Reach Out and Read’s Annual Family Event

Are you a family of bookworms? Or are you trying to get your children interested in the wonderful world of books? If so, join the non-profit literacy organization Reach Out and Read at their 7th annual fundraiser Read and Romp on Sunday, November 7, at 10:30AM-2:00PM at the Seaport Hotel.

More information from Reach Out and Read:

A unique family event that allows children to travel through the pages of some of their favorite storybooks. Experience activity booths, games, and arts & crafts based on family favorites such as Cars and Trucks and Things that Go, Runaway Bunny, and Curious George.

Also, enjoy interactive storybook stations, a buffet lunch with musical entertainment by Steve Blunt and Marty Kelley, and visits from storybook characters.

Special guests joining us this year include Norman Bridwell, the creator of Clifford, Peter H. Reynolds, children’s author and illustrator, and Hallie Durand, author of Dessert First!

Read and Romp benefits Reach Out and Read, the nonprofit literacy organization that prepares America’s youngest children to succeed in school by partnering with medical professionals to prescribe books and encourage families to read together.

Date: Sunday, November 7, 2010
Time: 10:30 am- 2:00 pm
Location: The Seaport Hotel, Boston, MA

Appropriate age range: Families with children ages 2-8.
Fee: $50 per individual, infants under 2 years admitted free.

For tickets: Buy online or call 617-455-0644.

*photo by Ronnie McNeill, Read and Romp 2009

King Philip’s War Commemoration on Deer Island

The history of Deer Island in Boston Harbor abounds with many dark chapters. Over the centuries the isle has been home to a run-down prison, a quarantine station where hundreds of Irish immigrants passed away from contagious diseases contracted on their journeys to America, and a wastewater treatment plant that polluted the harbor.

By far the saddest chapter in Deer Island’s past, however, occurred during King Philip’s War in 1675 when the Massachusetts Bay Colony forcibly interned hundreds of Native Americans, known as “Praying Indians.” Though the Praying Indians had converted to Christianity and pledged their loyalty to the English, the settlers feared they would join in arms with the enemy.

So on the night of October 30, 1675, hundreds of Native Americans from Natick and other “praying towns” around Boston were hurried onto boats along the Charles River in Watertown and ferried to Deer Island. Those interned on Deer Island were given few provisions and suffered great hardships during a brutal winter. They lacked adequate shelter from the bitter cold but were not allowed to cut firewood. Colonial settlers were authorized to kill any Native American found off Deer Island not accompanied by an English guard. John Eliot and Daniel Gookin visited the island in December 1675 and reported, “the island was bleak and cold, their wigwams poor and mean, their clothes few and thin.” By the time they were released in May 1676, it is estimated that as many as half of the prisoners died from starvation or exposure.

This Saturday, members of the Nipmuc tribe and other Native Americans will commemorate the events of 335 years ago by retracing the steps of their ancestors. The commemoration begins at 5 AM with a Sacred Run along Route 16 from the South Natick Dam to Watertown followed by a Sacred Paddle, beginning at 8 AM, in canoes down the Charles River and through Boston Harbor to Deer Island. There will be a Prayer Circle and commemoration on Deer Island beginning at 1 PM.

King Philip’s War is an often forgotten piece of Boston—and New England—history, but one that shouldn’t be ignored for the lessons that it can teach us. Click here for more information on this weekend’s commemoration. There is more about the history of Deer Island and the use of other Boston Harbor Islands as internment sites during King Philip’s War in Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands.

Boston Cemeteries, Spirits, and Halloween

Woooo! It’s almost Halloween, or Samhain, the time when the veil behind the worlds is thin, and the spirits of the dead stalk through Boston area cemeteries—or, rather, through some of its cemeteries. Different cemeteries have very different spirits to them. While Forest Hills Cemetery is welcoming the dark quarter of the year with a Victorian Spiritualism Tour on Halloween and a Day of the Dead event next week, Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery is hosting…”Awash in Color – a fall foliage walking tour.” The book club is meeting next week if you need more excitement in your life.

Mind you, the Mount Auburn folks are discussing Gracefully Insane: Life and Death inside America’s Premier Mental Hospital by Alex Beam, which is not the most calming, heartwarming book I could imagine; and they are hosting a spiritualism talk on November 13. But Mount Auburn doesn’t host anything like Forest Hill’s Day of the Dead. Here’s the description from the Forest Hills web site:

“Join us for a traditional Mexican celebration of remembrance co-sponsored by Latin American folkloric performance group La Piñata. Based on the ancient traditions of Mexico’s indigenous peoples who believed that the souls of the dead return each year to visit their families, the Day of the Dead celebrates the continuous cycle of life and death, embracing cultures from all throughout the Americas. Enjoy a program of music and dance as individuals bring offerings of flowers, copies of photos, mementos, and traditional skull-shaped sugar candies to leave on a decorated candle-lit altar for those departed loved ones.”

Can you imagine this sort of thing happening in Mount Auburn Cemetery?  I didn’t think so.

It’s not clear when the cemeteries diverged. Mount Auburn was founded in 1831, Forest Hills in 1848. Both sites were largely designed by Henry A. S. Dearborn, and are styled as naturalistic “garden cemeteries” with weeping trees, rolling hills, granite outcroppings, and woods. Both cemeteries are chock-full of dead famous people—governors, generals, poets, playwrights, sculptors, captains of industry and so on—and are visited by thousands of tourists every year.

Yet somehow over the last 150 years these cemeteries have developed very different public presences. Forest Hills features an extensive collection of contemporary art on their Modern Sculpture path, hosts two large  public festivals each year—the Lantern Festival in July and the Day of the Dead—and regularly sponsors concerts and poetry readings. Mount Auburn has book clubs, historical lectures, and nature walks to observe the birds and trees on the site—but no public festivals at all.

But why? Why is Forest Hills such a hipster zone while Mount Auburn is so, er, quiet?  It might be the fact that Forest Hills is located in Jamaica Plain, an ethnically diverse community full of artists and inspiration, while Mount Auburn neighbors Harvard, or “World’s Greatest University” as Alex Beam puts in, where defending one’s reputation for excellence can take time away from pursuring new ideas.

But it also might have to do with the fact that Mount Auburn has greater natural resources than Forest Hills. While Mount Auburn may not host poetry slams, the cemetery is a major birdwatching destination in Boston, thanks to its varied environment and water sources. The landscaping staff has been doggedly adopting more ecological, sustainable landscaping techniques including reducing chemical use, planting lower-maintenance perennials to keeping, and recycling all plant materials on site.

Perhaps the difference is really just an artifact of being located in the city, not the suburbs. Forest Hills is a part of the local community’s culture; Mount Auburn’s radical environmentalism isn’t flashy or obvious as a dance of the dead, but their environmental practices are having a strong effect on the local ecology.

But which cemetery has the scarier ghosts?  I just don’t know!  You’ll have to visit to find out. Or you just forget about dead folks altogether and go to the Titus Sparrow Park Boo Bash. Would you rather spend time in the company of a deceased Revolutionary War general or a clown who will make you a pink balloon doggie? The decision is yours.

Fan’s Guide to the 2010 Head of the Charles Regatta

This weekend brings with it one of the highlights of the Boston sporting calendar: the Head of the Charles Regatta. The 46th edition of the race is this Saturday and Sunday (October 23-24), and a trip to this autumnal tradition is definitely one of the top 10 things that all Boston fans must do before the fat lady sings. If you’re interested in watching the armada of 8,000 rowers navigate the snaking course, headwinds, and bridges, here are a few spectator tips to the 2010 Head of the Charles:

If you can take the T, do so. You can walk to the river from the Central and Harvard stops on the Red Line and the BU Central stop on the Green Line’s B Branch.

Parking is much easier on Sunday. If you’re driving to the regatta, free parking is much easier to find on Sunday since you’ll be allowed to park for free on the side streets in Cambridge without a permit. Be aware that the parking lots along Soldiers Field Road are closed to the public.

Take a shuttle. If you want to watch the action along the winding three-mile course from the starting line to the finish line, and don’t want to walk, there is a free shuttle bus with stops at the Singles and Doubles Launch Site, Lars Andersen Bridge (Boston-side), Cambridge Boat Club, and the Finish Area Launch Site.

Bring a draw and schedule with you. There are more than 50 different race events, some with as many as 60 or more competitors, so it’s tough to keep track of who’s who. Each boat has a number on its bow, so if you have the draw with you, you’ll be able to identify competitors and teams. You can purchase a program at one of the vendor areas along the river, but keep an eye out for the Friday edition of The Boston Globe, which often has a complete schedule and list of competitors, which you can easily tear out, fold up, and take with you.

Watch the clock. Rowers start at 15-second intervals near the BU Boathouse, so they compete against the clock and not each other. You won’t be able to follow a race from start to finish or even get a good sense of who is winning at any given point in time. One clue of how the boats are doing is, if you’re watching down the course, if you see a bow with a higher number in front of one with a lower number. That means they are racing at least 15 seconds faster through that point on the course. You’ll need to catch a glimpse of one of the race results board to see who has won a particular race.

Stake out a bridge. There are seven bridges that span the Charles River along the race course. They are great places from which to catch the action. If you get there early enough, you should be able to stake out a spot from on top of the bridge and see the competitors as they row underneath. I actually like seeing the action from the banks right next to the bridge. Much like Boston rush hour, traffic on the river can be treacherous, and fender benders and close-quarter collisions worthy of NASCAR are common as boats try to pass each other and squeeze through the narrow arches of the bridges. If you’re on the banks, you can have a good view of the commotion. The Eliot Bridge is my favorite spot from which to watch. You’ll see the competitors having to negotiate the hairpin turn and straighten out to get through the bridge. Plus, you can listen to the commentary being broadcast from the deck of the Cambridge Boat Club, which is the race headquarters.

Need some food? There are concession stands located at the Cambridge Boat Club, the Rowing and Fitness Expo (which also sells workout and rowing gear) near the finish line, the north bank of the Charles right outside of Harvard Square near the Weld Boathouse, and at Magazine Beach near the launch. Think fair food: lots of kettle corn, hot chocolate, chowder, hot cider, burgers, hot dogs, fried dough. There’s also food and drink at the Reunion Village (see below). Sometimes the exhibitors near the Weld Boathouse will be giving out free samples of food and drink products; you might be able to get all the Kashi and Monster Energy drinks you’ll ever want to have.

Reunited and it feels so good. Many colleges and prep schools, mostly ones with teams racing in the regatta, have alumni reunion events at the Regatta. Most of these schools have tents set up inside the Reunion Village, which is on the south bank of the Charles near Harvard Square, between the Weeks and Anderson bridges. Even if you’re not an alumni member, the Reunion Village is open to everyone for a $3 admission. Breakfast and lunch are served in the dining tent, and the Reunion Village is the only place along the route where you can legally get a beer or other alcohol  (cash only for food/drink).

Bring a blanket or chair. There are plenty of spots along the banks of the Charles to watch the action, but bring a blanket or lawn chair and you’ll be a lot more comfortable.

You’ll find many more tips—along with a map of the course—in The Die-Hard Sports Fan’s Guide to Boston. The 270-page spectator handbook is packed with history and the only comprehensive guide to the incredible range of spectator sporting events in metropolitan Boston. Click here for more information or to purchase a copy.

Frost and the Boston Farmer

We are coming to the dark quarter of the year, when daylight fades, chill winds blow, and—Most terrible! Most foul!—most Boston-area farmers’ markets shut down for the year. Most local markets are closing next week, although some stay open through Thanksgiving. I can’t really blame them. If there hasn’t yet been frost in the Pioneer Valley where all these farmers actually work, there will be soon. And speaking as a recovering high school marching band saxophone player, I know how cold it can get standing outside on a sunny November day.

And that’s the curious fact of farmers’ markets here. Apart from a few exceptions such as Allandale Farm and The Food Project, most of the “local” farms at the markets are located far enough away that they not only have different weather; they may be in a different hardiness zone. That means that they have different minimum winter temperatures than we city folks get, down to a potential of -20°F in the heartier regions beyond Greenfield. Of course, that difference may not always exist, judging by the National Arbor Day Foundation’s frightening animation of hardiness zone changes since 1990.

More concretely, it wasn’t so long ago that Boston markets were supplied by folks who could see Boston from their homes. Prior to World War II, suburban towns like Lexington weren’t just known for expensive houses and snooty overprivileged high school students; they also had farms which supplied the wholesale produce markets at Faneuil Hall. War cut the supply of workers, and Route 128 gave people something else to do with their time besides farming. The farms grew more houses than potatoes, and we’ve ended up with a 150-mile “foodshed” instead of a farm stand down the street.

But wait; there is a glimmers of a return of local food. There are the wonderful community gardens run by the Boston Natural Areas Network, and restaurant gardens on roofs. Today,  I saw this video of the Old South Church “edible churchyard,” where church members grow food for the Women’s Lunch Place in six raised beds. Even now, with the tomatoes softly sagging, the place is verdant, full of greens and beans and healthy food right smack in the middle of the city. If you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere.

Perhaps one day there will be enough gardens and farms in the city to hold farmer’s markets through to Boston’s first fall frost–which was December 5 last year. As the National Arbor Day Foundation observed, things are changing.

Boston Book Festival 2010–Can’t Wait Till Next Year!

Congratulations to the organizers of the Boston Book Festival–it was a fantastic day with great weather and everyone we spoke to was having a blast. We met interesting writers, readers, editors, booksellers, and fellow publishers–all of whom are dedicated to keeping old media alive and kicking! And although President Obama didn’t make it to our booth to contribute to Boston Line by Line, many others did. We’re in the process of transcribing 30 stories written during the BBF and will have them online ASAP. Friend and Follow, or subscribe for Union Park Press updates so we can alert you when the stories go live.

Children’s Activities at the Boston Book Festival

This weekend marks the 2^nd Annual Boston Book Festival. With our history, libraries and world famous authors, it still surprises me that it took so long to establish a city wide festival celebrating books–better late than never.

The festival planners have done an excellent job of making sure that there is something for everyone, including children. If your kid groans when you say you’re going to a book festival, you can counter with: author Jeff Kinney of Diary of a Wimpy Kid will be there; the Fancy Nancy children’s book series authors will be there (kids can dress up for this); a cartooning workshop will take place; book making and decorating is offered; and the list goes on. Tweens and young adults might be impressed by meeting Kathryn Lasky, author of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series (one of which is now a movie currently in theatres).

A good starting point for younger kids is StoryPlace at the Boston Public Library, where there will be authors, illustrators and costume characters, such as Lilly (and her purple plastic purse), Curious George, Wild Thing, Llama Llama and the Cat in the Hat.

There will also be a festival stage with live performances including bands and a poetry slam. Copley Square will be home to a marketplace filled with vendors of all types—from books to food to other retailers. Of course, Union Park Press has a booth there, so make sure to come by and say hello and participate in our Boston Line by Line project. I’ll be there from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. signing my book. And I have no doubt my 12-year-old daughter will be roaming around Copley, filling up a bag full of books to take home!

The Lingering Scent of Park Neglect

What do I sniff? The mouth-watering aroma of money in the air! Boston is looking for bright ideas to privatize and spiff up an abandoned public men’s restroom on the Boston Common, according to the Boston Globe. Specifically, the city wants folks to propose a restaurant for this odd little octagonal building, which was built in the 1920’s of “cast stone.” (I thought the whole point of stone was that it came pre-made. And who cast the first stone, anyway?)  The eight-sided wonder has 660 whole square feet available for serving Eight-Way Cinncinnati chili or Make Way for Duckling Breast sandwiches or whatever Bostonians think is exotic and edible nowadays.

Now, mind you, I’m all in favor of privatized food operations in a park; that’s the way it’s done pretty much everywhere, and even the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway has food vendors nowadays, so it can’t be at all controversial. I’m not even terribly excited by the question of what must have happened to the women’s restroom, which is nowhere to be seen. No, what caught my eye in the Globe story was this sentence: “Built in the 1920s for use as a public toilet facility, the Men’s Comfort Station has been closed to the public since the 1970s.”

In case you aren’t of a calculating frame of mind today, that means that this bathroom has been closed to the public for almost forty years. The last time anyone peed anywhere other than the doorway, Whitey Bulger was still running the Winter Hill Gang, Barack Obama was in grade school, and your family refrigerator was avocado green.

For four decades, a prominently-located building in the middle of the Boston Common has been allowed to fester and rot. According to the RFP, “The current condition of the building is very poor.  The glass and copper roof has failed, the entry door is severely damaged, and the interior finishes are damaged beyond repair.” The sewer connection “does not appear to be intact.” Pee-yew.

When I think about the current push to look for corporate sponsors for bits of the Common–described in this Radio Boston piece, among other places–I think about this building, and a long-term culture of neglect. It’s lovely to build new benches with bright shining billboards; will our corporate patrons be so generous with decades-old detached sewers? Corporate sponsorships come and go, depending on the board of directors’ whims and the economy’s plunges, but in our town, abandoned restrooms are here to stay for years, and years, and years.

Boston Line by Line: City Wide Creative Writing

In case you haven’t heard, Union Park Press will be sponsoring a one of a kind creative writing project at the Boston Book Festival this year. We invite you to stop by our booth to add a sentence to one of our city-themed stories started by fellow Bostonians. Just think, you could continue a story started  by Dennis Lehane author of Mystic River and Shutter Island, Wally the Green Monster, or Jody Adams executive Chef at Rialto Restaurant. The goal is to create a collection of short-shorts collaboratively written by book festival attendees… and to have a little literary fun!

Need an example? The Union Park Press team and our authors have been busy sending a short short around the office, take a look.

“Dude, my PHONE!” cried Mark, flailing as he fell off the deck of Codzilla, his brother standing suspiciously close by. But it was too late; as Mark plunged into the icy waters, he saw a harbor seal catch the phone in its mouth and start to swim toward Lovells Island. Mark knew he’d have to fight past the bitter cold to catch that seal if his plot to take over the Citgo sign would finally pan out. The chance for this black sheep—a die-hard Yankees fan in a family of Boston boosters—to extinguish Red Sox Nation’s pulsating beacon with a touch of his fingertip was now at a marine mammal’s mercy. With news of the chase spreading across the harbor’s radio waves, a Rowe’s Wharf water taxi came racing to Mark’s rescue, “Y’alright, kid? Let’s get ’em!” With a well-aimed toss, Mark snagged the slippery seal with a ring life preserver, grabbed his phone and the water taxi did a 180, heading back to shore. If only Mark’s brother hadn’t alerted the women of Girl Sox Nation (who were impatiently awaiting him at Long Wharf) about his diabolical plan, he may have survived the whole escapade intact.

Join us at the Boston Book Festival on October 16th in Copley Square from 10am-6pm.

Read (and write) local!

The New Direction in Gardens: Up

This week’s grab-bag of Boston’s green internet effluvia includes one small garden and one very large park. One runs up and down, the other one is just up–very, very far up. You thought that Boston’s restaurant rooftop gardens were exciting? People are paying $20 to get into this one! That is, after they pay for the ticket to Singapore.

But first, the small garden. Citysprouts, one of my favorite organizations ever, helps kids in Cambridge public schools learn to grow plants and cook food–and Citysprout’s volunteers are always on the lookout for new ways to grow more stuff in urban school yards. The biggest challenge Citysprouts faces right now is how to grow food at the new garden at the Cambridgeport school, which has only a few small sunny spots on school grounds. Last week, Boston landscaping firm Cityscapes lent Citysprouts the answer: a vertical garden! Cityscapes provided gorgeous seven-foot green wall loaded with lettuce, chard, cabbages, rosemary, hot peppers, and other beautiful, edible things.

The green wall was on display at the Citysprouts annual celebration at the Tobin School, and has returned to Cityscapes. However, the Cambridgeport School garden committee is trying to raise money to install a permanent green wall on their shady site. If they get the funding for that project, the Cambridgeport School may create the first schoolyard green wall in the Boston area. Donate now to get that wall up next spring.

In Somerville, less than a mile away from the Cambridgeport School, Moshe Safdie’s architecture firm designs gigantic mixed-use developments with parks in odd places.  Safdie first became famous for Habitat 67 in Montreal, a residential development of modular concrete block-apartments–each with its own garden. That said, the dull patina of Habitat 67’s aging concrete appeals to rather dour temperaments. In 2008, Leonard Cohen, famous Canadian composer of depressing songs, made a video of eggheads (of a sort) being miserable in Habitat 67.

In the past 43 years, Safdie has come to embrace other materials. His Marina Bay Sands resort , which opened last summer in Singapore, is very shiny, and it isn’t made of blocks! Instead, it has three tall towers covered with glass, and a hat. Or perhaps it’s a skateboard; it’s hard to tell from the pictures.

According to this article, the reason that these buildings sport curious headgear is that Safdie forgot to include a park in this integrated $6.2-billion project, so he just plunked it on top of the skyscrapers. I’m not sure what it says about Safdie that he only remembered to put in a park after designing three towers with a 2,560-room hotel, a casino, a convention center, museum, theatres and shops. But the park does exist, it’s as long as the Eiffel tower is tall, it sits on a nifty cantilever, and you can go look at it for a mere $20 (Singapore dollars). You can’t walk into most of it if you’re not a hotel guest, but you can watch other richer people enjoying the infinity pool.

Safdie hasn’t built any projects in the Boston area since 2002, according to his project list, but he did have an intriguing suggestion for the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway: flood it!  Put the whole darn thing under water and canoe in the summer, skate in the winter!  It isn’t the most impractical thing that’s been suggested for the Greenway–and it might have been less expensive than the current approach as well.