Posted in Uncategorized, tagged boston, greenway, rose kennedy greenway on April 13, 2012| 4 Comments »
When I was a kid, April would see me heading out to the woods to check on what was new since fall and to climb on the rocks in the stream all afternoon. Inevitably, I would fall in. I remember one year coming home carrying my sopping shoes and socks, very pleased with myself for thinking to wear my mittens on my feet.
In Boston, the Greenway has lovely spring rituals. Here are two: pussy willows turning into cats and a carousel horse flaunting a spiffy new paint job.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged abused, community cooks, diabled, food, Jane Dornbusch, one and one and 50, shelters, somerville, vicki i, volunteer, youth on April 12, 2012| 2 Comments »
I blogged before about the idea that one and one and 50 make a million, the idea that little actions by many people can make big change.
It speaks to me. So I loved this food-for-the-hungry story in yesterday’s Boston Globe. Volunteers at Community Cooks in Somerville, Massachusetts, provide part of a meal for a charity once a month. It’s relatively small commitment that adds up. Vicki I founded it 20 years ago.
She tells the Globe‘s Jane Dornbusch: “My friend heard the Somerville Homeless Coalition wanted some food support. … It was an era when many young professionals who were interested in helping the community were moving to Somerville, so we were able to recruit very easily.”
Derek Neilson makes potato salad for Community Cooks. Photograph: Barry Chin, Globe staff
Dornbusch adds, “Community Cooks is just that: a community of cooks that prepares food for the community. Each volunteer is assigned to a team that provides a meal once a month to a partner organization; these organizations include homeless shelters, women’s and family shelters, youth development programs, providers of support for the developmentally disabled, and more.
“The team leader hands out dish assignments — main course, salad, side, dessert — and each volunteer purchases the necessary ingredients and prepares a homemade recipe to feed about 15. Then the volunteer drops it at a central location. Each team serves a particular organization, so volunteers develop a sense of community and partnership with one group. It’s not an overwhelming commitment.” But together the cooks make a big difference Read more.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged baritone Ollmann, buffalo commons, buffalo nation, deborah popper, Forest County Potawatomi Foundation, frank popper, Jerome Kitzke, Kathleen Masterson, map fund, milwaukee, music, nea, opera, present music, Princeton, Suzanne and Richard Pieper on April 11, 2012| 5 Comments »
My husband went to college with Frank Popper, who went on to become a professor at Rutgers and Princeton. Along with his wife Deborah, also a professor, Popper has written extensively about the loss of population in the industrial Midwest and the idea of returning former urban areas to a “Buffalo Commons.”
That once seemed far out, but today he is popular with leaders of shrinking cities like Detroit that are open to any idea that might make cities livable again, including turning abandoned neighborhoods into parkland.
This week he sent a surprising e-mail. His research is in an opera being performed by a Milwaukee new-music ensemble called Present Music.
“The libretto.” writes Popper, “has big quotes from a 1999 academic-journal article Deborah and I wrote about the Buffalo Commons, and two of the actors play us. Composer Kitzke, librettist Masterson, baritone Ollmann and the other performers are all excellent.”
From Present Music’s website: “Buffalo Nation (Bison bison), by Jerome Kitzke and Kathleen Masterson, [was] commissioned by the Map Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation; Forest County Potawatomi Foundation, Suzanne and Richard Pieper Family Foundation and by other individual donors. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.”
Jerome Kitzke and Kathleen Masterson
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged angels, boston business hub, entrepreneurs, ideas, innovation, small business, startup, vcs, venture capital on April 10, 2012| 2 Comments »
I took a tour of Mass Challenge today, an accelerator incubator program. And what is an accelerator incubator program? you ask. An incubator helps small businesses get launched and grow. An accelerator helps them get launched and grow really fast.
The program I visited may be the biggest anywhere. It has a whole floor of a gorgeous new building overlooking Boston Harbor, which the landlord has provided rent-free at least until 2014. It has zillions of sponsors and supporters, including the mayor and the governor, who don’t always see eye to eye on other matters.
Enter by tomorrow to be in the running for this year’s program and the top prize. Every entrant, whether chosen for the program or not, gets three to five professional reviews. You can enter from anywhere in the world. Caveats: there is an entry fee of $200, and your startup has to have made less than $1 million so far. Click here to enter.
From the website: “MassChallenge is the largest-ever startup accelerator and competition, and the first to support high-impact, early-stage entrepreneurs with no strings attached. Benefits for startups include:
* 3 month accelerator program. World-class mentorship and training, free office space, access to funding, media and more.
* $1M in Cash Awards. $4M+ in-kind support.
* Open to all. Any startup can enter, from anywhere, in any industry.
* No equity taken. No restrictions applied.”
And while we’re on the subject of small business, I also saw a great presentation about a new City of Boston website that walks people through all the things they need to do to get a business started in Boston. A wonderful, user-friendly site.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged basket, birthstone, Luna & Stella, may basket, may day, rings, spring flowers on April 9, 2012| 5 Comments »
Does anyone do May baskets any more? It’s such a lovely custom, and it’s always surprising to me that florists don’t promote it. How difficult could it be to partner with a Girl Scout troop or something?
On the first of May, you fill home-made paper baskets with spring flowers, place them at the door of, say, a neighbor, an elderly person, or a teacher and run. As kids, we used to knock and go hide in the bushes to see the look of surprise on the neighbor’s face. With fewer neighbors at home during the day now, the surprise is for the person who gets home from work first.
When Suzanne and John were small, they did May Baskets every year. I remember one neighbor (who had figured out where the basket came from) telling me, “Oh, I’m going to be so sad when your children grow up!” Of course, part of the drill is to pretend you have no idea what your neighbor is talking about.
There is a really simple way to make baskets from pages of discontinued wallpaper books. I’ll tell you if you ask. Here is another way.
(P.S. The birthstone rings are from Luna & Stella.)
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged bunny, Easter, Easter basket, easter bonnet, egg hunt, hat, rabbit on April 8, 2012| 2 Comments »
“GLAD PÅSK!” says Margareta by e-mail from Sweden.
Back in the States, my grandson did his first egg hunt. He caught on quickly. Meanwhile, I pulled together an Easter bonnet — like Cinderella and the mice. I don’t have wicked stepsisters, so the bonnet made it through the festivities without recourse to a fairy godmother.
The base hat is one I’ve had for years (sans ribbon and rabbit). It is made 100% of paper and packs really well.
Next year my daughter-in-law is going to help me search thrift shops for Easter bonnets. Let me know if you want to come.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cash mob, community development, economic development, entrepreneur, nonprofit, small business, social media on April 7, 2012| 3 Comments »
I’m learning about cash mobs and how they are used to help small businesses and promote economic development.
I like that it’s kind of a surprise for the business. The town selects a shop for some policy reason like wanting to revitalize a particular part of town or to encourage a promising entrepreneur. It promotes the business for a cash-mob day and encourages local folks to spend some money. People do because it’s fun, and because they, too, want to help.
“A cash mob works like this,” writes the Globe. “City officials, civic groups, or individuals use social media, blogs, and e-mail to spread the word about the event. As @Lowellcashmob tweeted this week, ‘Infusing revenue into Lowell businesses, you never know where the cash mob will strike!’ …
“Merchants do not run them, but are selected for a ‘hit.’ Participants are encouraged to spend $10 to $20. There often aren’t any discounts or incentives — it’s less about nabbing a Black Friday bargain and more about sharing the wealth.” More here.
Got me thinking. How else could this work? Could the town choose a local blood bank for a cash-mob day? How about a “paint the youth center” day? Or a day to buy something at the Pirate Supply Store to support the tutoring program? Would people think that was fun, too?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged art, artist, boston, easter bonnet, first friday, Galvinized couture hats, haberdasher, hat, Marie Galvin, milliner, millinery, open studio, south of washington, sowa on April 6, 2012| 4 Comments »
There’s this one doctor who is generally quite late, so I always plan to take half a vacation day when I have an appointment with her. On Thursday, however, she was on time, so after I saw her, I got on a bus and went to SoWa (“South of Washington,” known for art galleries). Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
I had got it in my head that I would like to buy an Easter hat this year. No one does Easter bonnets anymore. It used to be fun, if a little ridiculous.
After I left some of Suzanne’s Luna & Stella cards in the SoWa building where there are open studios on first Fridays, I went over to the hat shop.
The hats were pretty gorgeous, but pricey. (It’s art, after all.) The smallest little saucer with a couple feathers was $150. The more magnificent hats were close to $400. So I just looked. You should look, too. Amazing, huh?
Marie Galvin, the artist, writes on her site: “Galvin-ized Couture Hats and Headpieces are handcrafted with innovative design & techniques. These fabulous creations are perfect for Weddings, Ascot, the Kentucky Derby and Cocktail Parties.”
Nothing about Easter.
Can’t you picture me in a back pew of the U-U church in this little number? Sigh.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beaufort, colby, fruitlands, new england, poem, poet, poetry, sosostris, waste land on April 5, 2012| 2 Comments »
Kate Colby, New England poet, is a friend of Suzanne’s.
I struggled with her pithy collection Fruitlands but am now happily into Beauport. Which is not to say I understand everything. But I am loving the spare naturalness of the language.
It hits the same pleasure buttons as deceptively casual-sounding passages in T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, like:
“Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,
“Had a bad cold, nevertheless
“Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe,
“With a wicked pack of cards.”
I don’t know what Eliot is getting at exactly, but I’m crazy about the way that sounds.
Here’s a bit from Beauport that made me smile:
Fashionable Turn-outs in Central Park (1869)
“Those were the days. Don’t you think?
“Sunday driving in plein-
“air affairs of gold
“rims and spokes,
“upper-lip-shaped
“lisping, bespoke
“tailcoats.
“No incendiary pamphleteers,
“here, no lady lecturers,
“temperance hoo-hah …”
Posted in Uncategorized on April 4, 2012| 2 Comments »
In 2002, the writer Dave Eggars and the educator Ninive Calegari decided to start an after-school program to get kids energized about writing and learning. They fitted out a space in San Francisco as a Pirate Supply Store, thinking that the theme would bring youngsters in and keep them for the tutoring and publishing projects.
Eggars talks about the initiative in a TED Talks video and at a website called Once Upon a School, which challenges us all to get involved.
Because the first storefront was at 826 Valencia, the affiliated learning centers that have sprouted up around the country have become part of an umbrella organization that is called 826 National.
“826 National is a nonprofit organization that provides strategic leadership, administration, and other resources to ensure the success of its network of eight writing and tutoring centers. 826 centers offer a variety of inventive programs that provide under-resourced students, ages 6-18, with opportunities to explore their creativity and improve their writing skills. We also aim to help teachers get their classes excited about writing. Our mission is based on the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.”
826 Valencia’s site adds, “We offer a range of programs, all free of charge, for students, classrooms, and schools in the Bay Area. Our project-based approach allows students ownership over the writing process, and strengthens their ability to express themselves clearly and in their own voice. By making writing fun, by demystifying the process, and by creating gorgeous books, magazines, and newspapers that honor their work, we can inspire young people to gain critical skills and write with confidence.”
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged bank, bold and the bankable, center for community capital, central square, latino, money, money matters, north carolina, saving, theater, theatrre, unc, underground railway, youth on April 3, 2012| 2 Comments »
There’s a theory that if you want information to stick, it helps to tie it to emotions. The Center for Community Capital at the University of North Carolina tested the idea with The Bold and the Bankable: How the Nuestro Barrio Soap Opera Effectively Delivers Financial Education to Latino Immigrants.
It’s all true: If a character you like goes bankrupt because of reckless behavior with money, you are likely to remember and apply the learning to your own situation.
Last week I had the pleasure of attending a theatrical production by teenagers from the Underground Railway Youth Theater who had written a script from interviews they conducted with 80 people of all ages. The teens asked interviewees about their experiences with money and how they felt about it. Some of the stories were quite moving, and the high school audience’s emotions were likely engaged as they were quiet as mice.
There was a talkback afterward. A few students wanted to know how to join Youth Underground.
From the group’s website: “Youth Underground serves youth ages 13-18 with stipend eligible opportunities to create theater together and in tandem with community-based organizations; and to showcase their work throughout the city, Greater Boston, and at Central Square Theater. Youth Underground holds both an academic year program and intensive summer residency with an annual Ensemble of 30 members. Youth Underground showcases work through performances, a youth driven Community Dialogue Series, and peer exchanges with local and global organizations.”
The Boston Globe has a good article on it.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged art, arts, arts education, miller-mccune, national endowment, nea, pacific standard, test scores, tom jacobs on April 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Thank you ArtsJournal.com for another good link!
Tom Jacobs at Pacific Standard offers new evidence from the National Endowment for the Arts that arts education is associated with better overall student performance.
“Students from the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder,” he writes, “tend to do less well in school than those from more upscale families. But newly published research identifies one sub-group of these youngsters who tend to exceed expectations: those who participate heavily in the arts.
“ ‘At-risk teenagers or young adults with a history of intensive arts experiences show achievement levels closer to, and in some cases exceeding, the levels shown by the general population studied,’ a team of scholars writes in a new National Endowment for the Arts Research Report. ‘These findings suggest that in-school or extracurricular programs offering deep arts involvement may help to narrow the gap in achievement levels among youth.’ ” Read more.
Doesn’t surprise me that the arts can do that. But I think the key word here may be intensive. What do you think?
Photograph: Richard Thornton/Shutterstock
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged flowers, may baskets, may day, spring on April 1, 2012| 4 Comments »
First it was 80 degrees, then it was 20.
Some flowering trees seemed to be OK with that. 
Others, not so much.
I was pretty confused myself. If all the spring flowers were going to bloom in March, what would be left for a May basket? I do like May baskets.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Betsy Levinson, concord, cooking, culinary arts, food, food service, homeless, job training, katie johnston, pine street inn, prisoner, social skills on March 31, 2012| 2 Comments »
I liked a story in the January 25 Boston Globe. It’s about a gourmet chef taking a job at a homeless shelter and helping to train residents with the marketable skills he knows best.
“Frank Van Overbeeke used to prepare foie gras and filet mignon for the French brasserie crowd as executive chef at Bouchee on Newbury Street,” writes Katie Johnston. “Now he makes cheeseburger meatloaf for the residents at the Pine Street Inn.
“In the shelter’s kitchen, he also oversees the preparation of jerk chicken with pineapple rice pilaf for the Boston Foundation, chicken tikka masala for Simmons College, and baked ziti for doctors at Boston Medical Center.
“Van Overbeeke’s move two years ago from haute cuisine to homeless shelter was a key step in Pine Street Inn’s efforts to develop a corporate catering business to increase revenues to support its food service job-training program.” Read more.
Another job-training program in the culinary arts has been going since 1983 at a prisoner pre-release facility in Concord.
Betsy Levinson writes in a March 29 Globe article, “Four days a week, diners pay $3.21 to enter one of the drab gray buildings at the Concord rotary, drop off their licenses at security, and line up for a seat at one of nine tables in the cafe known as the Fife and Drum.
“Inmates serve as waiters, cooks, and busboys, all trained by chef Kim Luketich. Those who complete the 10-month culinary arts program get a Serve Safe food-handler certificate, making them eligible for work in restaurants.
“ ‘I love it,’ said Jacqueline Friedman, an Acton resident arriving for lunch. ‘It’s an experience. The guys are so nice and are trying so hard.’ …
“ ‘This is a premier program,’ said the superintendent. ‘No other facility has this kind of program that allows the community to come in and eat. We have some elderly who have come daily for years. It’s a great setting, a great atmosphere.’
“ ‘They learn quality skills,’ said Luketich. … “‘They learn social skills. The whole idea is that they will go back into society. That is what we focus on.’ ’’
Read more. As the article says, food service is one of the areas where there actually are jobs today, and it can be a way to get acclimated to dealing with the public.
Photograph: Bill Greene/Globe Staff
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cacao beans, chocolate, cooking, dancing lion, dining, entrepreneur, fine chocolate, food, kathleen pierce, new hampshire, new hampshire small business development center, Richard Tango-Lowy, small business on March 30, 2012| 2 Comments »
I went to Manchester, New Hampshire, today for an event designed to bring bankers together with community and economic development people.
The panelists were pretty interesting. A woman from the NH Small Business Development Center talked about what it takes to put together a financing package and what sorts of entrepreneurs are a good investment. For example, people like Richard Tango-Lowy, who do their homework.
Tango-Lowy kept his IT job while he researched everything about fine chocolate, traveling extensively in France and Italy. Almost as soon as he opened Dancing Lion Chocolate, he was successful. He got a great review in the Boston Globe. He has no cash-flow problems. His only problem is keeping up with demand.
“The entrepreneur’s Mayan-style drinking chocolate, made with milk or water, is served in large painted bowls,” writes Kathleen Pierce in the Globe. “This driven chocolatier and Manchester resident is more than a little obsessed with cacao. He works with chocolate maker Alan McClure of Patric Chocolate in Columbia, Mo., to create a house-blend derived from Madagascar beans.
“Like a vintner, Tango-Lowy selects the chocolates that go into his tasting squares, bars, and candies, paying close attention to flavor profiles and how a particular bean enhances the moment. ‘I think about how long will it linger in your mouth. There are ones that hit the fragrant front and each piece evolves as you eat it,’ he says.
“When you discover that Tango-Lowy is a physicist, his approach to chocolate begins to make sense.” Read more.
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