Talk of Takoma

Takoma Foundation update: Azalea Awards, winter fundraising

By blogpop on February 17, 2011 3:58 PM | 1 Comment

by Kevin Adler
Takoma Foundation Board

Though it's still mid-winter, the hearts and minds of Takoma Parkians can turn to one of the signs that spring is arriving: the Azalea Awards. Nominations are now being accepted civic leaders in 10 categories. The Azalea Awards are co-sponsored by the Takoma Voice and the Takoma Foundation, culminating in a red-carpet ceremony on Saturday, April 16 in city council chambers.

"Takoma Park benefits in an untold number of ways from the contributions of so many people," said Franca Brilliant, newly elected president of the Takoma Foundation. "Whether it's the athletic leagues or the beautification of streetscapes and parks or helping people in need--we have people who are making a difference. This is our chance to celebrate and thank some of those people."

Anyone can submit a nomination in one or more of the 10 categories: Takoma Spirit, Community Activist, Coach, Arts, Green, School Activist, Superhero, Business, Educator, and Mentor. Descriptions of the categories and past winners can be found at the Takoma Foundation's website, www.takomafoundation.org. Nominations can be made through Tuesday, March 1 by sending an email to azalea@takoma.com. Brilliant said that nominating a candidate is informal, but a short note should describe what the person has done in the community.

Continue reading Takoma Foundation update: Azalea Awards, winter fundraising.

The age of Walgreens arrives

By blogpop on February 17, 2011 3:51 PM | No Comments

by Howard Kohn

Will the new Walgreens at Takoma-Langley Crossroads be the start of a makeover that introduces modern Americana into a commercial area that has gone primarily international the past several years?

Hard to know, but this particular Walgreens, scheduled to open in March, will be a spiffed-up rendition of a chain drugstore. There will be polished floors, wide aisles and an open ceiling.

The new store is located in the southeast quadrant of the Crossroads, inside city limits. It replaces the Indian restaurant, Udupi Palace, which moved next door. Walgreens owns an additional 10 acres in the quadrant, but the company has not yet announced any plans for the extra property.

Huzzah and adieu for John

By blogpop on February 17, 2011 3:44 PM | No Comments

by Howard Kohn

Not that anyone can plan this sort of thing, but John O'Leary, who for the past decade handled the Cable TV sound board at City Council meetings, couldn't have planned it better. The day before his last night on the job he experienced a rare kind of region-wide attention, rare because it was for an act of kindness.

In a lengthy article in the January 30 Washington Post he was celebrated for, 15 years ago, inviting a homeless man old enough to be his father to live with him in his Adams Morgan house. Over time the man did become a sort of adopted father to John and his partner, Nadine Epstein. The article describes how the two of them are sticking with him, as children would, while his end nears.

At the Council meeting the following evening Mayor Bruce Williams made special mention of the article as part of a warm thank-you for the many Monday evenings that John, a Vietnam vet who is leaving at age 66, had spent at the sound board.

New storm, same story: "Like camping out"

By blogpop on February 17, 2011 3:30 PM | No Comments

by Howard Kohn

No big surprise -- the icy blizzard of January 26 left half of Takoma Park in the dark. Branches snapped from trees and broke power lines, and on some streets huge, fully grown trees fell.

This was a Wednesday evening. Kathy Porter, the ex-mayor, was without electricity and heat at her house on Elm Avenue until Saturday evening. "It was 40 degrees in here. The temperature in the kitchen was colder than in the refrigerator so I left the door open to keep the food cold," she said afterward. "At night it was like camping out." She slept with her cats under a down quilt and maneuvered about with flashlights she inherited from her father.

This scene on Holly Avenue was typical of the aftermath of January's "thunder snow" which left half of Takoma Park in a cold dark. power outage. (photo by Julie Wiatt)

Continue reading New storm, same story: "Like camping out".

Ben, Zeke, Michael, Ian: Ubercool in Rolling Stone

By blogpop on February 17, 2011 3:03 PM | No Comments

by Howard Kohn

It's okay that the four members of the Takoma Park band, Ladle Fight, have yet to get their picture on the cover of Rolling Stone. They are only in the eighth grade. Besides, they are featured on an inside page in the latest Rolling Stone, with two photos, and a bit of hyperbole.

The magazine puts them in the same company as Sting's 20 year-old daughter, Coco Summer, and calls them "the youngest Indie rock band in the world" and "a harbinger of the future."

Ladle Fight performing at the Takoma Park Folk Festival. (photo by Julie Wiatt)

Continue reading Ben, Zeke, Michael, Ian: Ubercool in Rolling Stone.

Page and Bendavid engage Takoma Park audience

By blogpop on February 7, 2011 4:18 PM | 1 Comment

by Romy Zipken

The second event of the "We are Takoma" speaker series featured journalists Clarence Page and Naftali Bendavid sharing their points of view about the current state of the country.

Page, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, endeared the audience with his insight about the content of President Obama's recent State of the Union. He let the crowd know that before his days as a newspaperman he wanted to be an astronaut, but when he encountered high school calculus and physics, journalism seemed "like a great career."

Bendavid, who covers Congress and politics for the Wall Street Journal, credited the current party with high achievements at pushing through legislation, but forecast that very little will get done during the next two years.

"The parties are much closer to parity," Bendavid said, referring to the lack of bipartisanship in Congress.

The audience in the Takoma Park auditorium, asked intelligent and challenging questions during the question and answer segment of the evening.

Continue reading Page and Bendavid engage Takoma Park audience.

Takoma Park Budget Game

By blogpop on February 7, 2011 3:54 PM | No Comments

As always the City Council must decide on the essentials of the next city budget, which goes into effect July 1, but for the first time everyone in town can suggest a personal vision for how you would balance the budget. You can participate online at www.tpbudgetgame.org, or you can get involved in a small discusion group. The first of these sessions will take place at 2 p.m. February 13, at the Presbyterian Church assembly hall on Tulip Avenue. Or contact Mayor Bruce Williams at brucew@takomagov.org.

In Memoriam: Robert Griffith

By blogpop on February 5, 2011 1:30 PM | 3 Comments

by State Senator Jamie Raskin
Special to the Voice

On January 25, our community lost a resplendent human being in Robert Griffith, a distinguished professor of history at American University and chairman of the history department.

Bob had a disarming sweetness about him that was combined with a formidable intellectual toughness. I never heard him utter a harsh word about anyone, but I also never saw him lose an argument. He radiated decency and integrity in every pore.

Continue reading In Memoriam: Robert Griffith.

The death of a bank robber and the rescue of a hostage

By blogpop on February 1, 2011 2:47 PM | No Comments

by Howard Kohn

It may never be known what drove Carlos Rudolfo Espinoza Arcia, at age 43, to a reckless robbery plan and an apparent wish to die on the morning of January 28, but his total desperation is evident from a live-time film recorded by a long-distance lens on a Channel 5 helicopter.

The film, distributed on YouTube to far corners of the globe, lasts less than two minutes, but it is horrifying to watch, not only because Espinoza Arcia brought his craziness here, to the Capital One bank in Takoma-Langley Crossroads, as mall employees and patrons were starting their day, but also because, when you see real lives hanging on the unpredictable nature of bottomed-out emotions, calculated gambles and winter conditions, there is only one possible reaction: hold your breath and pray.

When Espinoza Arcia left his rented room in Hyattsville that morning he had in his possession a 9 mm handgun and two rectangular packages he'd constructed from sponges, foil, duct tape and copper wiring that he hoped to pass off as bombs. Wearing a mask and a hood, he entered the bank at 9:22 a.m., walked to a teller's cage, placed one of his contraptions on the counter, threatened to make it explode, waved his gun and asked for cash.

Continue reading The death of a bank robber and the rescue of a hostage.

Inferno destroys building, but not the spirit of Takoma Ed

By blogpop on January 27, 2011 3:36 PM | No Comments

On the morning of December 22 a black billow visible for miles rose from the red-bricked three-story Takoma Educational Center, just over the District line, at 7010 Piney Branch Road NW, after roofers accidentally started a fire with a blowtorch. Sirens sounded.

Luckily the students were already on their holiday break, but, three blocks away, in their house on Aspen Avenue, Nancy and Steve Smith had an immediate bad feeling. After all the plaudits won by dynamic new principal Rikki Taylor, after seeing the high-spirited change of attitude she had brought to a school that for years had been estranged from the neighborhood, would the fire could put an end to the renaissance at Takoma Ed?

Flames were leaping from the upper-story windows when Nancy, rushing over with a video camera, got there. "It was horrendous," she reported. Steve made it some minutes later. "It was still chaos, fire trucks everywhere," he said a few days afterward. "They got the flames doused out, but there was white smoke and black smoke. You knew this was going to be awful. You knew they'd have to close the school."

This shot from WUSA Channel 9 Washington shows the blaze in full fury.

Continue reading Inferno destroys building, but not the spirit of Takoma Ed.

Caroline meets Clara Barton

By blogpop on December 1, 2010 3:08 PM | No Comments

"You can hear the walls talk"

by Howard Kohn

On a recent November morning Caroline Alderson took a favorite detour away from her commuter's routine to rendezvous with a man at a vacant boardinghouse, in Chinatown, at 437 Seventh Street. The man was Richard Lyons, who, like Caroline, is an ardent preservationist (she is one of the people synonymous with Historic Takoma). Fourteen years ago, while on assignment to shutter the windows at the boardinghouse in advance of demolition, Richard happened to notice an envelope sticking through old ceiling slats and thus accidentally found the lost location of Clara Barton's home and office during1861-1868, the years she first came to public attention.

Caroline greeted Richard, waiting on the sidewalk, and they walked up two flights of narrow stairs. On either side was crumbling plaster, covered here and there with browned ancient wallpaper. On the third floor, in the rooms where Miss Barton dealt with more than 60,000 pieces of correspondence from families of missing Civil War soldiers, were more dilapidated walls that for a century and a half held no plumbing pipes or electrical conduits.

About two feet above the threshold in the door to Room Nine was a thin, rectangular, slightly off kilter hole. "It's a mail slot. She paid 50 cents to have it cut in. Almost every day there was a pile of letters for her," Caroline said. "You can stand here and imagine everything the way it was when she lived here. You can hear the walls talk."

Richard nodded. "Not much has really changed. The structure was built in 1853, and the third floor was rented out to boarders for about 50 years, and then it became storage for Boyce & Lewis Shoes, a store on the ground floor."

Caroline Alderson and Richard Lyons in the doorway to Clark Barton's rediscovered rooms. (photo by Diana Kohn)

Continue reading Caroline meets Clara Barton .

Paul's midlife dilemma: "what do we do now?"

By blogpop on November 11, 2010 12:15 PM | No Comments

by Howard Kohn

Paul Wapner solved his midlife crisis by writing a book that he titled Living through the End of Nature. It is the owning-up declaration of a professional environmentalist who slowly came to realize that his goal in life - to keep people from contaminating what is left of the wild parts of nature - was no longer possible.

For most of his life Paul has been a communicant of the outdoors. Carrying the minimum in essentials, as an indigenous person might have, he has hiked the Grand Canyon and other terrains of brutal beauty. Early on in his paid work, on the staff of all-action Greenpeace, he was dedicated to a creed that nature be trespassed on lightly, if at all.

In 1994 he and his wife Diane arrived in town and moved into a house on Sycamore Avenue, a habitat that held a bit of natural charm in the form of a green backyard and a ribald rooster next door. Then, over time, in a new and prestigious position as director of global environmental politics for the school of international science at American University, a realization dawned.

"It wasn't like a bright light came on, but I began to confront the obvious," Paul, now 51, said at a literary salon on October 24 in the arena-style basement of Marika Partridge, a friend on Tulip Avenue. "People would ask me, 'Where is nature?' The truth is, as humans, we have extended ourselves so far there is no place left that is pure nature."

Continue reading Paul's midlife dilemma: "what do we do now?".

Young Activist Club to receive award

By blogpop on November 11, 2010 12:13 PM | No Comments

Photo: Anna Brooks--a 4th grader at Piney Branch ES and a member of the Young Activist Club--shows off her scary Halloween costume: Styrofoam! (photo by Julie Wiatt)

On Monday, November 8, the Montgomery County Civic Federation will present the 'Community Hero Award' to the Young Activist Club of Piney Branch Elementary School.

The Young Activist Club has been lobbying for the elimination of polystyrene products in their school. They have raised money to support a pilot project to replace polystyrene lunch trays with washable trays. If accepted by the Montgomery County Board of Education, the program will be a test to see if the change can save the school system money and improve the environment and health of the students.

On November 4, the Piney Branch PTA voted in favor of the goals of the Young Activist Club. However, the Board of Education has not budged. Yet.

Despite the obstinance of the school system, the club has already persuaded the City of Takoma Park to eliminate polystyrene from city events.

Continue reading Young Activist Club to receive award.

Easy riders

By blogpop on November 1, 2010 2:59 PM | No Comments

On Saturday October 9, Bruce Sawtelle and son Nathan (11) rode the 100 miles from Salisbury University to Assateague State Park and back to Salisbury in less than 8 hours (including rest stops). This was Nathan's first "century" ride, according to Sawtelle, the proprietor of Takoma Bicycles in Old Takoma. Sawtelle said that his last century was in 1979.

Gaynell and his holy grail

By blogpop on November 1, 2010 11:30 AM | No Comments

by Howard Kohn

Ask Gaynell Theodore Catherine how people of Africa have influenced the world beyond their borders, and he may tell you of Abram Petrovich Gannibel (clearly not his native name) who was taken by slave traders to Constantinople and then to Russia where, allowed to study engineering, he rose to the rank of a military commander and started a family line that, four generations later, produced Alexander Pushkin - yes, the great Russian poet.

(photo by Julie Wiatt)

Continue reading Gaynell and his holy grail.

Dinah, blow your horn!

By blogpop on October 13, 2010 3:21 PM | 1 Comment

Mrs. Prensky turns 100

webDinahRochefsky Prensky.jpg

It's easy to see where Takoma Park's Hank Prensky, the former City Council member and longtime activist, gets his irrepressible nature. This past year his Brooklyn-born mother, Dinah Rochefsky Prensky, reluctantly moved into a nursing home after undergoing surgery on her legs to remove blood clots. Six weeks later, walking again, she went back to her Silver Spring apartment. At the time she was 99 years old.

"Not many people walk out of a nursing home at that age," Hank says. For his mom's centennial birthday, on October 11, he is throwing a bash with music and friends. Will she get up and dance? "She might not do a jig, but nobody is going to believe she's 100," he says. "And don't let her start a game of Scrabble. She always beats my ass in Scrabble. She is sharp as ever."

Continue reading Dinah, blow your horn!.

Young Readers protest banned books with "Read-Out!" at Takoma Park Library

By blogpop on October 13, 2010 3:14 PM | No Comments

On Saturday October 2, the last day of National Banned Books Week, Takoma Park city library staged a Community Read Out that focused on children's books. Children's Librarian Karen MacPherson pointed out in her opening remarks that these picture books and novels for kids through age 13 have been challenged by people in "other" places - not in Takoma Park. Children in the audience carried signs depicting banned books as part of the display coordinated by librarian, Rebecca Brown, and student, Camden Roberts.

Alanna Natanson, the student who first suggested forming a Banned Book Club for middle school and high school students, led off by reading from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (depicts a world that contains magic and witchcraft). More than 20 readers--adults and students -- followed, reading from such books as Harriet the Spy (contains cursing and back talk by a child), The Phantom Tollbooth (a poor fantasy), and And Tango Makes Three (implies homosexuality).

With the help of Dave Burbank, who projected the illustrations on the new auditorium wall monitors, the audience of more than 100 could appreciate picture books like Where the Sidewalk Ends (encourages disobedience), Hansel and Gretel (ok to kill witches) and Little Red Riding Hood (bottle of wine depicted on cover).

Thanks to a $1000 grant, one of seven given nationwide by the American Library Association's Freedom to Read Foundation, everyone went home with a free copy of a frequently challenged book.

Afterward, everyone gathered for a pizza lunch courtesy of the Friends of the Library.

(photo By Michele Morgan)

Crime Report: Flipping out on Lincoln, drug stash on Sherman

By blogpop on October 13, 2010 3:08 PM | No Comments

(photo by Jay Keller)

After allegedly robbing a take-out restaurant at gunpoint in the middle of the afternoon of Sunday, October 3, three District teenagers crashed and flipped a stolen red Dodge Intrepid across the street from Mayor Bruce Williams' house on Lincoln Avenue.

Witnesses at the robbery scene, the Eastern Carryout on New Hampshire Avenue, had described the getaway car to police, and, when an officer spotted it at Lincoln and Elm, a chase ensued.

The trio in the car -- Avery Fuller, 16, Elijah Allen, 16, and Avery Freeman, 17 -- sped off but almost immediately crashed into another car, cartwheeling the Dodge. It landed on its roof and skidded almost half a block with a screeching noise that brought residents to their front doors.

Only slightly injured, the teens crawled out of the car but were soon captured.

Routine stop turns into major bust

Corey Moore, 35, a District resident with a long police record who also maintained a house on Sherman Avenue, was arrested on September 25 for possession of a cache of drugs reported to be one of the largest in town history.

Moore called attention to himself by carrying what appeared to be a bottle of alcohol while walking down Sherman. When police tried to question him, he ran off, tossing a half pound of cocaine in a dumpster. After apprehending him, police confiscated the cocaine and found a gallon of PCP and two handguns at his house.

Tebabu and the B-Corp Law

By blogpop on October 13, 2010 2:41 PM | No Comments

by Howard Kohn

Let the blessings of coffee be upon you

When State Senator Jamie Raskin won approval of his landmark law in the Maryland legislature this spring, creating a type of socially responsible business entity different from for-profit and non-profit entities, he did not have Tebabu Assefa in mind, only someone like him.

"On second thought, no one is quite like Tebabu," Jamie said, amending the notion a bit more, a few days prior to a flurry of signatures and hand stampings in Baltimore on October 1 when Tebabu became the second person in Maryland to incorporate under the new Benefit Corporation option. "I don't know if the head of any company has started out by offering to give away half his profits."

Continue reading Tebabu and the B-Corp Law.

Spirited adults join younger playmates at September Play Day

By blogpop on October 1, 2010 12:51 PM | No Comments

by Sandy Moore
photos by Molly Mehling

Stephanie Lambadakis stepped gingerly between two twirling ropes and began jumping. The double dutch team looked on nervously as their coaches swung faster and Lambadakis, age 51, picked up one foot and continued jumping without a mis-step.

Continue reading Spirited adults join younger playmates at September Play Day.

Takoma Park Street Festival, October 3, 2010

By Laura Barclay on September 27, 2010 5:50 PM | 1 Comment

2010 Takoma Park Street Festival

October 3, 2010 from 10:00am-5:00pm

It is time for the 29^th annual Takoma Park Street Festival! On October 3, 2010 from 10:00am-5:00pm Carroll Street, NW in Takoma, DC to Carroll Avenue in Takoma Park, MD is closed to traffic and transformed into a community celebration. Hosted by the Old Takoma Business Association, the festival brings an eclectic mix of live music, artisans, community organizations, children's activities and food vendors to this daylong event.

This year's festival will feature a new Bike Zone, located across from the Gazebo Stage, including Takoma Park's own, Takoma Bicycle and The Green Commuter which will be offering bike tune-ups and demonstrating E-BikeKit installations throughout the day. Bike advocacy organizations, including WABA, Potomac Pedalers and goDCgo, will be in attendance offering commuting tips, trail maps and other biking information. Attendees are encouraged to ride their bike to the festival and park at one of the many bike racks along the festival route! Also new this year is the Pet Zone, located near the Dance Stage, featuring Takoma DC's own Big Bad Woof, and a variety of other pet related organizations.

Over 150 artisans will be participating in this producer- only festival. Handmade works include jewelry, fabric arts, paintings, photography, pottery, skin care products and glassworks to just name a few. Bring the kids to this day of fun too! A moon bounce, slide and other fun activities are available in the children's area of the festival. Many community organizations round out this event by providing the opportunity for festival attendees to learn about area schools, political parties, churches and other community groups.

There are three stages - at each end of the festival and one in the middle - which will play host to 18 popular, local bands performing music from indie folk, big band, jazz, blues, reggae and everything in between. Many of the performers have their roots in Takoma Park - a town known for its musical talent. Hometown favorites include Englishman & The Shango Band, Natty Beaux, Chopteeth, The Sweater Set, and Joe Uehlein and the U-liners.

The event is accessible via the Takoma Station on Metro's Red Line. More information may be found online at www.takomafestival.com.

2010 Takoma Park Street Festival Sponsors include: TPSS Coop, Takoma Voice, Mix 107.3 Radio, Comcast, EcoBeco, DrinkMore Water, Douglas Development, Washington Adventist Hospital, Washington Adventist University, Power Windows and Siding, CVS, Leo Sunergy, Dixie Homecrafters- Gutterguard and Long and Foster Realtors -Takoma Park Old Town Office.

About the Old Takoma Business Association (OTBA): The Old Takoma Business Association's mission is to bring together businesses, residents and community organizations dedicated to developing a vibrant market center, from the Takoma Junction, Maryland, to the Takoma Theatre, DC, and to enhance its unique and historic town setting. OTBA created its Main Street Takoma program 6 years ago as a vehicle to move this mission forward.

Apartment residents host "Taste of Maple Avenue/Meet the Candidates Night"

By blogpop on September 23, 2010 11:40 AM | No Comments

Residents of 10 apartment buildings nestled along Maple Avenue are hosting a Candidates' Night on Monday, September 13th from 7:00 - 9:30pm. The Mapleview Residents Improvement Association and Essex House residents, in association with Impact Silver Spring and Takoma Park Ward 4 Councilman Terry Seamens, invite residents from all Maple Avenue apartments and the Seventh Day Adventist Phoenix Condos to come and met local candidates and experience diverse cuisines. The event in will be held in the Essex House Apartments Parking Lot - 7777 Maple Avenue.

Takoma Park has 17,100 residents. As of the 2007 census, 935 of those residents are renters who reside in the apartments buildings on the lower Maple Ave. Historically this group of Takoma Park residents have not participated in the political process at the local, county, and state levels. The "Tasting"and Candidates Night is designed to raise awareness and bring residents along Maple Avenue into the civic and political process. Residents from Mapleview Apartments, Essex House, The Franklin, 7 Day Adventist Condos, Park Ritchie, The Deauville, Bradford Apartments, Edinburgh House, Fairview Apartments, and Hillwood Manor are invited out for this event.

"This is a historic event," said Christopher King, organizer and Takoma Park resident. "The Taste of Maple Avenue combines both a social component and the opportunity to awaken political awareness in the disconnected and disenfranchised residents who live in the 10 apartment buildings," he said.

"What swims in the ocean, flies through the sky and vice versa"

By blogpop on September 21, 2010 1:26 PM | No Comments

Teens a the Summer 2010 Teen Art Camp, Axtmann Studio, added a colorful mural to Takoma's flourishing public art scene. Thanks to Mark & Wendy who provided the wall and Ace Hardware who donated some of the paint. For more info, go to JoannaAxtmann.com.

Muralists on the wall: Zachary Mang Isaac Axtman, Aziza Afzal, Kaia Bergmann-Dean, Anne Doyle, Celeste Robinson, and Julian Boilen

Photo courtesy of Joanna Axtmann

With strong recent fundraising, Takoma Foundation doubles size of fall grant cycle

By blogpop on September 21, 2010 12:56 PM | No Comments

By Kevin Adler

The Takoma Foundation is preparing for its fall grant cycle by engaging in several fundraising activities that will increase the amount of money available to local organizations. Since 1989, the Foundation has been supporting a wide variety of projects for youth, adult education and job training, the arts, and the environment--using funds raised from individual donors and area businesses.

Continue reading With strong recent fundraising, Takoma Foundation doubles size of fall grant cycle.

A message from Maryland: "Let DC vote"

By blogpop on September 21, 2010 11:38 AM | 1 Comment

by Howard Kohn

Recently on Allegheny Avenue a slogan showed up on those little traveling billboards, also known as special-order Maryland license plates. The slogan says, "Let DC Vote." It is meant to convey an across-the-border solidarity with residents of the District who, in the third century of the Republic, have yet to be counted formally in the ayes and nays of Congress.

Carol Clayton may have been the first on the street to pay her $35 for the few-of-a-kind plates, but Carol was tipped off by Debra Katz, a neighbor and crusading attorney who, taking a short break from a headline-grabbing sexual harassment case, dashed off an e-mail to alert the Allegheny crowd.

Not that the idea originated with Debra. She was doing due diligence for a friend, Larry Ottinger, another crusading attorney and a former Takoma Soccer dad who lives in Chevy Chase.

Continue reading A message from Maryland: "Let DC vote".

Folk Festival preparations hit high gear

By blogpop on August 3, 2010 10:44 AM | No Comments

by Kevin Adler

Organizers of the 33rd annual Takoma Park Folk Festival are finalizing performer and crafter selections, and they say that this year's event will present one of the most diverse and exciting lineups ever. The festival will be held on Sunday, September 12, at Takoma Park Middle School on Piney Branch Road.
As always, it's free and family-friendly.

Out of courtesy to the performers, the Folk Festival does not release the program until all invitations have been accepted, and that had not been accomplished by the time the Takoma Voice went to print. But festival Program Chair Catherine Chapman said that the festival will again celebrate folk music and dance from around the world. "For example, we expect to have a number of African-influenced bands this year, from traditional drummers to very contemporary African music and Afropop," she said. "But then we'll also go in entirely different directions, such as sea chanties and old-time American music from the Civil War and Appalachia."

Continue reading Folk Festival preparations hit high gear.

Unique healthcare found at the TPSS Food Co-op

By blogpop on August 3, 2010 10:00 AM | No Comments

by Katie Gallagher

The Takoma Park Silver Spring Co-op is not your average grocery store. Along with the expected milk, eggs, produce and meats, the co-op also supports a wide variety of complementary and alternative medicines.

When entering this section of the co-op, which was founded in 1985, it is evident that the store has

a loyal following of customers who truly believe in the healing powers of herbs and some foods.

Complementary and alternative medicines are various types of healing methods, not considered to be mainstream medicine. Unlike modern medicine which aims to attack and kill foreign bacteria or ailments of the body, complementary medicines take a more holistic approach to healthcare, according to the co-op's website.

photo by Joseph Sherrock
47 years ago Nelson Graves began working in what they called "specialty food stores." Now serving on the Board of Directors at the Takoma Park Coop he is team coordinator of its Wellness Department.

Continue reading Unique healthcare found at the TPSS Food Co-op.

By blogpop on August 3, 2010 9:33 AM | No Comments

A unique staycatin activity in our backyard

by Stella Donovan
photos by Julie Wiatt

In a season marked by beach vacations, warm nights, and a brief hiatus from textbooks, the National Museum of Health and Medicine might seem like a dubious destination. Located on the campus of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, there are over 25 million objects in the museum, and nearly all of them are related to sickness, injury, death, and dying. Certain things featured in the museum are not for those with weak stomachs, though several examples of those can be found amongst the anatomical specimens. So why pass a summer day there that could be spent on the sand? The National Museum of Health and Medicine tells stories, both modern and historical, of our country, our wars, and the architecture of our human body.

Takoma Park JazzFest

By blogpop on August 2, 2010 11:17 AM | No Comments

June 13, 2010

See more photos online:
www.takoma.com

photos by David Phillipich

Continue reading Takoma Park JazzFest.

Q & A

By blogpop on August 2, 2010 10:48 AM | No Comments

Mark Cohen
Looking back at 14 years hosting the Coffeehouse

by Howard Kohn
photos by Diana Kohn

On June 7, a reunion cast gathered in Rockville at the Cable Channel 21 studio to tape Episode Number 150 of The Coffee House, an hour-long, cutting-edge, high-brow variety show of public affairs, books, poetry and music that debuted in Takoma Park in 1996.

It was also the final episode. Mark Cohen, the show's founder, inspiring force, producer, political-page host and jack-of-all-trades, had decided to call it quits.
From humble beginnings in a back room of the old Takoma Park municipal building, where the set was so makeshift that it collapsed once during a live airing, the show gained an audience that spanned the country and a couple of oceans. For the past year the Coffee House was seen on cable channels from Alaska to Georgia and from Mississippi to Minnesota, and nationwide via satellite, and worldwide via the Web.

Coffeehouse_Marc on set.jpg

Mark Cohen, founder, producer, and host of The Coffeehouse, a local cable show that has aired around the United States and the world.

Continue reading Q & A.

Teens should have stayed home and play Grand Theft Auto

By blogpop on August 2, 2010 10:14 AM | No Comments

by Julie Wiatt

On June 22, 2010, according to police reports, two Beltsville teens, 16 and 17, sped through Takoma Park in a stolen vehicle, running two red lights to get away from police. They lost control of the car, bouncing off curbs on Carroll Avenue, hitting bushes, trees, and a light pole, collided with two cars parked at Victory Towers, and ended up on top of a third parked vehicle.

The passenger sustained life-threatening injuries. The driver fled. After a chase by local police groups including two K9 units, and a helicopter, the driver was arrested.

Takoma Park Police Chief Ricucci thanked all involved in the apprehension, including city residents who called in as the suspect ran by their houses and through their yards.

photo by Emily Van Loon

Kids cope in summer heat

By blogpop on August 2, 2010 10:04 AM | No Comments

Photo by David Phillipich

Chilling with crushed ice at the Takoma Park Jazzfest

Continue reading Kids cope in summer heat.

Finally... Old Takoma gets a hardware store!

By blogpop on August 2, 2010 9:51 AM | 1 Comment

by Katie Gallagher
Photos by Julie Wiatt

Gina Schafer never had any background in the hardware industry, but when opportunity knocked, she answered and never looked back.
"It's a big joke in our family," Schafer said, "but I always wanted to own my business."

Since opening her first store in 2003, Schafer now owns seven stores with the addition of the Old Takoma location this June. The 6,500 square foot space will hold about 20,000 items, Schafer said.

ACE Hardware is a national Co-op that Schafer says she and her husband and business partner decided to choose because they liked the ACE program and enjoyed that the co-op was adding many more stores.

Gina and Mark Schafer pose in front of their newest hardware store.

Continue reading Finally... Old Takoma gets a hardware store!.

Mr. Takoma is also Mr. Bay City

By blogpop on August 2, 2010 9:45 AM | No Comments

Each year an alum of Bay City Central, a Michigan high school with 90 years of history, is selected to the school's hall of fame, and this year Voice columnist Howard Kohn, Class of 1965, was the winner. Howard was inducted on June 6 in the school gym where he learned how to do Marine pushups. Since graduation he has traveled the country as a journalist, primarily with Rolling Stone, and authored three books, one of which was a Pulitzer runnerup.

H's PREFERED photo.jpg

photo by Diana Kohn

Takoma goalkeepers are Maryland Cup stars

By blogpop on August 2, 2010 9:37 AM | No Comments

Two Takoma Park goalkeepers, who started out in the local soccer league, were stars for their teams in championship matches of the Maryland Cup in June.

Sam Howard (right) was perfect in goal for his team, the Cougars, who won the U17 finals, 2-0, advancing to the regionals in West Virginia.

photo by Jeff Macmillan

Continue reading Takoma goalkeepers are Maryland Cup stars.

After waiting 68 years, Hanks gets his eagle

By blogpop on August 2, 2010 9:30 AM | No Comments

by Howard Kohn
Photos by Carik Clayton

If all goes well, Hank Harman will finish hiking the Appalachian Trail from one end of Shenandoah National Park to the other by the time he turns 86 next summer. Even though he travels it in intervals, about eight miles a trek, the journey is an impressive achievement at any age.

You might say it is worthy of an Eagle Scout. Technically, no one older than 17 is eligible for the top honor in the world of scouting, but a few weeks ago Hank was invited to participate in Takoma Park Troop 33's Court of Honor, that burnished time when new Eagles get their pins.

On June 3, a Scout uniform fitted neatly on his trim frame, Hank stood alongside three smooth-faced teenagers at the Takoma Park community center, a juxtaposition of the generations, while daughter Jane held his Eagle pin at the ready.

Newly awarded Eagle Scout Hank Harman basks in glory with his daughter Jane and son Peter.

Continue reading After waiting 68 years, Hanks gets his eagle.

Independence, Takoma style 2010

By blogpop on August 2, 2010 8:56 AM | No Comments

There's nothing quite like the Takoma Park 4th of July parade.
OK, there are marching bands, steel drums, Caribbean and Bolivian dancers, musicians and politicians but also the choreographed reel mowers, a Tea Party complete with Mad Hatter, AcroAirs gymnasts throwing young women into the air, astonishing jumpropers and elementary school activists convincing politicians to oppose styrofoam trays.

photo by Julie Wiatt

Continue reading Independence, Takoma style 2010.

A slice of Americana

By blogpop on August 2, 2010 8:42 AM | No Comments

Hot dogs and lemonade on the 4th of July
by Annette Montalvo

On a national holiday like the 4th of July, other than a Norman Rockwell painting, nothing celebrates small town USA more than a mom-and-pop lemonade stand that also serves hot dogs and watermelon slices.

Ruth and Bob Hornickle have been vendors at the Takoma Park 4th of July parade for the past three decades. Their hot dog and lemonade stand is a familiar fixture on the parade route at the corner of Philadelphia and Maple Avenues.

Despite the 95 degree heat, the Hornickles, along with area residents, came out to share in Takoma Park's 121st Annual Independence Day Celebration.

Continue reading A slice of Americana.

Seasons of life

By blogpop on June 15, 2010 10:25 AM | 1 Comment

A tribute to Amy Polk

by Mairi Breen Rothman, CNM

On April 29th of this year, an amazing life was cut short when Amy Polk was struck by a vehicle while crossing a street in downtown DC. At 42, Amy Polk was truly in the prime of her life: A devoted wife and passionate mother of two boys, and an active community organizer who also held a 9-5 job and danced in

a fabulous belly-dancing troupe, Amy was a tireless, unfailingly positive advocate for the advancement of women in engineering and a woman's right to choose the birth she desires. She was a beam of light into her family, her community and church, and the world of birth advocacy. And while Amy's professional and community accomplishments are many, in her final days, she was putting her energy into the creation of a birth center.

I first met Amy at a meeting that was held by the Takoma Birthing Circle, which later became the Birth Options Alliance (BOA). The meeting was held by over 60 people in response to the closing of the Maternity Center in Bethesda, which followed on the heels of the closing of the Takoma Women's Health Center. Amy had delivered her own two children at the Maternity Center, and was passionately committed to preserving that option for other women. The BOA was formed by a frustrated community of women and men who saw the local options for midwife-attended birth dwindling away, and Amy was right there among them. She lent her considerable energy to the work the BOA did to galvanize grass roots support for a family rally in Annapolis, for a bill to change the regulation which required Maryland nurse-midwives to have a written Practice Agreement signed by a physician in order to practice in Maryland--a requirement that does not exist in Virginia or DC. The regulation is now changed, thanks in no small part to the BOA, and Amy was a crucial part of that effort, which is now setting a precedent for several other states.

Continue reading Seasons of life.

Cheryl Brand

By blogpop on June 15, 2010 10:05 AM | No Comments

January 30, 1952 - May 12, 2010

Cheryl Brand lived a very full life, as these collected memories will attest - as an artist who loved to dance and sing, as an actor and costume designer for countless area theater and dance companies, as a great friend to many (and an avid Beatles fan), as the daughter of Duane and Shirley Brand, as a beloved sister and loving aunt, as Walt Penney's wife, companion and co-parent -- and most importantly, as the devoted mother of Vanessa and Walter.

Cheryl's parents met when her dad Duane served in the Pacific during World War II as a corporal in the Marine Corps. Shirley Keegan was a USO entertainer for the troops. Duane was prompted by his cohorts to get up on stage and sing a song with Shirley, whereupon they fell in love, married, raised a family, and remained together until 1995 when Shirley died of leukemia.

Continue reading Cheryl Brand.

Local kinetic artists rated "Mediocre"

By blogpop on June 14, 2010 10:54 AM | 1 Comment

Photos and information courtesy the Visionary Art Museum

One May 1, a Takoma Park team, sporting Alpine headgear, competed in the East Coast Kinetic Sculpture Race, sponsored by the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. Their entry, entitled Candy Haus garnered the coveted Grand Mediocre Prize--making them the champions of the event.

The eight-hour race covers 15 miles--mostly on pavement, but also including a trip through mud and sand and into the Chesapeake Bay. Candy Haus began the race with tribulation: they broke down yards after the start. They pulled out of the way so others could pass and began sculptural surgery. A few minutes later they were ready for the ascent of Federal Hill. Later, as the Candy Haus entered the water, spectators realized they had no visible means of aqueous propulsion. Then with astonishing precision the four pilots simultaneously reached out and removed the nearest giant lollypop, dipped the business end into the harbor, and began synchronized paddling. A wave of appreciative oohs erupted from the crowd.

Continue reading Local kinetic artists rated "Mediocre".

Urban Beekeeper

By blogpop on June 14, 2010 10:43 AM | No Comments

Story and Photos by Peter O'Brien

It was a good day in May for bees, cloudy, but not raining. If it's raining or stormy, bees are edgy. They don't fly in the rain.

Laura Ann Elkins, a stay-at-home mom and a backyard beekeeper on the District side in Old Takoma, brought out two bee suits. Clothed in face nets and the rest of the safety gear, we went into her yard to take a look at her hives. Inside one of the frames she found a queen, identifiable by her larger abdomen. "So there is a new queen," she said. "I think we are going to name her Nubia." Later she found eggs in another hive she was inspecting, more good news.

While she was inspecting the hives, someone Laura knew happened to drive by. "Getting much honey?" he called out.

Continue reading Urban Beekeeper.

Now & Then's spring bonnet contest

By blogpop on June 9, 2010 12:02 PM | No Comments

Photos by Julie Wiatt

After a two-year hiatus, and a Blizzasterous Winter of 2010, it was clearly time to celebrate spring and all of its bounty by bringing back Now and Then's Annual Spring Bonnet Contest!

This year saw a dozen entries submitted from the Mid-Atlantic region all the way to the Eastern Seaboard! While entrants ranged in age from single digits to the mid-doubles, what they all had in common was a tremendous sense of whimsy, creativity, imagination and fun!

While we are not sure who had the most fun, those who created the wonderous hats or those who admired them in Now and Then's window, one thing is for sure ... it is never too early to start thinking about next year's contest!

-- Elizabeth Brinkama

Juliet Marschall, center, age 8, won with her "Queen of the Peeps" bonnet featuring an onion and felted balls. At left is her friend Wonder Abor, modeling the "Top Hat" --a fedora adorned with bottle caps designed by Jennifer Shields and Angela Callie of Takoma Park. On the right is Juliet's brother Caz, wearing "Spring Cap" -- a baseball cap decorated with springs, created by Jacob Harris of Takoma Park, age 13.

Continue reading Now & Then's spring bonnet contest.

Larry Rubin: "I could get disappeared, too."

By blogpop on June 9, 2010 10:21 AM | 1 Comment

by Howard Kohn
Photos courtesy of Larry Rubin

For the fiftieth reunion of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), held in North Carolina a few weeks ago, Larry Rubin produced a 176-page scrapbook. It was at once a personal history and a look back at a group that perhaps more than any other lived out the full dilemma of black-and-white race relations during the civil rights era.

On page 93 of the book is a reproduction of a clipping from the July 30, 1964 edition of the South Reporter, a newspaper in Holly Springs, Mississippi, where Larry, a white college kid from Philadelphia, was then going door-to-door for SNCC to register a population of people who had never been allowed to vote.

Continue reading Larry Rubin: "I could get disappeared, too.".

"That singing will ever be"

By blogpop on May 26, 2010 4:33 PM | 1 Comment

Performing "Song of the Earth" at Strathmore

by Robert Engelman
Special to the Voice

photo of composer Malcolm Dalglish

In the early winter months the news spread. The Carpe Diem ("seize the day") Community Chorus was reforming.

On April 23, with a magical half-circle from Kentucky to Ireland to Japan nearly their voices lifted up a Song of the Earth to the rafters that vault over what is arguably the East Coast's most acoustically perfect concert hall, the Strathmore Music Center.

And here's the best part: the CarpeDiem choir really is a community (nearly 120 singers, most from Takoma Park, Silver Spring and elsewhere in lower Montgomery County).

But it's no easy task to sing nine songs that include rounds and harmonies (up to six parts), fugues (the vocal parts weaving among each other with distinct phrasings of text), and mid-sentence shifts in time signature sentence. No cheat-sheet words or music on stage. Just memorization and the collective confidence of a large community of singers about what word and note come next.

Continue reading "That singing will ever be".

Opera in a grocery

By blogpop on May 1, 2010 10:30 AM | No Comments

by Howard Kohn

On a recent Wednesday afternoon Thom Wolf, a renowned Takoma Park videographer, headed to a grocery store to shoot a five-minute opera for You Tube, a performance in an unannounced and unlikely venue that is known in the trade as "opera by accident." On impulse he brought along his wife, Emily van Loon. Or rather she agreed to come along. It was the first time she had assisted on one of Thom's assignments since she made an unfortunate mistake many years ago, when they were newlyweds, on a photo-op of President George Bush in Baton Rouge.

This new job, at a Whole Foods in Baltimore, required a second person to capture the startled bemusement and any other expressions that might pop up on the faces of innocent bystanders who were about to witness the tenor Jesus Hernandez and four collaborators as they strode through the aisles, belting out in full voice the famous lustful drinking-song aria Libiamo from Verdi's La Traviata.

Continue reading Opera in a grocery.

A law against greenhouse gases

By blogpop on May 1, 2010 9:59 AM | No Comments

How two local attorneys made history

Steve Silverman and John Hannon

by Howard Kohn

Over drinks at the Olive Lounge on a recent evening Steve Silverman and John Hannon, two veterans of the Office of General Counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency, talked animatedly as they revisited key junctures in a three-president saga that finally on April 1 resulted in history-making new greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks.

"This is the first standard that controls greenhouse gasses," said Steve, who was born in this area, graduated from the old Northwood High, moved to Takoma Park in 1996 and is perhaps better known in town as a concert pianist and the newsletter editor for the Philadelphia-Eastern neighborhood (PEN).
John, who has lived in the area 35 years and in Silver Spring since 2005, agreed, "It's the start of a new era. Greenhouse gasses are being regulated as a pollutant."

The two attorneys played a pivotal role in the case, and for both of them, old-school liberals who have stuck it out as civil servants and held onto a belief in the good of government, it was an experience of extreme highs and extreme lows. The case involved litigation, administrative edicts and much shadow politicking, and, due to the caprice of presidential partisanship, Steve and John at times had to go into court espousing views contrary to their own beliefs and desires.

Continue reading A law against greenhouse gases.

Bull in an organic market

By blogpop on March 1, 2010 9:48 AM | No Comments

photo by Jeff Blum

On February 28, this bipedal bovine was seen frolicking at the Takoma Park's Farmers' Market and purchasing milk at the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Food Co-op (one would think that a bull might have better milk connections). Sources close to the barnyard suggest that under those horns was none other than Ellen Cassedy celebrating her birthday by fulfilling a lifelong dream to be a mascot. Since no teams were hiring, Ms. Cassedy went rogue.

Our white week

By blogpop on March 1, 2010 9:22 AM | No Comments

More snow than even old-timers could remember

photo by Eric Bond

by Howard Kohn

As hard as the February snowstorms were on everyone, they were without a doubt hardest on the unflappable Daryl Braithwaite, who, as director of public works, was charged with restoring the accustomed state of mobility to our local world as fast as possible. Not that she would ever admit to feeling that the whole town had her under the gun, but, on a sunny day later on, after the white seas had been parted, she did say, a bit ruefully, "I'm trying to put all those memories out of my mind."

The Friday that the biggest of the blizzards darkened the sky, February 5, Daryl straight away put her department on emergency status. She gave her crews the unpopular message that, even though they had been called on to clear away snow on overtime the previous two weekends, they were now to forget about going home to deal with any personal exigencies. For the foreseeable future they were to work 12 hours out of every 24 and sleep at a Silver Spring motel.

"The first day," Daryl said, talking about the job at hand, "was a constant battle." A few years ago she had persuaded the City Council to invest in heavier-duty plow trucks, called 450s, replacing 250s and 350s, and, while these big ones could bust more easily through drifts that reached heights of five feet they still had their weak moments. "They'd slide off the road and get stuck because the snow was so heavy and wet."

Continue reading Our white week.

Never too late for sudden literary fame

By blogpop on March 1, 2010 8:41 AM | No Comments

Tom Kaufman joins the ranks of Takoma's published authors

photo by Julie Wiatt

by Howard Kohn

To enter the annual contest of the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) you must write a book that meets, at least loosely, the standards of Chandler and Hammett. But the book must be in draft form. This is a competition for unpublished novelists, typically young hard-chargers.

Tom Kaufman, who is 54 years old, entered the 2008 contest. There is no entry fee so his only cost was for postage. At the point Tom dropped his manuscript in the mail, though, he was fairly certain he had just spent a frivolous six dollars and change, not to mention the late evenings and early mornings siphoned from 14 years of a full life as an Emmy-winning cinema photographer, a happy-go-lucky jazz musician, a local political agitator, a soccer dad, and the husband to Katie, a semi-famous collage artist and teacher at the Corcoran College.

Tom had written the first tentative pages of his novel in 1994, not long after he and Katie moved into a house on Manor Circle and started a family that resulted in two current teenagers. It took Tom two years to finish the first draft. After writing a sequel he returned to the original and overhauled it. Still not satisfied, he obliterated large sections and wrote a third draft.

Continue reading Never too late for sudden literary fame .

Waiting on Haiti

By blogpop on February 11, 2010 9:59 PM | No Comments

"Lines were dead. We were frantic"

photo by Julie Wiatt

by Howard Kohn

Leicia Monfort is a 2003 graduate of Montgomery Blair and as American as American can be, although she has always known her roots were in Haiti. Her mother, Leticia, grew up in Port-au-Prince before emigrating in 1977 to the U. S. Counting pennies Leticia then saved enough to bring over and marry her sweetheart, Phillippe, and the two of them talked often about taking Leicia for a visit to their home country.

That trip never happened, the way things turned out, and in another era Haiti might have remained a Poloraid snapshot to Leicia. But this is the era of Facebook and cell phones. Modern communications brought Leicia close to cousins and nieces and family friends who, on January 12, were in the zone that an earthquake changed forever, even as she went about a usual routine, working her front-desk job at the Takoma Park Recreation Department, checking in with an aunt and heading to a Laundromat.

"My aunt said that something had happened in Haiti, but I was in a hurry and didn't think much about it until I got a text while I was doing laundry. As soon as I got back home my mom and my aunt were going crazy because they couldn't reach anyone.

"All the family we know in Haiti, all my Haitian friends on Facebook, we couldn't get in contact with anyone. The phone lines were busy or dead. We were frantic.

Continue reading Waiting on Haiti.

The amazing story of the Allegheny baby

By blogpop on February 11, 2010 9:00 PM | 1 Comment

A snowstorm, an intuition and the serendipity of neighbors

Recalling their snowy drama are Tracy Kaufman, midwife Annie Rohlin, baby Cash, Pam (the new grandma who performed this special delivery), big brother Beck Rowe, moms Britt and Heather, and Kerri Larkin. More neighbors helped clear snow away for emergency vehicles, and consider Cash to be "Allegheny's baby." Photo by Julie Wiatt

by Howard Kohn

Picture, if you will, this scene from December 19, on the evening of the mammoth snowstorm that shut down most goings-on in Takoma Park.

On Spring Avenue a silver-haired, rosy-cheeked woman, the neighborhood nurse and midwife, was watching "Ratatouille" on TV. Two blocks away, on a slick, middle-of-the-road incline of Allegheny Avenue, kids and dads were speeding fast and furious on sleds. Indoors one of the moms was opening the next bottle of wine for a few neighbors.

Then, shortly after nine o'clock, an ambulance and a fire truck appeared at the top of the incline and stopped. Tires churned but went nowhere. At the bottom of the hill there was an emergency they couldn't get to.
From a blue-painted house, with a Christmas tree shining in the front room, a woman ran out. She was long past decorum. "I'd say pretty close to panic," recalled Heather Rowe days later, sitting at a long wooden table in the blue house. "If anyone saw her, she was shouting her head off like she had no idea what was going on or what to do.

"That was me."

Continue reading The amazing story of the Allegheny baby .