top of page
Search

TURNING SPACE INTO PLACE: REGEN SOUTH BEND






What makes a place a place, versus just any space?


Tyler Kanczuzewski is a sustainability advocate and the founder and owner of ReGen South Bend, an incremental development and community catalyst company based in the Near Northwest Neighborhood of South Bend, Indiana. Tyler brings business leadership, logistics, resiliency, and community experience to his work alongside neighbors to transform space into place, in order to cultivate people and their places well.


Tyler joins Cultivating Place Host Ben Futa this week to share more. Listen in!


From Ben: This week I’m in conversation with Tyler Kanczuzewski. Tyler has a background in business leadership, logistics, resiliency, and community, all of which contribute to how he’s working alongside his neighbors to transform space, in to place.


And speaking of neighbors, Tyler is actually our literal next-door neighbor at Botany & Co. We share a parking lot and sidewalk, along with a love for green, abundant, diverse plantings, especially in the heart of our city.


Our conversation today marks the start of a series of stories from our hometown of South Bend, Indiana, a city very much undergoing an

active reinvention and transformation inspired by a civic and democratic

public horticultural ethos in that gardens can and should be everywhere

and for everyone.



Follow Tyler online:

and on Instagram:


All photos courtesy of Tyler Kanczuzewski, all rights reserved.


If you enjoyed this program, you might also enjoy these

JOIN US again next week! The conservation of native bees is crucial to the conservation of biodiversity writ large. This week, native bee conservationist, educator, and photographer Krystle Hickman joins Cultivating Place in celebration of National Pollinator week. She shares more about her career and her newest book: The ABCs of California Bees. That's right here, next week. Listen in!


Cultivating Place is made possible in part by listeners like you and by generous support

from

in honor of Bailey Shaw


supporting initiatives that empower women and help preserve the planet through the intersection of environmental advocacy, social justice, and creativity.






Thinking out loud this week...


Hey, it's Ben—


I want to share a bit more context here: when Tyler said he’s “focused on other projects” – I want you to have a solid understanding of what that really means, and how it relates to the Cultivating Place ethos.


Tyler is an active community cultivator, deploying what I’ve come to call “Acts of Gardening” when it comes to how he nurtures, supports, analyzes, and contributes to our shared place. He’s sponsored public murals, purchased and improved a building for an all-women co-op business incubator, removed his lawn and replaced it with habitat plantings, helped two urban farms get established through lowering the financial bar to access growing space while ensuring land tenure, and is now working to redevelop a vacant lot and home into a new public pocket park and garden in the heart of our neighborhood.


Our conversation today marks the start of a series of South Bend stories which you’ll hear throughout the summer, culminating in the first Power of Gardeners Symposium, happening right here in South Bend on September 25-26. More details are coming soon, and for now, I hope you’ll save the dates.


I know South Bend isn’t alone when it comes to gardeners transforming their communities for the better through working in public spaces, creating gardens that are of, by, and for their places.


You might remember my conversation with artist Tanja Hollander back in February and her “I Love You” garden project, a memorial and healing garden following mass violence in her community a few years prior. It’s a powerful story, and at the time of our recording, the first plants had gone in the ground the previous year but they hadn’t yet seen their first blooms.


A few days ago, I received a lovely email from Tanja sharing how the new gardens have erupted into bloom this spring, along with stories of the very different people who have come out to help continue cultivating this space for the benefit of all.


I’m encouraged, yet again, of the timeless superpower of plants to remind us we’re connected while helping us to connect, something we continue to desperately need right now.


I’m also reminded of the power of Gardeners with a capital G, and I’d wager many of you listening right now can relate. Plants are so much more than just pretty, so much more than just decorative. They, along with us Gardeners, can and are changing our world for the better. We continue to need more of us, everywhere, urgently.


WAYS TO SUPPORT CULTIVATING PLACE

Cultivating Place is a co-production of North State Public Radio, licensed to Chico State Enterprises. Cultivating Place is made possible in part listeners just like you through the support button at the top right-hand corner of every page at Cultivating Place.org


The CP team includes producer and engineer Matt Fidler, with weekly tech and web support from Angel Huracha, weekly communications support by Sheila Stern and Carley Bruckner, and regular hosting by Founder, Jennifer Jewell, as well as Abra Lee in Atlanta, Georgia, and Ben Futa in South Bend, Indiana. We’re based on the traditional and present homelands of the Mechoopda Indian Tribe of the Chico Rancheria. Original theme music is by Ma Muse..


SHARE the podcast with friends: If you enjoy these conversations about these things we love and which connect us, please share them forward with others. Thank you in advance!

RATE the podcast on iTunes: Or wherever you get your podcast feed: Please submit a ranking and a review of the program on Itunes! To do so follow this link: iTunes Review and Rate (once there, click View In Itunes and go to Ratings and Reviews)

DONATE: Cultivating Place is a listener-supported co-production of North State Public Radio. To make your listener contribution – please click the donate button below. Thank you in advance for your help making these valuable conversations grow.

Or, make checks payable to: Cultivating Place Foundation EIN #33-1665277

PO Box 37

Durham, CA 95938


Comments

Commenting on this post isn't available anymore. Contact the site owner for more info.
bottom of page