EARLY DAYS
Among the earliest records within the Green Oasis Community Garden/Gilberts Garden, Inc. Records are statements drafted to emphasize the important role that Green Oasis Community Garden played in the community. According to this document, a brochure draft, the garden was started in 1981 to “encourage positive community interaction and cultural exchange.” The emphasis on these two initiatives remains clear throughout the collection.
The garden founders, Normand Vallee and Reinaldo Arana, were aware of the need for inclusivity to achieve their mission. By the 1980s, a majority of the Lower East Side residentes were of Puerto Rican descent. They went so far as to print a number of garden publications in Spanish in addition to the English prints.
At the height of the city’s financial crisis in the 1970s arson was an unfortunate reality. As the buildings crumbled rubble strewn lots pocked the landscape of the Lower East Side. Residents rallied together to clear out the lots and create safe spaces in the neighborhood where a sense of community could thrive. In the early 1980s work began to clear out lots 18, 20, 22, 24, 26 of block 317 on 8th street between Avenues C and D.
THE WORK NEVER STOPS
After the lots were emptied work began on the iconic features of Green Oasis. According to a 1986 New York Times article titled “Eighth Street Encounters Spielberg” (contained within the greater collection) a gazebo was donated to a community garden on 8th Street after the production of Batteries Not Included. More than likely, it was the very gazebo, painted and repaired many times since then, which stands at the center of the garden today.
A decade later the energy behind the garden persisted. The space continued to grow and develop and in 1997, according to legal records, officially merged with the neighboring Gilbert’s Sculpture Garden.
The earliest references to the koi pond within the collection dates back to 1997. The pond plays a vital role in the ecology of the garden but also brought about recognition to the garden. After the pond was completed Green Oasis was featured in Mid-Atlantic Koi: The Magazine of the Mid-Atlantic Koi Club, school groups began to teach science lessons at the pond, and proposed maintenance to the pond helped secure funding from the Trust for Public Land.
CULTIVATING COMMUNITY
Green Oasis was a icon within the community. At the turn of the century, the network of gardens in the Lower East Side were threatened by exploitative real estate development backed by the Giuliani administration. In 2000 the stage at Teatro Arana hosted Pete Seeger’s live set in Concert to Save the Gardens.
However, that stage was not designed with superstars in mind. It, like the rest of Green Oasis, was designed to be used by the community to strengthen the community. STEP-C, a childrens theater program, was created to offer a safe and creative outlet to school aged kids from around the block. The annual Rites of Spring pageant and parade graced the stage at Teatro Arana as well! Green Oasis is among the longest standing and most successful examples of the community organizing together to reclaim the space around them and promote healthy change within the Lower East Side.