Understory celebrates the intersection of living local economies, urban ecologies and botanical explorations.

Understory is a plant lab, urban ecology event and workshop series.
The programming aims to engage and educate city residents about the natural environment that surrounds them and will include hands-on workshops, a makers’ bazaar and citizen science fair, tours and plant sale. The event introduces a broad range of opportunities for people of all ages to have more agency in their everyday environment, whether it’s at the scale of a remediation project or a botanical illustration.

The inaugural event was held in April 2018 in Brooklyn, New York at 99 Scott.

 
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Cerise Mayo

Cerise Mayo is the founder and director of UNDERSTORY. Cerise began working as an advocate for small agricultural producers in 2002 at the U.S. office of Slow Food. As the Director of Special Projects, she led national education campaigns that championed dynamic models of small-scale food production, distribution, and procurement. From 2007-2010 Cerise was the Program Director for the New Amsterdam Market a non-profit organization dedicated to reinventing the public market as a civic institution for New York City.

Since 2011, Cerise has contributed to the creation and growth of a select group of businesses and organizations focused on food, farming, art, education, and social justice under her consultancy, Nutshell Projects. Her clients include Saipua, Edgemere Farm, Drive Change, She Wolf Bakery, Marlow & Sons, Enlightenment Wines, Beetlebung Farm, Hot Bread Kitchen Incubates, Pocoapoco, Neuehouse, Mobile Kitchen Classroom, and others.

 
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Kate Malin

Kate Malin is an Event Planner and houseplant mother living and working in Brooklyn. She has worked with the Good Food Foundation, the Museum of Food and Drink, and is currently the Catering and Events Manager at the The Greene Grape in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. She is a graduate of the NYU MA Food Studies program.

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Philip Winn

Philip is a producer, designer, photographer, and advocate. As Vice President at Project for Public Spaces, Philip has brought his skills as a facilitator, project manager, and urban designer to public space projects from Providence and Detroit to Kuala Lumpur and Mexico City. 
 

Previously Philip worked as an Art Director and Art Department Coordinator on a wide variety of projects including director Noah Baumbach’s Margot at the Wedding and photographer Gregory Crewdson’s Beneath the Roses.Philip’s photographs have appeared in publications including T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Southwest: The Magazine, and Art News.