What is The Other Almanac?
The Other Almanac is a reimagining of The Old Farmer's Almanac, updated for our current world.
In case you don't know it, The Old Farmer's Almanac is the oldest continuously printed publication in the US, it's a mix of old wisdom, garden advice, little poems, jokes, how to's, recipes, calendars, and much more. Although it advertised as for everyone, it's limited culturally, does not take stances on anything political, ecological, or social and has historically catered to rural, white, USAian, farmers.
Now is the time for a new almanac—one that is deep, meaningful, and bridges across the urban and rural divide here in the US.
The Other Almanac still has all the parts of the traditional almanac, but our pages are filled with art, recipes, historical critique, words from professors, climate organizers, indigenous activists, migrant farmworkers, scientists, medicine makers, incarcerated painters, astrologers, lawyers, borderland midwives and more.
Our 2022 edition was the first of many Other Almanacs to come. The Other Almanac is a yearly publication that can be carried in gas stations, bookstores, deli's, museums, community centers, gardening stores, supermarkets and more.
Our pages are filled with useful and interesting information in many forms, but what we are really excited to share with you is the work of our many contributors.
Our 2026 contributors include: A.K. Burns, Alicia Kennedy, Al-Wah'at Collective, Brian Brown, Claire L. Evans, David George Haskell, David Kennedy Cutler, Day Brièrre, Diana Hubbell, Diana Sofia Lozano, Elijah Anderson, G. Peter Jemison, Isabel Ling, Jerry Lue, Jordan Casteel, Julie Rossman, Katherine Bradford, Kay Kasparhauser, Kris Rumman, Larissa Pham, Lily Consuelo Saporta Tagiuri, Marie Viljoen, Mary Mattingly, Mel Chin, Michael Yarinsky, Mohammed R. Mhawish, Morgan Lett, Nate Dorr, Raven Halfmoon, Sabrina Imbler, Sally DeWind, Shannon Lee, Tideland Prints, TJ Shin, Who Tattoo, Zoë Lescaze.
Photo by Daniel Arnold
What is an almanac?
The Other Almanac is a contemporary reimagining in the tradition of the much beloved farmers’ almanacs. There have been many different American almanacs throughout the last couple of centuries, with The Old Farmer’s Almanac being the most widely known, as well as the longest continuously printed publication in the United States.
If The Other Almanac is your introduction to the incredible history of almanacs here in the U.S. and the world, then welcome to a very deep new study. You are now taking part in one of the oldest cultural and scientific traditions of humanity.
The first printed almanac was created in Europe in 1457, but almanacs have existed across the globe for much longer, since the discipline of astronomy came into being. They were carved into stones, painted on animal hides, and formed into manuscripts. The oldest surviving almanac was found in Babylonia and lists each day of the year with corresponding favorable and unfavorable activities.
Annually updated almanacs are still being printed in many countries around the world. The Other Almanac is calculated and written for New York City, though we hope to expand geographically in coming years. Unlike other farmers' almanacs in the U.S., which have historically catered to rural white landowners, The Other Almanac attempts to be a bridge between the rural and urban divide here in the U.S. This edition is another attempt at an almanac that talks about climate change, takes stances on cultural and political issues, and includes contributions from professors, farmworkers, scientists, medicine makers, incarcerated poets, activists, astrologers, urban gardeners, midwives, and others. This project is a huge undertaking and I look forward to seeing it grow and change as it continues throughout the years.
Thank you to everyone who helped bring this publication into existence. Many eyes, hands, machines, and minds went into creating this object and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed making it.
—Ana Ratner
Knowledge Acknowledgment
The Other Almanac would like to acknowledge conventional American almanacs’ history of theft of the knowledge, research, and philosophies developed and refined by the people of many distinct Native nations. Much of the information contained in these almanacs would not exist without Native peoples’ ongoing collaboration with the ecosystems, flora, and fauna of this land over thousands of years.
Often, in land acknowledgments, gratitude for stewardship and knowledge is given. As a settler on stolen land, I question the appropriateness of giving thanks for land and knowledge forcibly taken and misused, rather than given with trust. The Other Almanac aspires to navigate complexities with care and to embody solidarity with colonized and oppressed peoples everywhere, from New York to Palestine, between and beyond.
I am grateful that most of humanity’s years on earth were lived before European colonialism and the invention of capitalism. I am thankful that this planet and everything it supports has been stewarded and respected for much longer than it has been wounded and depleted.
If you are reading this publication in the so-called United States of America, you are standing, sitting, or lying down on stolen land that has been violently transformed by systematic strategies of erasure, including genocide, ecocide, and intentional transmission of disease.
The Other Almanac strives to be a platform for the work of many people(s), including artists and writers of Indigenous descent from around the world. While I take pride in this fourth publication, I know we can continue to do better. As future editions are published, we look forward to expanding the depth of our commitment to sharing the work of people who were displaced or wounded through colonization, or whose ancestors were.
The Other Almanac contributes funds monthly to the Indigenous Environmental Network. All non-Native readers are encouraged to find out which nation’s land they are currently occupying and to pay a monthly land tax to organizations in their area.
Whose land are you on?
native-land.ca
Below is a list of a few organizations to look into:
ienearth.org
mannahattafund.org
therednation.org
nativefoodalliance.org
sogoreate-landtrust.org
Knowledge
Acknowledgment
Who are these incredible contributors?
A.K. Burns is an interdisciplinary artist and educator, working at the nexus of language and materiality. Utilizing sculpture, video, installation, writing, and performance, Burns troubles systems that assign value with criticality and humor. Burns has exhibited internationally, including a solo survey exhibition in 2023 at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, and at the Henry Art Gallery Seattle, Washington in 2024–25.
Alicia Kennedy is a food and culture writer from Long Island. She writes a weekly newsletter and is the author of No Meat Required. Her book On Eating is forthcoming from Hachette.
Al-Wah'at Collective is formed by Ailo Ribas, Gabriella Demczuk, and Areej Ashhab in 2022, Al-Wah’at is an artist research collective committed to countering colonial and anthropocentric narratives around arid lands and futures by engaging with a diversity of knowledges—be they local, folk, scientific, more-than-human—in order to promote a deeper understanding of these ecologies. Their project Wild Hedges started in 2023 at Sakiya (academy of arts, science, and agriculture) in Ein Qiniya, Palestine, and was awarded the COAL Art and Environment prize 2023 prize. Currently, they are 2025 residents at the Jan Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, Netherlands.
Ana Ratner is an artist who works in clay, mostly. She is also the editor-in-chief of The Other Almanac and the desk editor at OR Books. She co-runs Sister Divine's Farm, a farm, farmstand, and event space in Krumville, New York.
Brian Brown is a painter living and working in New York City. His work reflects his deep fixation with the techniques of Rococo painting. Adapting themes of historical ornamentation, mythology, and avarice. His paintings suggest hypothetical narratives that attempt to compel an awareness of the tragic consequences of consumption.
Claire L. Evans is a writer and musician exploring biology, technology, and culture.
David George Haskell is a writer and a biologist. His latest book is How Flowers Made Our World (March 2026). Haskell’s previous books have received many awards, including twice being finalists for a Pulitzer Prize.
David Kennedy Cutler is an artist, writer, and performer living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Recent public endeavors of note include a NYFA Fellowship in interdisciplinary art, a multi-page Artist Project in Artforum, and a solo exhibition at Derek Eller Gallery in NYC.
Day Brièrre is a Haitian-born illustrator and ceramics artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Her visual palette derives inspiration from Afro-indigenous myths and folklore. She earned a BA in ceramics from Florida International University in 2018. Day has participated in residencies at BKLYN CLAY and Clayworks in New York City. She was awarded a Leroy Neiman fellowship at Oxbow School of Art. Her illustrations have been featured in publications such as the New York Times and Elle magazine.
Diana Hubbell is a James Beard Awardwinning journalist. Her byline has appeared in Atlas Obscura, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Esquire, VICE, WIRED, Eater, Travel + Leisure, and Condé Nast Traveler, among others. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, but has also called Berlin and Bangkok home.
Diana Sofia Lozano (born in 1992 Cali, Colombia) is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work uses the language of botanical hybrids; the naturally occurring, genetically modified, and the imagined. Lozano presents biomimicry as metaphor for identity construction at the intersections of gender, sexuality, and the politics of difference. She is interested in the deconstruction of botanical taxonomic failures in order to reveal and redefine the boundaries of colonial identificatory practices and geopolitical borders.
Elijah Anderson is a visual artist and illustrator originally from Sarasota, Florida, who now resides in Brooklyn, New York.
G. Peter Jemison, of the Heron Clan from the Cattaraugus Territory, Seneca Nation, is a multi-media artist and recently retired site manager of Ganondagan.
Isabel Ling is a writer, critic, and editor based in Brooklyn, New York.
Jerry Lue graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in illustration in 2018. After moving to Brooklyn and working as a designer for a few years, Jerry started studying pottery. He is a studio technician at Greenwich House Pottery and a teacher at BKLYN Clay. His current research revolves around glaze chemistry and atmospheric kiln effects. When he isn’t at the studio testing glazes, he is upstate wood firing.
Jordan Casteel (born 1989 in Denver, Colorado) From the New York City subway and the streets of Harlem to the woodlands of Upstate New York, Casteel foregrounds the people of color who share in a collective experience through a vantage point of self-reflection. Casteel received her B.A. from Agnes Scott College Decatur, Georgia for Studio Art (2011) and her M.F.A. in Painting and Printmaking from Yale School of Art in New Haven, Connecticut (2014).
Julie Rossman is the Data Visualizations Designer at the National Audubon Society, where she is passionate about crafting infographics and data visuals that explain the science of the natural world. Her work has been published by Time, Slate, NASA, Science Friday, How Stuff Works, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, Scholastic, and The Week, among others. She lives in Brooklyn with her cats, Tomato and Ethel.
Katherine Bradford is a New York artist represented by Canada Gallery in New York, Kaufman Repetto in Milan, and Tomio Koyama in Japan. Her work is mainly figurative; her best known work is of swimmers. She is 83 years old and has 2–3 solo shows a year.
Kay Kasparhauser is an artist and writer based in New York City. Her debut solo show, New Decay at Entrance gallery has been featured in Art Forum, The New York Times, BOMB Magazine, Hyperallergic, ArtNet, and Art Forum. Kay is devoted to mutual aid and harm reduction at the community level, and is currently pursuing a master's of Science in narrative medicine at Columbia Unsversity. Her work can currently be found on her Instagram (@Kaykasparhauser) and on Substack under the same name.
Kayley Sonheim is a graphic designer based in Brooklyn, NY, who specializes in editorial design, packaging, and branding. Her work often utilizes bright colors, dynamic typography, and illustrative integration. You can see more of her work at kayleysonheim.com
Kris Rumman is a Palestinian-American artist from Ohio, who works with glass to create sculpture, performance, and installations. Drawing on Afro-Arab Futurism, she imagines her ancestors to be inventors of the glass blowpipe circa 50 BCE, Syro-Palestine, believing her path as a glassmaker was fated.
Larissa Pham is a writer in the Oblong Valley.
Lily Consuelo Saporta Tagiuri is a designer and eco-futurist whose practice is aimed at public engagement, ecological equity, and joy. Her work addresses emerging climates and conditions of cities specifically pertaining to clean water, food sovereignty, fresh air, and green space.
Marie Viljoen is a writer, forager, gardener, and cook, who has loved edible plants since her childhood in South Africa. Marie writes about plants and food, and hosts sought-after seasonal botanical walks with forage picnics in New York City. Her wild plants cookbook is—Forage, Harvest, Feast A Wild-Inspired Cuisine. On Instagram she is @marie_viljoen.
Mary Mattingly is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores ecological relationships through sculptural ecosystems. Her public artworks include Swale, a floating food forest in New York City’s waterways, and the Flock House Project, a series of mobile habitats, that reimagine civic infrastructure through working ecosystems, engagement, and provocations.
Mel Chin was born in Houston, Texas, and is known for the broad range of approaches in his art, including works that require multi-disciplinary, collaborative teamwork and works that enlist science as an aesthetic component to developing complex ideas. He created and implemented Revival Field (1990), a project that was a pioneer in the field of “green remediation,” the use of plants to remove toxic heavy metals from the soil. He is the recipient of many awards, grants, and honorary degrees, including the MacArthur Fellowship in 2019, and election to the the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2021.
Michael Yarinsky cofounded the interdisciplinary architecture and design studio Office of Tangible Space. His studio’s practice work seeks to create a dialogue with the people who use spaces and objects and foster an interpersonal relationship with our immediate environment. Michael believes design can evoke a sense of belonging; can make you feel something and make you notice. Aside from practice, Michael founded Brooklyn’s Cooler Gallery, is a Fellow of the Urban Design Forum, and cofounded Non-Profit Design Advocates, of which he was also board director.
Mohammed R. Mhawish is a Palestinian journalist and writer from Gaza. His reporting has appeared in Al Jazeera English, The Economist, MSNBC, and +972 Magazine. His writing about the war on Gaza for The Nation, where he is a contributing writer, has won an Izzy Award for outstanding achievement in independent and courageous journalism.
Morgan Lett is an Atlanta-based writer and astrologer. A business manager by day and a cosmic CEO by night, she has a passion for merging entrepreneurship and modern astrology. Her work has been published by PS, Refinery29, and Popular Astrology.
Nate Dorr is a filmmaker and photographer whose work examines the complicated landscapes of the late Anthropocene. Based in Brooklyn; lapsed neuroscientist; habitual wanderer of transitory pseudo-urban spaces.
Raven Halfmoon (born in 1991, Caddo Nation) lives and works in Norman, Oklahoma. Halfmoon attended the University of Arkansas, where she earned a double B.A. in ceramics and painting and cultural anthropology. Halfmoon's work has been featured in gallery exhibitions both nationally and internationally.
Sabrina Imbler is a writer at Defector Media and the author of How Far the Light Reaches and Dyke (Geology). They live in Brooklyn, NY.
Sally DeWind is a writer and teacher from Brooklyn, NY. Her short stories can be found in the Bennington Review and the Exposition Review.
Sam Russek is an associate editor at OR Books.
Shannon Lee is a writer and editor based in Kingston, NY. They are the managing editor of this edition of The Other Almanac. You can also find them editing for The Amp at Asian American Arts Alliance and Artlab Editorial.
Tideland Prints began with Becca and Kiera meeting serendipitously on the shores of Fort Tilden in Rockaway Beach, NY, in 2021. Over many a surf session, cold ocean dip, and boardwalk bike ride, they decided to blend Becca’s design expertise with Kiera’s data skills to create a tidal calendar for the upcoming year in our beloved Rockaway Beach. Since then, they have created tidal calendar prints for many of our favorite tidelands across the U.S. and beyond!
TJ Shin is an artist and writer based in Los Angeles.
Who Tattoo (José Sanabria) is a tattoo artist from Puerto Rico working in San Francisco, California. His designs are colorful and explore elements of pop culture, folk art, and surrealism.
Zoë Lescaze is a journalist covering art and science. She just released a new podcast on hypnosis with her friend and cohost, Alice Hines.
