Bernadette Cozart (May 17, 1949 – July 27, 2009) was an American professional

gardener A gardener is someone who practices gardening, either professionally or as a hobby. Description A gardener is any person involved in gardening, arguably the oldest occupation, from the hobbyist in a residential garden, the home-owner suppleme ...

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

, and urban gardening

advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. Different countries' legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. However, ...

. She worked for a time with the

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolog ...

Biography

In 1989, Cozart founded the Greening of Harlem Coalition to help residents regenerate and take responsibility for their own neighborhoods, transform rundown vacant lots in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

and other neighborhoods in New York City into

flower garden A flower garden or floral garden is any garden or part of a garden where plants that flower are grown and displayed. This normally refers mostly to herbaceous plants, rather than flowering woody plants, which dominate in the shrubbery and w ...

s and to restore existing green spaces. Cozart formed alliances with many neighborhood organizations to help make these community gardens a reality. One major partner in the movement towards green spaces and the renewal of playgrounds in Harlem was Barbara Barlow, a surgeon at Harlem Hospital who worked with Cozart to create positive green spaces in the community. Much of Cozart's focus was on the establishment of gardens at New York City schools. The gardens were constructed at several public schools. Among the examples of gardens designed by Cozart and the Greening of Harlem Coalition was a playground with garden boxes at P.S. 197 and a

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese style garden with a

pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...

at P.S. 134. Cozart explained her advocacy for school gardens in a 1993 ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' piece on The Greening of Harlem Coalition, ''"Instead of taking children on

field trip A field trip or excursion is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment. When done for students, as it happens in several school systems, it is also known as school trip in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and ...

s to see

farms A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

and gardens, why not bring nature into the community? I don't think it's fair that they should have to go outside the community to have that experience of seeing things grow."'' Cozart felt that her work was about transformation, and she discussed that community green spaces cause a "domino effect" in communities. Community green spaces increase the pride that residents have in their community, and residents begin to work to beautify their communities in other ways. Cozart stated, ''"If you can take a garbage-strewn lot, or anything else in your neighborhood that you don't like, and turn it into a thing of beauty that benefits the com-munity--a thing of usefulness--then you know you can transform other things. You can transform things you don't like in your own life and in yourself--and that's power."'' Cozart moved from

Allentown, Pennsylvania Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The city has a population of 125,845 as of the 2020 United ...

, in 2002, where she became president of the Allentown Garden Club. Under her guidance, the club launched the Allentown Beautification Program in 2006, which aimed to beautify street intersections in Allentown using

native plant In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as "with no human intervention") during history. The term is equ ...

s and flowers. The program was based on the Greening of Harlem Coalition, which Cozart had founded in 1989. Cozart and the Allentown Garden Club, with the support of Allentown mayor

Ed Pawlowski Edwin Everett Pawlowski is an American politician who served as the 41st Mayor of Allentown, Pennsylvania. He held the office from 2006 until his resignation in 2018, following his election to a fourth term in 2017. He resigned after being convic ...

, relied on donations from local businesses and

community organization Community organization or Community Based Organization refers to organization aimed at making desired improvements to a community's social health, well-being, and overall functioning. Community organization occurs in geographically, psychosocially, ...

s to cover the funding of the Allentown Beautification Program.

Death

Cozart suffered a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

while taking a

water aerobics Water aerobics (waterobics, aquarobics, aquatic fitness, aquafitness, aquafit) is the performance of aerobic exercise in water such as in a swimming pool. It is done mostly vertically and without swimming typically in waist deep or deeper water. W ...

class at Cedar Beach in

. She was rushed to St. Luke's Hospital-Allentown, but died en route. She was 60 years old. She was pronounced dead at the hospital on July 27, 2009, at 11:27 a.m. Allentown Mayor Pawlowski spoke of Cozart, noting that her death was a loss for the city and larger community, ''"She helped in

greening Greening is the process of transforming living environments, and also artifacts such as a space, a lifestyle or a brand image, into a more environmentally friendly version (i.e. 'greening your home' or 'greening your office'). The act of greenin ...

Allentown and making it a better place to live ... e is going to be sorely missed. I, for one, am going to miss her. We are a little bit less in the city today because of her loss."'' Cozart was survived by her partner, Kathleen Kapila.Profile
mcall.com, July 30, 2009; accessed September 2, 2015.

References

Sources

*Neu, Diann L. ''Return Blessings: Ecofeminist Liturgies Renewing the Earth'', Wild Goose Publications; (2004) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cozart, Bernadette 1949 births 2009 deaths American horticulturists American gardeners American women environmentalists American environmentalists People from Harlem People from Allentown, Pennsylvania Place of birth missing 20th-century American women 20th-century American LGBT people 21st-century American LGBT people 21st-century American women