The dim lights of the Independent Picture House’s Theatre 4 illuminated the audience as they shuffled into their seats. Yanira Castro found a spot near the back with her daughter.
“It’s just a great opportunity to see all the organizations and how they’re supporting climate justice and environmental justice and making sure that Charlotte stays at the forefront of protecting our planet,” Castro said.
Castro settled in for the show as the lights dimmed. Charlotte Earth Day founder Hardin Minor strode forward to welcome the Coastal Carolina Theatre Ensemble. The show began as a single light beamed down on CCU student Isaiah Cook.
He held up a sheet of folded cardboard. Offstage, the sound of a Mac booting up rang out, and Cook opened the prop with a cartoonish yawn. His face peeked through a cutout in the painted iPad, blinking sleepily at the audience.
Before the show, Cook had explained a little about his character during rehearsal.
“I play the iPad,” Cook said. “So, our protagonist is an iPad kid. She’s addicted. So, I’m the AI that’s distracting her from real human connection.”
Outside Theatre 4, nonprofits, city departments, and local artists set up spaces to host both art and information. Charlotte artists Wil and Maura Bosbyshell installed pieces in a hallway inside the Independent Picture House.
Along the back wall, Wil Bosbyshell displayed sketches of trees from hikes he took around Charlotte and the mountains of western North Carolina. Two “Memory Trees” stood in the middle of the exhibition, with gift tags hanging from their limbs. Each one held a favorite tree memory:
“I climbed my favorite until a storm broke off the branch,” Wil Bosbyshell said.
“My favorite tree is a magnolia tree. This was a tree that I would sit with my great-grandfather under. He taught me how to smell rain.”
Some had less to do with trees than others:
“Climate change is impacting where I plan to live for fear of worsening disasters.”
Maura Bosbyshell dyes reclaimed fabric. The art is abstract: a sunny yellow streaks across a white cloth in rays. Lines of deep, grassy green intersect in a lattice that appears almost manufactured — until closer inspection reveals the organic imperfections and variations in the dye.
“Lord knows we have so much waste and so much garbage in this country,” Maura Bosbyshell said. “We have to start looking at how are we going to reuse what we have instead of all kinds of new clothing and new fabric.”
She said some of her artwork may see a second or third life as a dress, continuing to upcycle fabric that started as excess in the digital printing process.
For Castro, who watched the play with her daughter, the Earth Day celebration also offered an opportunity to reflect on who has access to green spaces.
"A lot of communities, especially Black communities in Charlotte, have been through redlining and through other climate injustice practices … and really systemic injustice practices,” Castro said. “They have fewer trees, which means it’s hotter where they live, which means their utility bills are higher.”
Castro said the tables and activities did a great job engaging kids on these topics, especially a table organized by the Charlotte chapter of Black Girl Environmentalist. Outside, volunteer Lorena James stood at the group’s table, presiding over a bin filled with blended and boiled invasive plant matter. She grabbed a handful and filled it with seeds to create a “flower bomb.”
“You can just throw these native flower seeds outside in your garden or in your backyard, but by coating them in this plant mulch, it’s almost like a fertilizer to help the plant seeds grow,” James said.
On the table, two rows of flower bombs already filled the recycled cookie mold. But when these bombs go off, it’ll be an explosion of roots, leaves and native vegetation.
