in the waters of latterday-captalism, the stories we don’t even see, because we are so used to them. One such story, that turns land, into property, is the idea that people can own the planet. It is the earth that sustains us. The pandemic highlighted our connectivity and our sovereignty. We are all breathing the same air on this planet. And each of us is a sovereign individual. And, we are interdependent. We need to take care of ALL people, all LIFE on this planet.

For my work in the artist employment program, I get to collaborate with the Community Unity Music Education Program, in Ithaca, NY. CUMEP, as it’s called, is a multicultural performing arts and human rights education program. There is summer camp, an after school program during the school year, and this year; a winter break theater camp! Above is my illustration of Southside Community Center, in Ithaca, NY. This is where the stories unfold.