Corrections or additions?
This article was prepared for the August 18, 2004
issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Between the Lines
On the cover, clockwise from the top left: 1. Architect Kevin Wilkes
created a folly for Civil War historian James McPherson, adding a
piece of the Andersonville POW wall that had surrounded Wilkes’
great-great grandfather. 2. The folly created by John James Rivera for
Latin American historian Paul Sigmund. 3. Poet Paul Muldoon and
architects Juliet Richardson and Terry Smith pay tribute to G.B. Shaw,
emulating the playwright’s own revolving writing shed. 4. The water
tower. 5. A barn from the 1800s. Center: Peter Soderman and Kevin
Wilkes, with the folly for Peter Benchley in the background.
I am writing to ask for your readers’ support on a unique and
innovative project that is occurring on the Palmer Square side of Paul
Robeson Place.
We are calling this the Princeton Writers Block. It is the brain child
of two highly creative individuals, Peter Soderman, the
gardener/farmer/artiste who amongst other things, has created the
Mediterra Herban Garden, also located on Paul Robeson Place, and Kevin
Wilkes, partner in Princeton Design Guild, a local architectural and
building company.
Writers Block is a four-month, urban, literary and scholars garden
that broke ground in June. It will be cultivated by volunteer artists
and will blossom with a program of readings and cultural events
lasting through Halloween, October 31. The garden features, around
three sides, follies and pavilions. They will be designed and built by
teams of renowned Princeton area architects, landscape architects,
builders, and writers. Each “folly” will capture the unique flair of
its team (and, in October, during the “closing celebration” of Writers
Block, will be auctioned off, with the profits going to benefit a
non-profit organization selected by each Folly Team).
Among other things the Writers Block and the Herban Garden are
important social experiments that should be exported to communities
everywhere that have unsightly, vacant, urban blocks in their midst.
There may be “A Rose in Spanish Harlem,” but in Princeton we now have
an urban field of gold (www.princetonwritersblock.com).
I am writing because we are looking for support to help finance the
cost of this project. Whereas the final goal is to auction off the
Follies, with proceeds going to charity, we need to find individuals
and companies willing to underwrite a portion of these costs. I would
greatly appreciate your support for this important social experiment
that enhances both our environment and community.
Tax exempt donations should be made payable to the Kaduson Strauss
Community Foundation, 3812-B Quakerbridge Road, Suite 204, Mercerville
08619 (refer on your check to the Writers Block 2004). If you have
questions call me at 609-921-2333 or E-mail me at
David S. Newton
Vice President, Palmer Square Management LLC
Corrections or additions?
This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com
— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
