Podcast

Curious Garden & Arecelis Girmay

Arecelis Girmay
Arecelis Girmay
Peter Brown
Peter Brown

Francesca Rheannon talks with children’s book author and illustrator Peter Brown about [amazon-product text=”THE CURIOUS GARDEN” type=”text”]0316015474[/amazon-product] and Katy Lorah of Friends of The High Line. Also, poet Arecelis Girmay talks with guest host, Christian MacEwen. 

New York’s The High Line was an elevated railway line that carried freight to and from New York’s meatpacking district on the west side from 1930 to 1980. But then the trains stopped and for the last thirty years, the High Line has lain dormant. Until this June, that is. That’s when the new High Line Park was opened. It celebrated its coming out party July 12, with such luminaries as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Congressman Jerrold Nadler in attendance.

[amazon-product align=”left”]0316015474[/amazon-product]

Illustrator and children’s book author Peter Brown takes the High Line as the inspiration for his charming new book, THE CURIOUS GARDEN. It tells how a little boy named Liam discovers a struggling garden high above a city that has no other green spaces. Liam decides to take care of the garden and under his tending, it spreads throughout the city, transforming it into a lush, green world.

Peter Brown is also the author of two books about an unconventional dog named Chowder, and The Flight of the Dodo. He also illustrated two books for older children written by Cat Wetherill, Snowbone and Barkbelly.

If you decide to enjoy the charms of the High Line, you can thank Friends of the High Line. It was founded in 1999 by residents of the High Line neighborhood to advocate for the High Line’s preservation and its reuse as public open space. Friends of the High Line’s Katy Lorah tells us how the organization kept its vision of a park alive for ten years until it could finally bring it to life.

If you decide to enjoy the charms of the High Line, you can thank Friends of the High Line. It was founded in 1999 by residents of the High Line neighborhood to advocate for the High Line’s preservation and its reuse as public open space. Friends of the High Line’s Katy Lorah tells us how the organization kept its vision of a park alive for ten years until it could finally bring it to life.

Read about the history of the High Line

More images of the High Line

UPDATE: The New York Times reports on the high salary of the Friends of the High Line’s executive director. He did a great job, but does he deserve so much?

[amazon-product align=”right”]1931896364[/amazon-product]

Christian MacEwen talks with Aracelis Girmay, who writes writes poetry, essays, and fiction, as part of the series, Sparks from The Anvil, which Writers Voice is co-producing. The series features poets who have come to the Smith College Poetry Center.

Read more poems by Arecelis Girmay

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About Francesca Rheannon

Francesca Rheannon is an award-winning independent radio producer. In addition to hosting Writer's Voice, she's a freelance reporter for National Public Radio and its affiliates. Recipient of the prestigious Nancy Dickerson Whitehead Award for reporting on substance abuse issues for her news series, VOICES OF HIV, produced for 88.5 WFCR public radio in western Massachusetts. She is also finishing a book on Provence (PROVINCE OF THE HEART) and working on a memoir of her father, THE ARGONAUTS.

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