From the Editor Too!

The writing of Zone 5 is just a part of the time and effort this publication requires. Sandy seems to take it in stride, cranking out articles between her many other activities. I have heard it said that women have the ability to operate laterally: that is, to carry on multiple activities simultaneously. Me? If I'm cooking I'm too busy to answer the phone or the door; make plans; handle questions, inquiries or problems; sweep, launder, direct and/or entertain children; in other words... "don't bother me, can't you see I'm busy!". Unlike Sandy, my approach to Zone 5 has been to put an entire week aside, go to the Bath library and do my singular thing. I just don't seem to be able to fit it in "around" my other activities. All this is to say that I was saved the forfeiture of a week by the two articles submitted this issue by Natalie Kempner and Ann McClellan.

Aside from being my mother, Natalie is an educator, a writer and urban environmentalist of some renown along the barren, neglected streets of the poorer sections of Philadelphia. In the early 1970's, Natalie, an elementary school teacher in the Puerto Rican section of Philadelphia, quit the strike torn, strife laden school system to pursue another avenue, one she believed might make a real difference. Over the course of the next twenty-five years she set up a community center founded on the premises that too many children went home after school to an environment either unwilling or unable to attend to a child's appetite for questions and answers - their curiosity. The Norris Square Neighborhood Project (NSNP) has grown from the $5,000 abandoned husk of a row home to include a paid staff of neighborhood residents, programs as diverse and colorful as the ethnic communities it serves, the ongoing support of grants from the United Way and other charitable institutions, private donors and the small but vital contributions of the general public. NSNP is an exciting testament to the history and empowerment of a community and its people.

Of special interest to Zone 5 is Natalie's focus on environment, nature and gardening as a first step towards giving a sense of power and control to a historically neglected, powerless sub-culture. A varied culture of peoples whose older citizens have vivid memories of rural, agricultural roots and children who know summer only as a time of unrelenting hot pavement and stone stoops. Through a focus on nature and its determination to survive and provide beauty and sustenance in spite of a city's insult and injury, NSNP has begun the work of uniting generations and cultures; creating neighborhoods worthy of the pride of its people; opening windows into worlds of questions and marvels for children and much, much more.

Natalie has documented some of her experience in articles for Green Scene, a publication of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and Ranger Rick, a children's nature magazine. Although she has been a Woolwich, Maine resident for the last 9 years, she was recently the guest of honor of at NSNP's 25' anniversary celebration attended by Philadelphia's Mayor Rendel, a melange of people who have been a part of NSNP's history, and worthy of coverage by local t.v. stations. It is my hope that the lateral talents of her gender will allow for her continuing contributions to Zone 5.

It seems hardly fair to Ann McClellan to have to follow the in-depth introduction of my mother whom I know so well. Ann was a potter's apprentice for 5 years in Japan where she learned some of the extensive art of Japanese cuisine. She lives in Rockland and works as a chef (or the Japanese equivalent) at OH!BEN, a local Japanese restaurant. I understand through various sources that she is an excellent gardener, cook and potter.

This month's original artwork is thanks to Lauren Mahar, a fine arts student at Wheaton College who is spending the summer with relatives in Days Ferry. And again, thanks to Wendy Dyer for the layout and computerization of our collage of text and information.

Peter Kent

Reprinted from Zone 5, P.O. Box 87, Woolwich, ME 04579, e-mail:pskent@gwi.net