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Ocean Plastic Becomes Art

September 8, 2021 by suzannesmom

Photo: Washed Ashore.
Rosa, the bald eagle, was created by Washed Ashore volunteers collaborating nationwide despite the pandemic. Washed Ashore is a nonprofit that repurposes ocean plastic to make art and raise awareness.

Having read about Washed Ashore at the New York Times before the pandemic, I wondered how these plastic-waste-fighting artists managed to keep going during lockdown. I should have known: nothing can stop them.

Founder Angela Haseltine Pozzi showed her mettle in an early March 2020 interview with Alex V. Cipolle: “Angela Haseltine Pozzi stands shoulder to shoulder with Cosmo, a six-foot-tall tufted puffin, on a cliff overlooking the blustery Oregon coast. It is January and the deadly king tides have come to Coquille Point, making the shoreline look like a churning root-beer float.

“Cosmo endures the weather just fine, as he is composed of plastic that has washed ashore — flip-flops, bottle caps, toy wheels, cigarette lighters — all mounted to a stainless-steel frame and bolted to concrete. The puffin is a sculpture from Ms. Haseltine Pozzi’s art and education nonprofit, Washed Ashore, whose tagline is ‘Art to Save the Sea.’

‘We’ve cleaned up 26 tons off the beaches, Ms. Haseltine Pozzi said, ‘which isn’t a dent in the actual pollution issue, but we’re doing something by raising awareness and waking people up.’ …

“Washed Ashore has taken those 26 tons of garbage, all debris that washed up on the Oregon coast (the majority within 100 miles of Bandon), and built 70 large-scale sculptures and counting, including Octavia the Octopus, Edward the Leatherback Turtle and Daisy the Polar Bear. …

“[The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] estimates that eight million metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean each year. Marine animals become entangled in it or ingest pieces they mistake for food, such as the whale that recently washed ashore in Scotland with 220 pounds of debris in its belly — the same weight in plastic an American throws away annually.”

So having read about Haseltine Pozzi’s efforts to draw attention to this travesty through art, I wondered what happened to Washed Ashore during the pandemic. Surely, there would have been no more of Pozzi’s in-person workshops, workshops where Washed Ashore invites “the Buddhists and the Baptists, and the rednecks and the hippies, and the Republicans and the Democrats, and they all sit around the table and they all work together.”

The nonprofit’s excellent blog has that piece of the story.

“When the Covid-19 pandemic led to a national lockdown of indoor spaces in early 2020, the Washed Ashore gallery and art studios were affected much like everyone else. Volunteer activity ceased, exhibits were closed, and workshops were emptied. Washed Ashore relies heavily on a steady stream of volunteers to collect and sort debris and build parts of sculptures, accompanying our full-time staff of artists and helpers. But overnight, our doors were closed and volunteers sent home.

“Knowing the problems of plastic ocean pollution were too great to ignore, Washed Ashore looked to find a creative way to continue our mission to create ‘Art to Save the Sea’ and finding a way to still work together, but differently. …

“And so we got to work, calling on supporters and putting together a plan to unite us as the pandemic kept us all apart. [We] opened our determined efforts nationwide with a goal to work together and create a new sculpture, a symbol of unity.

“What better symbol of hope and unity for the people of the United States than a giant American Bald Eagle, the symbol of our democracy?

“The project was named ‘Come Soar With Us,’ by our Executive Director Katie Dougherty, and our team got to work putting together detailed plastic debris construction kits and instructions and mailing them out across America to over 1,550 volunteers across seven states. Their tireless participation stretched well over eight months, creating the feathers for what would be become Rosa’s impressive wingspan. …

“During a time when so much was halted, the momentum and collaboration from creating Rosa with all of our staff and volunteers was inspiring and has given our team an enormous sense of pride and accomplishment. … You can see Rosa in person at Norfolk Botanical Garden in Norfolk, Virginia, from August 21 – November 4, 2021.”

More at the Washed Ashore blog, here, and at the New York Times, here.

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Preserving Ancient Crafts

September 7, 2021 by suzannesmom

Photo: Robert Mckergan.
Robert Mckergan, 66, is a stick-maker from Portstewart, County Londonderry.

When I saw this story on traditional crafts, I thought of the late, great James Hackett of Moate, Ireland, and the handsome shillelagh he made for John. There was something so special about knowing the maker and knowing that his skill had been handed down through generations. Although his day job was harness making, I suppose James might also have been called a “stick-maker,” like the craftsman in this article.

Vanessa Thorpe wrote at the Guardian in March 2020 about organizations that are working to preserve traditional craft skills like those.

“Clay pipe making, wainwrighting, tanning and making spinning wheels – all are skills of the past that can offer us a sustainable future. This is the message behind a drive, launched this spring, to preserve endangered traditional crafts in Britain.

“With a new award of £3,000 available, together with fresh support from outdoor pursuits company Farlows, the Heritage Crafts Association is calling for a renewed effort to save old skills and pass them down to the next generation.

“The association’s list of ‘critically endangered’ ancient techniques has often been regarded as simply concerned with conserving history. But renewed interest in sustainability, together with a growing dislike of throwaway consumer culture, has prompted a new campaign. …

“The new HCA award was set up this month by Prince Charles, the association’s president: craftspeople are invited to submit a proposal to help secure the survival of a craft ranked either endangered or critically endangered on its official list. …

‘We have a rich heritage of craft skills that can be regarded as just as important as historic buildings and treasured objects,’ [Patricia Lovett, chair of HCA] said. ‘However we are in danger of losing a number of these crafts: our research has found that in some cases there are only one or two makers left.’

“The at-risk list is compiled by combining a conservation status ‘red list’ system used by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Rare Breeds Survival Trust watchlist.

“A heritage craft, usually carried out by an individual in small workshops or at home, is considered viable only if there are sufficient makers to hand down their skills to a younger generation. Last year the traditional paper-making skill of ‘mold and deckle’ was judged extinct, and the vanishing of production in turn endangers paper making. Those deemed merely to be endangered are those crafts which are not financially viable as a sole occupation and those which have no clear system for training or passing on skills. Among these are fan making, watch making and walking stick making – all involving the manufacture of items that are still popular with the public, and even regarded as essential by some.

“Farlows, a company closely associated with fields sports and makers of traditional fishing rods, works directly with many artisan manufacturers, in particular tweed makers, and so its management has decided to formalise that arrangement by backing the heritage association, which they see as a key umbrella body.

“ ‘There is a real knack to making something like a split cane rod. People who fish really value it,’ said [Robin Philpott, chief executive of Farlows].

“The danger, according to Farlows, which began trading 180 years ago and in 1942 switched all its manufacturing to support the war effort, lies in widespread mass production. Although the company now has a Russian owner, its management say it still aims to keep alive the key trades it supported when it was owned and run by family members. …

“Robert Mckergan, 66, is a stick-maker from Portstewart, County Londonderry. ‘For me, it started as a hobby, but I feel we need these crafts to go on. I am a retired engineer and while you can teach yourself as I did, not everyone can do it. You need to be competent with your hands.

“ ‘You couldn’t live on this work, I don’t think. Each stick is about 20 hours’ work. But you get a sense of achievement and of purpose. When I see a tree, I see all the potential carvings. And of course the smell that comes from a piece of wood, say cherry, as you work is lovely.’ ”

More at the Guardian, here. An update is at the Heritage Crafts Association, here.

Photo: Wikimedia.
Shillelaghs. See the one James made for himself, here.

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Free Braids for School

September 6, 2021 by suzannesmom

Photo: Alex Robinson/Unsplash.
A single mom in Nashville offered her hair-braiding skills for free to families that couldn’t afford it. Braids can last for one to two months.

What goes ’round, comes ’round. When a family friend of Brittany Starks spontaneously provided her kids with school supplies and clothes, Starks was moved to use her skills to help other single mothers.

Sydney Page has the story at the Washington Post, “Yulanda Norton was in a bind. Her youngest daughter asked to get her hair braided before the start of school, but Norton couldn’t afford it.

“Norton, who is a nursing assistant in Nashville, lost her job during the coronavirus pandemic, and has been out of work for months. She didn’t have the skills herself to create the hair style, which often costs hundreds of dollars at a salon. But she hoped to have her daughter’s hair braided, as it can last for months and is a huge timesaver in the mornings. …

“Her daughter Janae, 12, who just started sixth grade, yearned for the confidence boost the braids would provide. … Fortunately for Norton, she stumbled upon a Facebook post in a local group from a woman she did not know, offering to braid children’s hair free.

“ ‘Anyone know single parents who can’t afford to get their child’s hair done for school? I will braid it for free! Please DM me,’ Brittany Starks wrote on Aug. 4

“Starks, 29, is familiar with the financial strain of being a single mother. She works three jobs to support her two children, Cayden, 7 and Ceniyah, 9.

“She was compelled to offer her hair braiding services after a family friend spontaneously delivered backpacks full of school supplies, clothing and shoes for Cayden and Ceniyah in early August. …

“The unexpected gift made a big difference to Starks and her children, and it propelled her to pay it forward. Starks, who works two receptionist jobs, also braids hair part-time. Knowing how expensive the service can be — and that it dramatically reduces styling time — she decided to offer her skills to single mothers who were struggling to get their children primed for school. …

“When she wrote the Facebook post, she assumed only a handful of people would reach out, but before she knew it, she had 35 appointments booked. … Her Facebook inbox was suddenly full of messages from single parents, whose stories of hardship and financial challenges mirrored her own.

“ ‘I could really relate to a lot of the women who reached out, and it made me realize that what I was doing was truly important,’ said Starks, who has struggled with homelessness and health challenges.

“Given the overwhelming demand, Starks knew she needed to enlist help.

“Hair braiding takes four to six hours per child, she said, and since there was less than two weeks before the start of school, Starks decided to recruit volunteers to ensure that all 35 children could get their hair done in time for the first day of classes.

“She updated her original Facebook post to ask for helpers. When Donna Garcia, 32, saw Starks’s plea, she immediately offered to assist.

“ ‘She can’t do it alone, she’s only got two hands,’ said Garcia, a mother of four who also braids hair professionally. ‘I let her know I’m willing to help.’ …

‘I like to give back to anyone that needs help,’ Garcia said. When a child gets their hair done, ‘they just feel like a brand-new person, which makes me feel good inside.’ …

“The hair-braiding process involves washing, blow-drying, detangling and finally dividing the hair into small sections and braiding it, Starks explained. The results last one to two months.

“Braiding hair is ‘not an easy task,’ Starks said, adding that it also requires numerous supplies — including combs, brushes, shampoo and conditioner, detangler, mousse, hair jam and additional pieces of hair to weave in — which she paid for out of pocket. …

“When Janae Norton’s hair was finally braided and she looked in the mirror, ‘I felt cute,’ she said. …

“On a recent afternoon, ‘my daughter just yelled out: “Mommy, I’m so proud of you,” ‘ Starks said. ‘The tears were just pouring down. Those words meant everything to me.’ ”

More at the Post, here.

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Dickens and Labor Day

September 5, 2021 by suzannesmom

Image: York Notes.
York Notes, a literature guide, says, “Bob Crachit is Scrooge’s clerk and represents the lower classes. He has to accept poor wages and working conditions because he has a family to support.”

I was thinking about Labor Day and remembering that in many of my favorite novels Dickens wrote with passion about the working conditions of the poor. He had himself worked in a blacking factory as a child when his father was in debt, and few topics were more likely to spark his outrage.

John Broich, an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University, wrote at Time that Dickens decided Scrooge, his hard-working clerk Bob Crachit, and the half-starved Tiny Tim would have more impact on the big issue of the day than the political pamphlet he’d been planning.

“Published 173 years ago this month,” Broich writes, “Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was an instant bestseller, followed by countless print, stage and screen productions. … But A Christmas Carol’s seemingly timeless transcendence hides the fact that it was very much the product of a particular moment in history, its author meaning to weigh in on specific issues of the day.

Dickens first conceived of his project as a pamphlet, which he planned on calling, ‘An Appeal to the People of England on behalf of the Poor Man’s Child.’

“But in less than a week of thinking about it, he decided instead to embody his arguments in a story. … So what might have been a polemic to harangue, instead became a story for which audiences hungered.

“Dickens set out to write his pamphlet-turned-book in spring 1843, having just read a government report on child labor in the United Kingdom. The report took the form of a compilation of interviews with children — compiled by a journalist friend of Dickens — that detailed their crushing labors.

“Dickens read the testimony of girls who sewed dresses for the expanding market of middle class consumers; they regularly worked 16 hours a day, six days a week, rooming — like Martha Cratchit — above the factory floor. He read of 8-year-old children who dragged coal carts through tiny subterranean passages over a standard 11-hour workday. These were not exceptional stories, but ordinary. Dickens wrote to one of the government investigators that the descriptions left him ‘stricken.’

“This new, brutal reality of child labor was the result of revolutionary changes in British society. The population of England had grown 64% between Dickens’ birth in 1812 and the year of the child labor report. Workers were leaving the countryside to crowd into new manufacturing centers and cities. Meanwhile, there was a revolution in the way goods were manufactured: cottage industry was upended by a trend towards workers serving as unskilled cogs laboring in the pre-cursor of the assembly line, hammering the same nail or gluing the same piece — as an 11-year-old Dickens had to do — hour after hour, day after day.

“More and more, employers thought of their workers as tools as interchangeable as any nail or gluepot. Workers were becoming like commodities: not individual humans, but mere resources, their value measured to the ha-penny by how many nails they could hammer in an hour. But in a time of dearth — the 1840s earned the nickname ‘The Hungry ‘40s’ — the poor took what work they could arrange. And who worked for the lowest wages? Children.

“Popular theories about how — or whether — to help the poor often made things worse. The first was the widespread sense that poor people tended to be so because they were lazy and immoral, and that helping them would only encourage their malingering. If they were to be helped, it should be under conditions so awful as to discouraged people from seeking that help. The new workhouses were seen as the perfect solution — where families were split up, food was minimal and work painful. ‘Those who are badly off,’ says the unreformed Scrooge, ‘must go there.’

“Associated with this concept were the ideas of Rev. Thomas Malthus, who cautioned against intervening when people were hungry because it would only lead to an untenable population size. Better that the poor should starve and thus ‘decrease the surplus population.’ …

“Friedrich Engels read the same report on child labor that Dickens did and, with his collaborator Karl Marx, envisioned an eventual revolution. Dickens was very much an anti-revolutionary. In fact, he implied that [revolution] was the fearsome consequence of not solving the problem some other way.

“ ‘This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.’ …

“Dickens wasn’t a ‘systems’ thinker, nor was he proto-socialist. Yet what Dickens did propose in A Christmas Carol … was that employers are responsible for the well-being of their employees. Their workers are not of value only to the extent to which they contribute to a product for the cheapest possible labor cost. They are of value as ‘fellow-passengers to the grave,’ in the words of Scrooge’s nephew, ‘and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.’ Employers owe their employees as human beings — no better, but no worse, than themselves.

“And, yes, that might mean ‘a prize Turkey’ at Christmas … but the real salvation that Scrooge gives to the Cratchit family is a raise.

“As Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past watch Tim, his father holding his [hand], the miser pleads, ‘say he will be spared.’ The ghost reminds readers of Scrooge’s Malthusian quote. ‘If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.’ ” More at Time.

Today we know that most of the labor benefits we have today, including the Monday holiday in America, were not handed down by benevolent company owners but were wrested from them by workers and unions.

You can read that history at Wikipedia, here. Even so, I do think stories help prepare a population to accept change — to recognize that the way things are is not always the best way.

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Dance Leaves the Theater

September 4, 2021 by suzannesmom

Photo: Brooke Trisolini/Miami City Ballet.
Andrei Chagas of the Miami City Ballet.

One of the things we will keep from the pandemic is spending time outdoors, whether we do more of our exercise in nature or attend performance arts under the open sky. In today’s story, we learn about how ballet went outside, spurred on by Covid.

Sarah L. Kaufman reports at the Washington Post, “Sara Mearns, the New York City Ballet star, whirls through a public park in sneakers and a lime-green bodysuit, all zany glamour with a ’90s vibe.

“In a sly little film simply titled Another Dance Film, Mearns powers uphill past a jogger, reaching the top of an amphitheater’s seating gallery. She doesn’t stop. With the same ferocity, she plunges down the tiers, long hair whipping as she kicks, struts and hops from step to step. Ballerina as all-terrain vehicle.

“The film, directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, is just five minutes long, but it does a lot of work. It blows apart some key assumptions, shattering the uptight ballet-dancer stereotype and airing weighty artistic differences between Mearns and her creative team, which we hear in voice mails that accompany the film.

“Crucially, it also liberates dance from illusion. Mearns isn’t in the imaginary world of the theater, creating an imaginary character. She’s herself, or a convincing version of herself, navigating the real world of cyclists, people-watchers, concrete and chain-link.

“She’s not alone. Another Dance Film is part of a fascinating trend to strip dance of artifice by cinematizing it in outdoor settings. …

“While Mearns is bouncing down the risers in Another Dance Film, for instance, there’s a conversation going on about vulnerability and risk-taking. Mearns: ‘Look, I told Andrea like five times that I don’t want to dance on stairs!’ Andrea Miller, the choreographer: ‘It’s okay that she feels uncomfortable. Why does everything have to be so perfect?’

“The effect is intentionally droll as we watch Mearns dance the hell out of those stairs. But the point is profound. This piece is about busting out of a fancy theater setting and exposing what’s usually kept away from the public. So much real human drama is hidden behind the polish of conventional performance, but not here.

“Nothing can replace the pleasures of live performance — that’s a given. Yet here’s what surprises me. As new dance works surfaced on my laptop, something beautiful happened to this art form I thought I knew. It gained strength from the natural environment. ‘Natural’ in the fullest sense of the word: unvarnished, even un-marvelous, existing comfortably or uncomfortably in nature. …

“By featuring outdoor environments around the world, dance inserts itself into the urgent global conversation about climate change. These films line up with one of the most pressing human dramas of all time. They recognize that the story is outside, in the weather and the sun.

“It might be in an urban alley, as in Now, a perspective-tilting mini-film shot in the shadowy rubble of Shanghai. Or on a stone-covered English beach in Toke, a meditation on isolation and belonging, performed by Danish dancer Toke Broni Strandby, who was born with one arm. He tells us in a voice-over that he never feels disabled when he’s dancing. These, along with Another Dance Film, can be viewed on films.dance and its social media sites, including Instagram, YouTube and Vimeo. …

“The arrival of these films has been gradual but inevitable. Over the past year, dance companies around the world have pivoted to become media companies. They’re publishing blog posts and interviews. They’re live-streaming and webcasting artist talks and Zoom productions, and offering digital content such as behind-the-scenes shorts and fully staged performances from their archives. As the shutdown restrictions eased, many dance companies also turned to filmmaking.

“In many cases, collaborations sprang up among producers, directors, choreographers and dancers scattered around the globe. They joined virtually, with limited rehearsals.

“The short, atmospheric outdoor films that resulted combine the primal force of dance, the rawness and poignancy of the outdoors, and what filmmaking can do with time, space and sound: slow motion, close-ups, the use of wind and birdsong. The effect can be deeply emotional.

” ‘Filmmaking is such a powerful art form of its own,’ says choreographer Jacob Jonas, who launched Films.dance last January. … ‘In film, you can isolate part of the body, a hand or the head, and use filmmaking to capture what you couldn’t ordinarily see live.’ …

“Jonas, 29, directs a contemporary dance troupe called Jacob Jonas the Company, in Santa Monica, Calif. He’s long worked in film for his troupe and commercial projects, and when the pandemic froze the normal, in-person creative strategies for dance, he saw filmmaking as a solution ‘to keeping the art form alive when the curtain was down.’

“Jonas set a goal of 15 films themed around nontraditional collaborations. He wanted the project to feel global, and ended up with locations around the world — Brazil, Nigeria, Spain — as well as movement artists from more than 25 countries and young, untested choreographers.

“ ‘Theaters often don’t want to take risks on newer artists because of ticket sales,’ Jonas says. ‘With this platform, we can prove that those collaborations are successful.’ ”

More at the Post, here.

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Pakistan’s First Female Architect

September 3, 2021 by suzannesmom

Photo: Heritage Foundation of Pakistan.
Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari says she wants to atone for past contributions to the world of excess by starting to build good homes for the poor.

A woman in a “man’s profession” wanted to prove she was just as good or better, outdoing other architects in creating over-the-top corporate buildings. Now she wants to be more true to herself and contribute to society.

Oliver Wainwright reports at the Guardian, “A mirrored glass ziggurat stands on a corner in central Karachi, flanked by a pair of polished granite towers. Golden bubble elevators glide up and down behind the tinted windows, shuttling oil executives to their offices through the sparkling five-storey atrium. The Pakistan State Oil House is a power-dressed monument to the petroleum-fuelled excesses of the early 1990s, oozing ostentation from every gilded surface – so it comes as a surprise to learn that its architect is now building mud huts for the poor.

‘I feel like I am atoning for some of what I did,’ says Yasmeen Lari with an embarrassed chuckle. ‘I was a “starchitect” for 36 years, but then my egotistical journey had to come to an end. It’s not only the right of the elite to have good design.’

“The 79-year-old architect was awarded the prestigious Jane Drew prize in London in March, a gong that recognises women’s contribution to architecture, for her tireless humanitarian work over the last two decades. …

“She made her name with a number of prestigious state commissions in the 1980s, including Karachi’s finance and trade centre, a vast hotel and a host of military barracks, as well as a low-income housing project that favoured low-rise high-density over the fashion for concrete-slab blocks. Then, in 2000, she retired, primarily to focus on writing books about Pakistan’s architectural history and put her energies into the Heritage Foundation, which she had founded with her husband in 1980. …

“In 2005, an earthquake of 7.6 magnitude on the Richter scale hit northern Pakistan, killing 80,000 people and leaving 400,000 families displaced. ‘I felt I had to go and help,’ says Lari. ‘I had no idea what I could do as an architect. I’d never done any disaster work, or any projects in the mountains. I had no workforce, I’d given up my practice. But I found that, if you do something beyond your usual comfort zone, then help will always come.’

While international aid agencies busied themselves erecting costly prefab housing with concrete and galvanised iron sheets, Lari worked with dispossessed families to rebuild their homes using mud, stone, lime and wood from the surrounding debris. Working with volunteers, she trained local people how to use whatever materials were to hand to rebuild in a better, safer way.

” ‘I think we often misunderstand what kind of help is needed,’ she says. ‘As an outsider, you do things that you think are appropriate, but the reality here is different. The aid mindset is to think of everyone as helpless victims who need things done for them, but we have to help people to do things for themselves. There’s so much that can be done with what’s already there, using 10 times less money.’

“She says that the process of co-creation can also be a crucial part of healing. ‘Disasters can be truly devastating and people easily fall into deep depression. But if you give them something to do, it really helps with recovery. Something people have helped to make is much more valued than something simply given.’

“Since 2005, a sequence of further earthquakes, floods and conflicts have kept Lari and her team at the Heritage Foundation on their toes, developing agile techniques with bamboo, mud and lime, always following the principles of low cost, zero carbon and zero waste. Severe flooding in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces in 2010 saw them develop a design for modular community centres raised on stilts, which safely survived more floods a couple of years later.

“When earthquakes hit Balochistan province in 2013 and Shangla in 2015, Lari designed shelters using a cross-braced bamboo framework, learned from the vernacular dhijji technique. Testing the prototype on a shaking table at NED University in Karachi, they found the structure was capable of withstanding an earthquake more than six times the strength of the 1995 Kobe disaster. If the homes ever did begin to crumble, they could be easily rebuilt using the same organic materials – unlike their concrete and steel counterparts.

“ ‘There’s so much money in disaster relief,’ says Lari, ‘but we need to put much more effort into disaster preparedness.’ She is critical of the ‘universal solutions’ offered by aid agencies and the siloed ways in which they work, as well as the urbanised mindset imposed on rural communities, insisting instead that responses should follow ‘forms based on age-old wisdom.’ “

More at the Guardian, here.

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Betsy Ross’s Husband’s Diary

September 2, 2021 by suzannesmom

Image: Idaho Mountain Express.

How does our history get made? More often than not through stories. When we get information showing that the stories are not quite accurate, we learn to tell new stories. One of my most squeamish story narrations occurred when I had visitors from China at Thanksgiving and they were asking a lot of questions about what we call the First Thanksgiving. That happened to me nearly 20 years ago. It was a kind of turning point, when I knew I had to start cleaning up my stories.

Today’s article is about finding original documentation that confirms details learned about Betsy Ross years after the flag legend took flight.

Natalie Pompilio writes at the Washington Post, “It began with an unmarked, unremarkable box tucked in a corner of a garage in California. Inside, under miscellaneous letters and old high school yearbooks, was a smaller shoe box. Inside that, under old coins and a numismatist pamphlet, lay the 240-year-old diary of sailor John Claypoole, a Revolutionary War prisoner of war and later the third husband of the flagmaker known as Betsy Ross.

“ ‘It was wrapped in a piece of paper that said, “John Claypoole diary to be handled with great care,” which was sort of funny as we found it in a paper shoe box in a box in this garage,’ recalled Aileen Edge, who with her husband uncovered the priceless item in her mother’s Marin County home in June 2020.

“In the journal, Claypoole describes his capture by the British while a privateer at sea, being charged with high treason for ‘being found in arms and in open rebellion’ against the king, and his time at Old Mill Prison near Plymouth. He wrote about the hardships of life in captivity; about another inmate’s escape attempt that ended with the man being shot; about watching, in March 1782, as ‘M. Joseph Ashburn departed this life after an illness of about a week which he bore with amazing fortitude & resignation.’

“At the time of his death, Joseph Ashburn was married to Betsy Ross. Her first husband, John Ross, had also died during the war.

“The diary predates Claypoole’s relationship with Ross, so she is not mentioned in it. But the document, and a Claypoole family Bible found around the same time, gives perspective to Ross’s place in the nation’s founding, said Philip Mead, chief historian and curator at Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution, which put both items on exhibit during the July Fourth weekend. While a transcription of Claypoole’s diary has existed for years, this is proof that what it contained is correct.

“ ‘This really taps into the profound sacrifices she and her family made to create the United States. Whether she created the first flag or not, she certainly helped create the country,’ Mead said.

‘It’s crucial to have the original documents because they are the only unimpeachable sources. It wasn’t that we didn’t know about these great sacrifices, but this confirms it.’

“Two entries in the Claypoole Bible, which has never been documented before, further emphasize the family’s commitment to the American experiment. The first notes the Ross-Claypoole union: ‘John Claypoole and Elizabeth were married the 8th day of May in the year of our Lord 1783 and in the 8th year of Independence of the United States of America.’

“The second entry records the birth of a son to John Claypoole’s sister: ‘Alexander Trimble son of James and Clarissa Sidney Trimble Born the 20th of March 1783, 12 minutes before ten o’clock PM (being the day that Hostilities ceased between the United States of America and Great Britain, after a long and cruel war.)’

“ ‘The fact that they give Christian year and the years since independence shows how sacred the country had become to them through their many sacrifices,’ Mead said. ‘Betsy Ross herself didn’t leave much in the way of personal testimony so we have to get at her thinking by reading the words of people close to her or learning about her business from the surviving invoices or accounts.’ …

“Edge’s mother, Claire Canby Keleher, was the famous flagmaker’s great-great-great-granddaughter and fiercely proud of her family’s role in the nation’s birth. … Donating the book to the Museum of the American Revolution in the names of Keleher and her late brother, Wilbur Wood Canby, seemed like the natural thing to do. …

“ ‘My brother and I talked about if one of us kept it, we’d just wrap it up and keep it safe and what’s really gained by that?’ Edge asked. …

“Some important details of who Betsy Ross was and what she did during the American Revolution remain murky. The story that appears in elementary school books holds that in 1776, Gen. George Washington, then commander of the Continental Army, went to Ross’s shop in Philadelphia with a sketch for a new flag. …

“Those who doubt the first flag story note there are no diaries, newspaper accounts or letters showing that Washington sought out Ross’s skills or that the pair knew each other. There’s no mention of Ross in founding documents. Her connection to the flag was unknown until her grandson wrote a book about the family’s story in the 1870s.

“Supporters say that Ross’s grandson had no reason to lie and that he presented sworn affidavits from family members testifying they’d grown up hearing the family tale.

“In 2014, curators at Washington’s Mount Vernon estate found a receipt for bed furnishings paid to a Mr. Ross of Philadelphia dated 1774, proving Washington and Ross were acquainted. …

“Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, who originated the phrase ‘well-behaved women seldom make history,’ has long dismissed the first flag story, but she’s excited by the information found in the Claypoole Bible and diary.

“ ‘I love the fact that the emphasis now is not on a piece of needlework or an artifact but on the person and the larger context that the American Revolution required sacrifices,’ she said.“

More at the Post, here.

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Relax in a Floating Tent

September 1, 2021 by suzannesmom

Photo: Cleveland.com.
Floating tents in the Great Miami River, part of Float Troy in Troy, Ohio.

As many of us say good-bye to summer haunts and head back to our year-round routines, I can’t help thinking about vacation activities that might be fun to try another year. Susan Glaser at Cleveland.com describes one that makes up in curiosity for what it lacks in practicality.

“I’ve hiked to hotels, biked to inns,” she says, “but this was the first time I’ve traveled by raft to my overnight accommodation. My destination for the evening: one of 10 floating tents, anchored along a quiet stretch of the Great Miami River in Troy, about 20 miles north of Dayton.

“Honestly, I was a bit apprehensive about this adventure, given that I’m not much of a camper: How well would I sleep on the water? Were these tents comfortable? And, perhaps most importantly, what if I had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night?

“I needn’t have worried. The tent was surprisingly cushy, I slept unexpectedly well and — spoiler alert — I didn’t need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. But I would have been OK if I did.

“Matt Clifton, who coordinates the Float Troy program for the city, said Troy is the only place in the world where travelers can spend the night in a floating tent. …

“Purchased by the city several years ago with grant money from a local foundation, the tents were used first by students in a University of Dayton environmental program. They’re part of a broader effort to improve access to the Great Miami River, which runs 160 miles through Southwest Ohio before joining with the Ohio River near Cincinnati. …

“The public tourism initiative launched last year, but on a small scale because of the coronavirus pandemic. This year, the floating tents are proving to be a major draw, attracting media attention and visitors from throughout the region and beyond. …

“Joining me on the river during my one-night stay last month: a pair of sisters, ages 20 and 17, from Alliance; two 70-something friends from Columbus and Springfield; and a family from nearby Sidney.

“The tents are spread over a wide stretch of river, perhaps 200 feet across. They’re tethered to the ground, as well as to each other, spaced about 25 feet apart. …

“It’s not a particularly remote location. I could hear the low hum of traffic from nearby Interstate 75, and a siren disturbed the peace as I was getting ready for bed. I could also hear crickets and frogs and the wind rustling outside. …

“The park also has a small bathhouse, with two toilets and two sinks, open all night. There is no shower, though Clifton said he is hoping to add one next year.

“The 75-mile Great Miami River Trail multi-use path runs alongside the park, a popular destination for cyclists. The primary mode of transportation on this trip, however, wasn’t intended to be two wheels, but two paddles, as well as a 10-foot-long rubber raft.

“Clifton went over a few instructions when we arrived, showing us how to connect our raft to our tent using carabiner clips. Once attached, it was relatively easy to maneuver from raft to tent.

‘If you fall in, just stand up,’ he said. ‘The river is only about 3 feet deep.’

“Clifton was initially concerned about the wind during our visit, with gusts predicted as high as to 35 mph. He recommended against using one of three floating fire pits.

“ ‘The worst thing that might happen is that the wind will blow you closer together,’ he said. ‘The tents might bump into one another.’ …

“We checked in just after 5 p.m., then moved some of our stuff to the tent, about a 5-minute paddle from shore. These rafts – also made by SmithFly – were simple to maneuver, and easily held a couple of sleeping bags, pillows, a small overnight bag, lantern and a complimentary drybag provided by Float Troy. …

“SmithFly describes its shoal tent as a raft with a tent topper. The base doubles as an extra-firm air mattress and was surprisingly comfortable. It felt like a 1970s-era waterbed every time I rolled over, gently bobbing on the water. I didn’t have any trouble falling asleep, though the horns from numerous passing trains in town woke me up way too early.

“So I rose with the sun, paddled to shore and used the restroom. … The bathroom issue was clearly top of mind for many of the people I talked to. Both before and after my stay, I had numerous people – women, mostly – ask me about using the bathroom in the middle of the night.

“Fellow campers Reatha Collinsworth and Cindy Gibbons told me they had a friend who declined an invitation to join them on the water because of concerns she would need to paddle to shore in the middle of the night.

“Indeed, Collinsworth said she stopped drinking water early in the evening to avert the problem. As for why the two signed up for the adventure, Gibbons said, ‘It was something different. We like doing different things.’ ”

For great photos and some details about cost and places to eat, check out Cleveland.com, here.

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Whitegold Art Trail

August 31, 2021 by suzannesmom

Photo: Jonny Weeks/The Guardian
A new artwork, part of the Whitegold trail in St Austell, Cornwall. (That mask tells me we are still in the Covid era!)

Artists to the rescue again! In today’s story, they have molded clay that was once profitably mined for industrial purposes into a new draw for a UK town.

Steven Morris writes at the Guardian, “Tourists have long tended to bypass the Cornish town of St Austell on their way to the surfing beaches of Cornwall’s north coast or the bays and creeks of the south, while artists have have been drawn by the crystal-clear light of St Ives and Newlyn.

“But thanks partly to a public art project inspired by its once-great china clay industry, and the impending arrival of a Cornish answer to The Angel of the North [a gigantic statue designed by artist Antony Gormley]. St Austell is enjoying something of a renaissance.

“Visitors have arrived this summer to follow a trail around the town, taking in art installations including an imposing mural of a Cornish honey bee constructed out of 11,000 tiles handmade from china clay.

“Young artists who cannot afford to live in places like St Ives are opting to move to St Austell and other towns in the former industrial backbone of Cornwall, opening ceramics studios and brightening the towns with street art. …

“ ‘It’s a really exciting time for the town,’ said St Austell’s mayor, Richard Pears. ‘The town is being transformed by art. You walk around now and see scaffolding all over the place. The place is on the move: more interesting, more vibrant, cooler.’

“Pears said the discovery of china clay, used in the manufacture of a products including paper, rubber and paint, made St Austell the Silicon Valley of the 18th and 19th centuries. It employed thousands of people and created a striking addition to the landscape – the bright white sharp-tipped spoil tips nicknamed the Cornish Alps.

“Over the decades the number of people working in the industry fell off and the fortunes of the town declined. The arrival of the Eden Project in a reclaimed china clay pit has helped the wider area, but relatively few of the attraction’s million annual visitors bothered to go to the town centre. …

“Partners including Eden, St Austell Brewery and the mining company Imerys have backed the ‘Whitegold art trail’ as part of a regeneration scheme, the Austell Project.

The art curator Alex Murdin said: ‘It’s about reinventing St Austell. Art always makes people look again.’

“The bee mural has been an important centrepoint of the project. Local people were asked to draw things they liked about the area and the images – from Cornish pasties to mackerels – were printed on individual china clay tiles.

“Favourite sites such as an aqueduct and Eden’s biomes also feature on an installation in the town called Clay Planet. A piece called Seed Bank is made out of recycled fragments of china clay while the Age of Aquarius takes inspiration from the revered St Ives potter Bernard Leach.

“The project is also about details. A cafe features a gleaming new sign made from china clay tiles. The planters outside the market house have been made by a local potter using a rough glaze popular in the 19th century. The place has a buzz about it, with new shops opening including an artisan baker and chocolatier. …

“The final commission – Earth Goddess – should be in place by the end of the year, created from five large circles of clay, each built in three sections, placed on top of each other – looking like giant ceramic beads on a metal pole.

“The artist, Sandy Brown, who has a studio in north Devon, has had a challenging time working out how to make such a large structure stable but is confident it will stand the test of time.”

More at the Guardian, here. There’s more about china clay at the Independent, here. And I just learned that the upset-tummy standard of my childhood, Kaopectate, is made from china clay (kaolin) and pectin!

Photo: CDE.
China clay.

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Do Not Read for 100 Years

August 30, 2021 by suzannesmom

Photo: Aaron Ufumeli/EPA.
Author Tsitsi Dangarembga has joined the Future Library, offering a work that won’t be read for 100 years. 

There are many ways artists can highlight how global warming is hurting the planet. Katie Paterson, for example, once created an installation that allowed people to listen in on the sound of glaciers melting. Now she has come up with the idea of a Future Library in hopes that it will still exist in 100 years so that people can read the works of the celebrated authors who have joined the project.

Alison Flood reports on one such author at the Guardian. “Tsitsi Dangarembga made the Booker shortlist for her most recent novel, This Mournable Body, the story of a girl trying to make a life in post-colonial Zimbabwe which was praised as ‘magnificent’ and ‘sublime.’ Her next work, however, is likely to receive fewer accolades: it will not be revealed to the world until 2114.

“The Zimbabwean writer is the eighth author selected for the Future Library project, an organic artwork dreamed up by the Scottish artist Katie Paterson. It began in 2014 with the planting of 1,000 Norwegian spruces in a patch of forest outside Oslo. Paterson is asking one writer a year to contribute a manuscript to the project – ‘the length of the piece is entirely for the author to decide’ – with Margaret Atwood, Ocean Vuong and Karl Ove Knausgård already signed up. The works, unseen by anyone but the writers themselves, will be kept in a room lined with wood from the forest in the Deichman library in Oslo. One hundred years after Future Library was launched, in 2114, the trees will be felled, and the manuscripts printed for the first time.

“The artwork ‘perfectly expresses my yearning for a human culture that centres the earth’s sustainability,’ said Dangarembga. ‘I share with many other dwellers of our beautiful planet a deep sense of concern for our home’s wellbeing.’ …

“The author, whose acclaimed debut Nervous Conditions (1988) was the first novel written in English by a black woman from Zimbabwe, said she was already “settling on the story” she would tell. She was not worried about the fact that she will never know how her writing is received.

‘I’m always my first audience. … A lot of my life has been writing into the void. So I’m used to writing into the void.’

“Paterson said that Future Library was ‘honoured’ to include Dangarembga. … ‘Tsitsi Dangarembga’s words have shaped the world. Praised for her ability to capture and communicate vital truths, the Zimbabwean novelist is admired worldwide as a voice of hope,’ said Paterson. ‘She examines oppression, discrimination, and systemic racism, through writing that is brave and unforgettable.’ …

” ‘I don’t think of myself in those terms,’ Dangarembga said. ‘So it’s really a great honour, I’m very pleased about it.’

“Nervous Conditions, to which This Mournable Body is a sequel, was named by the BBC as one of the 100 books that shaped the world. Currently in Harare, the Zimbabwean author is working on a piece of non-fiction, and a speculative young adult novel. She is also awaiting a trial date after she was arrested during anti-corruption protests in Harare last year, and charged with intention to incite public violence. Authors and free speech organisations have called for the charges to be dropped, describing them as an outrage.”

More at the Guardian, here.

Photo: Giorgia Polizzi.
Novelist Margaret Atwood with artist Katie Paterson at the inauguration of the Future Library forest in Norway. 

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The Island of Menorca

August 29, 2021 by suzannesmom

Photo: Erika Page/The Christian Science Monitor.
Yachts are not supposed to be anchored above Posidonia seagrass per a 2018 decree that the Mediterranean island of Menorca hopes will allow tourism to coexist with ecology.

Tourism can wreak havoc on a community’s determination to protect its environment, but educating tourists can make it work. At the Christian Science Monitor, Erika Page reports that on one Mediterranean island, even children know how to take action.

“When the yacht lowers its anchor into the sea off the Spanish island of Menorca, nine-year-old Nubia Manzanares, playing on a nearby dock with neighbors, immediately notices the ecological blunder and leaps into action.

“The untrained eye wouldn’t notice anything wrong. But Nubia, who has snorkeled in these waters her whole life, knows immediately that the ship has anchored itself directly on top of a meadow of Posidonia oceanica, a seagrass most tourists have never heard of. The anchor will damage the precious plant and likely tear it out of the earth when it goes to leave.

“She grabs her paddleboard and oar and sets out to warn the boat that it is parked illegally. (She brings her uncle along as well, just in case the boater doesn’t react kindly.)

“Nubia is one of many Menorcans who are doing everything they know how to protect the ribbon-like Posidonia, which lives underwater in expansive meadows, known to some as the ‘lungs of the Mediterranean.’ Occupying around 250 square miles in the Balearic Islands alone, the plant is as important in the fight against climate change as it is for the local ecosystem. But it is disappearing at the alarming rate of 5% per year.

Menorca has earned a reputation for its sustainable model of tourism, in many cases having prioritized environmental protectionism over tourist development.

“But as tourism has grown in recent decades, and Posidonia meadows continue to shrink, the island is facing a new and serious challenge. Menorcans are working to solve the problem by digging deep into the values that have made the island the oasis it is today: respect, balance, and well-informed care for the island as a whole.

“ ‘High-quality tourism is tourism that understands and values what and who we are,’ says Isaac Olives Vidal, director of sustainable projects for the Consell Insular, a local government body. ‘This is the most important thing: that the people who come to your house, or to Menorca, or to any other place, value what you are, what you have, and that they respect it.’

“Posidonia is found all around coastlines of the Balearic Islands, an archipelago off the Spanish coast that includes popular tourist destinations Ibiza and Mallorca, as well as the smaller and more pristine Menorca.

Posidonia meadows soak up five times more carbon dioxide each year than a similarly sized segment of the Amazon rainforest and are a major producer of the region’s oxygen.

“The seagrass also acts as a powerful water filtration system, provides a habitat for 20% of the Mediterranean’s species, protects coastlines from erosion, and is responsible for around 85% of the island’s sand formation. Without Posidonia, locals are quick to note, there would be no crystalline waters or white sand beaches for tourists to visit.

“Some scientists estimate that nearly 30% of the Mediterranean’s Posidonia has already disappeared, due to damage from boat anchors, eutrophication (excessive accumulation of nutrients), and construction projects. Because the plant grows back at the slow rate of less than half an inch each year, and replanting Posidonia is difficult and costly, protection is key.

“Saving what is left of the Posidonia won’t be easy for Menorca, an island whose economy depends fundamentally on tourism. …

“ ‘In general, the people of Menorca are much more conservationist,’ says Victor Carretero, a marine technician at the Balearic Ornithological Group (GOB) Menorca, an environmental organization that grew out of demonstrations against plans for urban development in the 1970s. …

“For Nubia’s mother, Rocio Manzanares, protecting the Posidonia is a matter of respect.

“When her two daughters were younger, they sometimes complained about the seagrass – even the most ardent Posidonia devotees admit that the plant stinks when washed up on the beach. So Ms. Manzanares modeled the reverence she knows the plant deserves.

“ ‘Well, I love the Posidonia,’ she would respond excitedly to her children, telling stories about the many ways the plant protects the island – things she learned from GOB Menorca. ‘When kids say it’s gross, I give them another vision,” she says.

“But in the past two decades, she’s noticed that the tourists who come to the island don’t treat the beaches or the ocean with the same respect her daughters now do. …

“ ‘The real political interest is nautical tourism,’ says Pep Escrivà, a firefighter who wrote a proposal to formally protect specific regions of the island from motorized boats. … ‘[Politicians are] scared that if they pressure the boat renters, they won’t have as much business. But that’s the wrong way of seeing things. Because if you protect the natural world, you create space for another type of tourist.’ ”

More at the Monitor, here. The beautiful pictures of the island will make you want to go there, but if you do, please be respectful of the seagrass!

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Soul Food in the Pandemic

August 28, 2021 by suzannesmom

Photo: Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staff.
Restaurant owner Donnell Singleton delivered fresh vegetables and a chicken and rice dinner to JoAnn Witt in Dorchester in 2020 during the height of the pandemic.

As I try to catch up on articles I saved from before the lockdown and in its early days, I thought you’d be interested to know that the Boston restaurant in this inspiring June 2020 piece was still operating on its community-oriented principles.

Suzanne Kreiter at the Boston Globe wrote the story and took the pictures.

“When the pandemic shut down Boston’s schools in March [2020], Food for the Soul restaurant owner Donnell Singleton made a decision. Working with activist Monica Cannon-Grant of Violence in Boston, Singleton closed his Grove Hall restaurant to customers and turned it into a provider of free meals for the community.

“He thought they would feed a couple hundred people on the first day. Some 850 showed up. The next day, 1,050. On the third day, 1,200 people came for chicken, collard greens, sandwiches, rice, and other fixings.

“Unable to continue safely serving so many people out of the storefront restaurant he opened four years ago on Warren Street, Singleton and Cannon-Grant transitioned the effort to a free community food delivery service. …

“To support the effort, Singleton at first relied on donations. Then Cannon-Grant swung into action. ‘Monica is the queen of grass-roots,’ Singleton said.

“He got a Resiliency Fund grant from the city, as well as money from the Boston Foundation, Nike, and other funders. Singleton couldn’t pay his staff, but they stayed on as volunteers. Through her own fund-raising prowess, Cannon-Grant provided stipends to the restaurant’s staff so they could keep food on their own families’ tables.

Other volunteers from the community, having no job to go to during the pandemic, crammed into his small restaurant to cook, package food, and drive meals to families, many of whom were in need even before COVID-19. …

“Every day, potential customers peer in the windows or ask through the door for Singleton’s soul food, a mouth-watering assortment of chicken (fried, baked, barbecued, smothered, and jerk), fried haddock, beef ribs, brisket, rice and beans, and more. But they have to wait.

“Singleton said he’s not worried about lost business. He said he felt it would be ‘almost disgraceful’ not to have been there for his community.

‘“Sometimes you have to ask yourself what’s important,’ he said.

“Singleton, a 47-year-old father of three, was born and raised in Roxbury. He attended Latin Academy and was the first member of his family to graduate from high school and college, Clark Atlanta University. He has worked as a teacher, often focusing on at-risk youths, and he owns a children’s book publishing company, Origin Nile Publishing.” More at the Boston Globe, here.

From the restaurant’s website: “Food For The Soul is the only location in Boston where you can walk in and find a Muslim, a Jew, a Christian, a cop, a fireman, and a school teacher. All of these individuals would be of different ages, ethnicities, sexual orientations, socio-economical levels, and educational levels. It is here at Food For The Soul [that] every single one of those people are the same, ‘human beings deserving of and receiving great service, great products, and amazing Food For The Soul.”

Follow the restaurant’s unusual array of community activities on Facebook, here.

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Ancient Wall Carvings Found

August 27, 2021 by suzannesmom

Photo: IPHES.
Archaeologist makes a 3D scan of the prehistoric cave art at Font Major in Spain.

Without going into space and littering it with our detritus and conflicts, there are plenty of unknowns here to satisfy our taste for exploration. In this article from ArtNet News, we learn, for example, about a recent discovery made in Spain that opened up a whole new batch of mysteries.

Javier Pes writes, “Experts have discovered a cave full of prehistoric carvings in northern Spain. Among the hundreds of rock carvings, some believed to be 15,000 years old, are vivid depictions of horses, deer, and bulls, as well as a wealth of mysterious and abstract symbols. Unlike the famous prehistoric paintings at Altamira, also in northern Spain, the recently discovered cave art in Catalonia is carved directly into the soft surface of the rock.

“A team of archaeologists stumbled across the richly decorated cave at the end of October 2019. … Josep Maria Vergès, who led the team from IPHES (the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution) described the find as ‘exceptional’ in a statement, and compared the cave to a ‘shrine.’

“The cave art is now being recorded and studied using 3D scanning technology. The engravings were created on a layer of soft sand deposited on the cave’s surface in an area that is difficult to access. The artworks are extremely fragile. … Several figures seem to have been damaged in the past by visitors who were unaware of their existence. Experts are now studying the best way to preserve the remarkable finds.

“Vergès tells Artnet News, that he felt a ‘mixture of surprise and disbelief, followed by great satisfaction,’ when the he first saw the ancient works of art. ‘Surprise because the cave is not an ideal place to find engravings due to the characteristics of the rock, the walls were very irregular, and the specialists thought that it was not suitable for painting or engraving.’ …

“The oldest art in the cave is believed to date back to the Late Stone Age, or Upper Paleolithic period. The earliest cave paintings at Altamira date from the same period, although they are around 20,000 years older. 

“Researchers uncovered the art within a nearly two-mile-long complex of caverns about 60 miles from Barcelona called the Cave of Font Major, which was first discovered in 1853. Parts of this cave complex, one of Europe’s largest, are open as a subterranean museum, although the specific stretch containing these carvings is closed to the public. …

“[In a related event] anthropologists working at Abri Blanchard in France’s Vézère Valley announced in 2017 the rediscovery of a 38,000-year-old rock engraving. It depicts an aurochs, or wild cow, and rows of dots. That ancient image is believed to be one of the earliest artworks found in Europe.”

More at ArtNet News, here.

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Genesis Center Is Cooking

August 26, 2021 by suzannesmom

Photo: Genesis Center.
Culinary skills training session in Providence. The amazing Josh Riazi built the program into what it is today.

One of the two Providence agencies where I’ve been volunteering to help English teachers is the Genesis Center. In addition to providing English classes to immigrants, Genesis offers child care, many social services, and career programs. Perhaps the most renowned of its trainings is under the aegis of a gifted and highly motivated chef called Josh Riazi. I have tasted the food. It’s top of the line.

Alexa Gagosz wrote at the Boston Globe about plans for expanding the program.

“In the next few weeks, construction will be underway at the Providence Public Library. … Come 2022, a new restaurant run by the Genesis Center, known as CHOP (the Culinary Hub of Providence) will open as a hybrid retail store and workforce and economic development hub. The initiative, according to the Center’s chief executive Shannon Carroll, is a natural expansion of the Center’s longstanding culinary arts program that has been a pipeline to local restaurants for decades.

“But the key difference with this program, said Carroll, is that participants will get paid to learn and will experience a ‘real world’ environment as they develop their culinary skills. Students will have knife skills training, classes in safety and sanitation, proper use of equipment, culinary math, soft skills, and participating in food production for the CHOP commissary. Carroll said they will be able to complete their Servsafe certification and work on individualized goals related to their career and financial empowerment. …

“Q: Who can become a student and how much does it cost?

“Carroll: Genesis Center (located in Providence’s West End neighborhood) serves families throughout the greater Providence area. … The training program would be no cost to the students and participants would receive an hourly wage as apprentices. This paid, on-the-job training allows us to reach students who cannot afford to spend several months on training with no income.

“Q: How is the program funded?

“Carroll: Our programs are funded through grants both for the buildout of the space and the training program. [Funders include Anonymous, Carter Family Foundation, Champlin Foundation, City of Providence, Egavian Foundation, Governor’s Workforce Board, Jacques Pepin Foundation, Ocean State Charities Trust, and Social Enterprise Greenhouse.]

“Q: When and why did the Center decide to expand its culinary program?

“Carroll: We have had many conversations over the years about expanding our culinary offerings to reflect the changes in the industry and the needs and wants of our students.

“When we toured the PPL renovations last year, before COVID, they mentioned wanting to open a cafe in the space. The location, timing, and synergy of missions between the PPL and Genesis Center just made sense to us. It was the perfect opportunity to explore taking our program to the next level.

“Q: How does CHOP fit into the mission at the Genesis Center?

“Carroll: Our mission is to provide the highest quality education, job training, and support services to people of diverse cultures so that they may achieve economic independence and participate fully in society.

“Many [of Genesis Center’s adult learners] hold full-time employment or multiple part-time jobs, but they struggle to support their families with very low-income levels. Most of them have children. They struggle with the same challenges faced by most low-income individuals — unstable housing, inconsistent resources for transportation, limited resources for child care and health care, and difficulty overcoming unexpected problems or emergencies. As members of racial, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic minority groups, they face additional barriers to education and employment. …

“Q: How will the menu work at CHOP?

“Carroll: It will reflect the diverse community we serve. We plan to incorporate feedback and recipes from our staff and students to provide lunch and to-go items to the downtown business community. … We hope it will serve as a community space to bring people together.”

More at the Globe, here, and at ConvergenceRI, here.

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Maori-Designed Airport

August 25, 2021 by suzannesmom

Photo: Patrick Reynolds.
The Maori-designed “redevelopment of New Zealand’s New Plymouth regional airport is a finalist in the Prix Versailles Airports 2021 awards,” the Guardian reports.

A modicum of justice is seen in an unlikely place: the redesign of an airport by indigenous people from whom the airport land was stolen as recently as 1960.

Eva Corlett reports for the Guardian, “A tiny regional airport in New Zealand that weaves a Māori story of love and longing into its architecture is in the running for a prestigious design award, up against international heavyweights including New York’s LaGuardia.

“Unesco’s Prix Versailles recognizes architecture that fosters a better interaction between economy and culture, and includes a range of categories from airports to shopping malls. The finalists for the airport category include the New York LaGuardia upgrade, Berlin’s Brandenburg airport and international airports in Athens, Kazakhstan and the Philippines.

“The sixth airport finalist is Te Hono – meaning ‘to connect’ – and is found in New Plymouth, a town with a population of 85,000, on the western shoulder of the North Island.

“After six design options were floated, Rangi Kipa – a member of the local Puketapu hapū (subtribe) and lead figure on cultural design, settled upon a story. ‘The Ascension from the Earth, Descending from the Sky,’ tells the story of Tamarau, a celestial being, who was so captivated by the earthly beauty of Rongo-ue-roa, a terrestrial being, that he came down to meet her.

“ ‘This story aligns closely with the creation narrative of Te Ātiawa iwi [tribe],’ said Rangi. …

“The spine of the building is oriented to represent the journey from the mountain to the river – the main ancestral walking track in this area, and while visitors may notice these aspects of the architecture first, there are many subtle stories told through the details.

“Manaakitanga – the Māori concept of hospitality – also influences the design. Campbell Craig, the project’s architect and associate for design at firm Beca, said the project attempted to challenge western architectural practices that do not bear any relationship to Māori design.

“ ‘It was important for Puketapu to welcome and take care of guests in a place that is in many ways the gateway to the region,’ said Craig. ‘The faceted curved forms of the building at the entrance and airside “embrace” travelers, to shelter them from the elements.’

“In 1960, the land the airport sits on was confiscated from Māori, under the Public Works Act to build an aerodrome. This was a major source of grievance for the hapū, who had urupā [burial grounds] on the site. …

“Kipa said: ‘For the most part, we have been invisible in our own landscape for 160 years, so it’s amazing to have the chance to influence, and give life to, some of the things that make us who we are.’

“For Craig, the most heartening aspect of the project was the intensive collaboration between Māori, the airport and the architects, which enabled a sense of collective ownership over it.

“ ‘The experience at Te Hono provided a blueprint for working with tāngata whenua [people of the land],’ he said, adding that it would be an approach embedded into all of their future projects.”

More at the Guardian, here.

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