Hi, friends:
As summer begins to wind to a close, we decided to shine the spotlight on a couple of our favorite parks in the area.
I asked Gazette intern Rebecca Mullen to spend an afternoon at Pulaski Park, along with our photo editor Carol Lollis, to get a sense of how people are using the space, post-renovation.
They came back with lots of great stories and pictures of a variety of park-goers, and as Rebecca and I edited her story, a theme emerged: “I think that public parks are like any public service — they’re like public housing or public transportation, which I also covered this summer,” said Rebecca, who studies Critical Social Thought at Mount Holyoke College. “It’s just as much a human right to have access to green space and to have a part of your city that you can just kind of be in.”
She jokes that the resulting cover story — “The People’s Park” on page 12 — “really appeals to the socialist in me.” We went back and forth about whether to identify people by their first or last names in the story, after initially introducing them — I was reluctant to refer to our mayor, whom I’ve never actually met, on a first-name basis. But that’s how we referred to everyone else, and ultimately, Rebecca convinced me to keep it consistent for the sake of fairness.
Rebecca also interviewed Look Park train conductor Camille Jasiorkowski for “People Watching.” She had her inaugural ride for that piece and reports back: “I just like miniature things, like little museum diaramas. I really like the station and how it looked like a mini house.”
We seriously get the best interns at the Gazette. As I type, we’re getting ready to say goodbye to a number of them — at an office barbeque happening outside imminently — including Veronica Suchodolski, who was here earlier in the summer and returned for a couple of weeks to write some pieces for us, including “ ‘Don’t Look’ Park,” a kind of sarcastic ode to downtown’s most disappointing parklet, in front of City Hall.
Look for Veronica’s interview with our columnist Ilan Stavans about his new children’s imprint for Restless Books in a future edition of the Gazette’s Thursday arts section. In the meantime, you can find the esteemed Amherst professor and Spanglish expert’s take on what many are calling the song of summer: the remix of “Despacito,” featuring Justin Bieber, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee. Ilan raises some important points about cultural appropriation, among other issues, and is, as always, engaging and fun to read.
Speaking of reading, do you know about “Book Buzz Picks,” the Gazette’s monthly book column for young readers? Every Wednesday, this column introduces three new titles, organized around a theme, to student readers, who are invited to submit reviews for publication. You can learn more at https://niedhg.wordpress.com/wednesday-book-buzz/
Finally, I got emails from many of you about our special issue on raising young readers. Among others, Ellen Hartwell, one of the children’s book buyers at Broadside Bookshop in Northampton, wrote to say: “I loved this past weekend’s ‘Hampshire Life’ featuring local libraries and children’s books! Are you familiar with the children’s author, Gene Luen Yang, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature? He has an initiative called ‘Reading Without Walls,’ to encourage children to read books about subjects, characters, and even genres they might not normally choose. It’s an interesting challenge meant to broaden their viewpoints and get them out of their comfort zones.”
Upon receiving her note, I immediately looked up “Reading Without Walls,” and I encourage you to look into it, too. Thanks, also, to the reader who recommended one of her family’s favorite children’s books: “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse” by Kevin Henkes.
Feel free to keep the recommendations – and story ideas — coming by emailing me at bhauser@gazettenet.com.
Brooke Hauser