A resident of Kingston since 2002, Rebecca Martin has wasted no time in grounding herself in the community – literally – by founding the Kingston Victory Garden Project and just recently assuming the executive directorship of the Kingston Land Trust. Her involvement occurred as a response to once-unsavory conditions in her neighborhood, against which she solidified community members to confront the Powers that Be and hold them accountable. Out of that effort, KingstonCitizens.org blossomed: an online initiative that encourages civic responsibility, government transparency and accountability and general awareness of ward-by-ward issues and events.
The Victory Garden Project launched an organic garden at Kingston City Hall on Earth Day, 2009, installed by students as a part of their science curriculum; and as former chair of the Garden Committee, Martin has generated multiple ways for people to be involved in gardening and seed cultivation. Kids at the Boys and Girls Club have grown food and given it away to needy folks. In one year, 13 Kingston schools created gardens. Now led by Arthur Zaczkiewicz, the Project continues to connect students, volunteers, master gardeners and educators in sharing knowledge, traditions and produce as they experience working together.
Meanwhile, Martin has also grown a baby, recorded a new album, When I Was Long Ago (to be released by Sunnyside Records at the end of this month) and just returned from teaching at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, where she headed the songwriting program for the 2010 summer season. A professional musician, Martin has seven critically acclaimed albums to her credit and has performed at Carnegie Hall and the Village Vanguard, amongst many other venues.
When I Was Long Ago highlights the singer’s adept ability to take on old jazz standards in an intimate and refreshing way. The album features tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry and bassist Larry Grenadier backing Martin’s vocals. Jazz critic and blogger Will Layman says that she “owns the material more like she wrote the songs than as if she just loved her old records.”
Now this singer/songwriter has made Kingston her own. She says that the process has been an organic one, walking the streets with her infant son, getting to know the neighbors and aldermen. “Once you get the bug, you just keep going,” she says. “I’m always searching for ways to bring people together – educational ways. Meetings are not fun for everyone, but I’m good at finding ways to get work done.”
KingstonCitizens.org is one way that people can be in involved in helping to shape the city. A buying club and community gardens came out of it. And the Kingston Land Trust, as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization, is committed to the protection and preservation of open space, historic sites, wetlands, scenic areas and forests in the City of Kingston and the surrounding region, to include the Town of Ulster and the Town of Kingston.
Martin maintains that community gardens are the heart and soul of any urban environment, and creating a Victory Garden at City Hall sends a strong and clear signal to the people of Kingston that gardens need once again to become an important part of their daily lives. “As executive director, I want to help residents rediscover Kingston’s uniqueness as an urban community set in a rural region.”
See www.rebeccamartin.com for details about Martin’s music; and visit www.kingstonlandtrust.org to learn more about getting involved.