A paint-splattered desk sits in the center of a hay-strewn field of new grass. An early-September breeze slips through the far treeline, leaving a wake of gently trembling leaves like soft applause in an amphitheater. As though obliging his audience, Tom Caplan emerges from the house, laptop, water bottle, and throw pillows in hand. Propping the pillows on either side of the computer screen to block the midday sun, he begins typing. "He's writing a play," Kavitha Rao says, her eyes cast down to the yard where Caplan sits.
With a lingering look that is at once proud and curious, the type of expression reserved for mothers watching their children at play, Rao leaves her roommate to his work and heads down the sunlit hall. She stops in the doorway of the bright kitchen where two young women sit at its large island, both leaning toward each other in focused conversation. They pause to acknowledge Rao as one humorously professes, "We're talking about revolution!"
Still dressed in sweats from the yoga class she taught that morning, Rao sits perched on a chair on her balcony, overlooking some of the 25 acres of forever-wild conservation land surrounding her Tivoli home, the Common Fire Housing Co-op. The greenest building in the Northeast, the Co-op was awarded a Platinum rating by the US Green Building Council; the 3,600-square-foot home uses 50 percent less energy than the average home of its size due to features such as geothermal heating, cellulose insulation, and Solatube skylights. Rao and her husband, Jeff Golden, and seven other roommates moved into the house upon its completion this past summer. With the belief that solidarity builds on the power of the individual, Rao and Golden founded the co-op to create a space in which individuals working for social change can support and learn from one another while living in an environmentally conscious way.
Tucking a long strand of jet-black hair behind her ear, Rao speaks to the idea of holistic activism, approaching all issues of social injustice and environmental degradation as if connected by a thread. "How do we make it so that this commitment to our values is in all parts of our lives, and not just something we do on the streets when we're protesting, or that we do in our office work, or in our lifestyle choices, but something more consistent?" she asks. "And how do we model that and make that easier for everyone to be a part of?"
 Thalia Forbes, Jeff Golden, Kavitha Rao, and Anya Raskin, in front of the Common Fire co-op. |
Kate Griffith, a lawyer at the Workers' Rights Law Center (WRLC) in Kingston, was one of the first two people accepted to the co-op. Introduced to Rao and Golden through an aquaintence at WRLC in August 2005, Griffith recalls never having given much thought to how environmental issues may affect the work she does representing low-wage and immigrant workers in the Hudson Valley. "Before [Common Fire] it was just 'good farm, bad farm' based on how they treat workers," she admits. But sharing a home with Miriam Latzer, who runs Hearty Roots Community Farm in Tivoli, and seven others with varying diets and food philosophies, Griffith now professes a much broader awareness of agricultural issues and food politics. Though matters of sustainable farming may not affect the practicalities of Griffith's daily work, sharing a home with others who have dedicated themselves to working against social injustice does. "Being in an environment that supports that struggle and understands..." Griffith trails off, shaking her head, seemingly unable to put into the words the immense value she gets from the co-op.