Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
A new social spin on planting
Group planting trees while socially distanced
The world’s slowest flash mob is unfolding in Fort Lauderdale’s Flagler Village this weekend — a mysterious guerrilla-style invasion that trades the shock of speed for the imperceptible stealth of the snail’s pace.
Beginning at 7 a.m. Friday, a nonprofit called the Civic Engagement Corp. took control of an empty lot at the corner of Northeast Third Avenue and Northeast Sixth Street. Organized via social media, the action includes dozens of mobsters with a plan to transform the lot into a forest of fruit trees.
Fort Lauderdale architect and urban farmer Michael Madfis organized the event with the irreverent spirit of a typical flash mob — those sudden, secretive group assemblies, part performance art, part social commentary, that take over public spaces.
One problem: You can’t mob during COVID-19.
So Madfis replaced the “flash” with something more incremental and socially distanced: Coming from different directions, individual participants arrive alone at 20-minute intervals, plant a seedling in soil (both provided by Madfis) and leave.
At that rate, Madfis believes the work will take nearly 30 hours over the course of the weekend. His slots on Friday morning filled up quickly, but he has some open
ings available (”Not many,” he says) through Sunday. If you’re interested in taking part, email Madfis at civftl@gmail.com so he can reserve a seedling and give you a time slot.
The appeal of a flash mob is its what-justhappened evanescence — but Madfis believes there is something equally mythical about a creation that happens subtly, randomly, right before your eyes.
“It’s sort of mystical, magical,” he says. “
There is an art component to the project, which Madfis calls the Flagler Village Sequential Flash Mob Food Forest Planting: The seedlings (including papaya, cacao and fig) will be arranged in a sacred spiral pattern, and participants may be asked to perform a unifying dance step.
A time-lapse video shot from the top of a residential building across the street will document the evolution of the forest, as well as Madfis’ other pet theme — that downtown Fort Lauderdale needs to be a more walkable city.
“As [participants] arrive from each direction, you’ll see the dysfunction of the pedestrian environment. That all has implications. Social justice issues, a whole bunch of issues. So we’re just going to be trying to create these ‘A-ha’ moments,” Madfis says.
The Flagler Village Sequential Flash Mob Food Forest Planting is scheduled for 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and on Sunday from 7 a.m. until around noon, or whenever the seedlings run out. For more information, visit Facebook.com/CECFL.