Takoma Park is excited to have been the recipient of a grant from PEPCO to perform environmental improvements on the Circle Woods property.

Circle Woods is located in Ward 3 with pedestrian entrances in the 6600 block of Cockerille Avenue and 6700 Poplar Avenue. The property was acquired by the city in 1995 with the goal of preserving the floodplain from development.

Over the years, various stages of work have been done to improve the site, including stabilizing the streambanks and improving stormwater management. This site is noted as a significant resource to our residents and environment as a naturalized floodplain forest and short grass prairie.

Unfortunately, there are a number of non-native invasive weed species present on the site that pose a threat to this natural resource. As stewards of this property, the city intends to remove invasive species, followed by replanting with locally native plants. The ultimate goal is to increase the diversity and abundance of native plants and improve the aesthetic, recreation, and ecosystem value of the site.

The grant funds will be used to facilitate the removal of non-native invasive species, revegetation with locally native herbaceous and woody plants, and add informational signage about the environmental value of the site.

Opportunities for the community to be involved this spring will include site inventory and weed pull. If you are interested in being involved, email  Anna Mische John.

This article was featured in the March 2023 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see the full list of past newsletters.

As we begin another month of meteorological winter, those with aversions to cold (or those who are just “over it” by the time February rolls around) may be searching for indoor entertainment. I like to think that libraries and librarians excel at this. If you want a break from your television, or the judgment of your TBR pile (TBR = “To Be Read,” since acquiring books and actually reading them are sometimes very different hobbies), this may be a good time to think about how you are preserving memories of your family, your cultures and afiliations, or even just your personal narrative.

Inventory: The first step is taking stock.
What media carries your memories? Are the images, text, sound, and film “born digital” (originally created digitally), or are they analog? What sorts of materials are you working with? Some materials you might encounter are: loose paper, film reels and negatives, photographs, scrapbooks, diaries or other bound volumes, leather, fabric, metal (including staples and paperclips), and adhesives (tape, glue, etc.).

Triage
Before you take the time to do a lot of research, here are some red flags to look out for that can help you prioritize your memory project.

• Paper: Paper with signs of mold or mildew should be stored away from your other cherished documents so that it doesn’t spread to unaffected paper while you decide what to do.
• Film: Does your film smell like vinegar? This can indicate that the acetate carrier is breaking down, and it’s time to figure out the best way to migrate to a digital format. Sidenote: Hopefully no one reading this has any silver nitrate film at home. If your film was recorded after 1950, it’s almost certainly not silver nitrate, but if you have any doubts, it belongs in the freezer until you can consult with a professional. Silver nitrate film can combust and should be kept very cold.
• Leather: If you are working with a leather-bound volume, check to see if the leather is deteriorating. Rust-colored dust can indicate that the volume has red rot, and it will need care to avoid further damage.
• External hard drives: If you have been backing up images and data on external drives, check the integrity of the drive occasionally. External hard drives, especially older ones that are not solid-state drives (SSDs) and have moving parts, can break down after a few years. If your drive is acting finicky, it’s time to move it up your project queue, so you don’t lose anything.

Research and Strategize
Devise a plan that is realistic for your time, space, and budget. Now that you know what you are working with and have taken measures to stop any further degradation of your materials, it’s time to do some research on the best way to proceed. Consider how much time you have to work on this, where you can sort through materials and how much space they will take up to organize, and if/what kind of equipment you want to invest in. Digitization, for instance, can be as expensive as rigging a DSLR image capture contraption, or it can be free if you use a PDF capture app with your phone’s camera. Rather than recommending books here, I’m going to suggest some online resources to consult, because there is a ton of great information out there online that’s more navigable than flipping through a large text:

• The American Library Association (ALA) has a lot of good sources for people at all familiarity and skill levels: https://preservationweek.org/resources/
• The Dew Point Calculator is a tool used by many preservation technicians to calculate the optimal environment for your materials: http://www.dpcalc.org/
• The National Archives also have some basic tools and information available on their site: https://www.archives.gov/preservation
• ALA’s Association for Library Collections & Technical Services division has a deeper dive on digitization best practices if you are interested, complete with images that illustrate differences in file
  resolution: https://www.ala.org/alcts/resources/preserv/minimum-digitizationcapture-recommendations

Implement and Maintain
Preserve/migrate and decide on a maintenance schedule. Preservation is not a one-and-done, unfortunately. Once you have carried out your strategy and stabilized or migrated your materials, you’ll want to check in on them periodically – remember the janky external hard drives? Equipment failures and data degradation can happen without at least some minimal supervision. Set reminders in your paper or online calendars to check in on your memories at least once a year.

Oh, and please don’t store the memories you love in basements, garages, attics, or even on floors. I have seen sad things happen to amazing materials because a temporary floor location flooded, or an animal got to it more easily.

I’ll also take a moment here to promote Historic Takoma, Inc. as a wonderful resource for local history. If you have questions about Takoma Park’s historical record – maps, lore, genealogy, etc. – they are fantastic, and their reading room has open hours in a beautiful historic building on Carroll Avenue. For more information about their schedule and how to contact them, their website is here: https://historictakoma.org/

This article was featured in the February 2023 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see the full list of past newsletters.

Winter 2023 is full of opportunities for residents of all ages to get creative. Classes and workshops may take place daytime and evening on different days of the week and some on weekends, so you can choose the activity that’s the best fit for you and your family. Tots ages 3-5 can enjoy the ABCs of Art on Saturday afternoons. Youth ages 5-12 have a variety of ceramics classes: Clay for Kids, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday afternoons with artist/instructor Caroline Mackinnon. Teens ages 13-17 will have fun learning to draw using various media on Tuesday afternoons with artist/instructor Katie Del Kaufman. Adults ages 16+ can select from three ceramics offerings: Clay in the Studio on Wednesday afternoons, Hand Building & Sculpture on Monday mornings, and wheel Throwing on Tuesday evenings. Try your hand at collage on Tuesday mornings; participate in a Saturday afternoon Crafting Polymer Jewelry workshop; enjoy the Drawing class session on Thursday evenings; join the popular 2-day (Saturday & Sunday) Encaustic Collage and Printmaking workshop; and finally engage in Painting Exploration, a six-week session on Fridays mornings. Last but not least, adults ages 55+ can enjoy a fabulous Arts & Crafts series of Monday morning workshops, each class will be a different art or craft, but February 13th will be a Valentine’s special craft. These workshops are taught by artist/instructor Alice Sims who has been teaching a variety of painting, ceramics, and crafts classes for all ages for the Recreation Department for 20 years!

For class descriptions, dates, times, and cost for any of these and other activities, go to the Takoma Park Recreation microsite. To register for classes, click on ActiveNet. Don’t forget about our Scholarship program providing city residents who qualify an opportunity to apply for a lesser fee than the published amounts. For more information and to apply, click on “Recreation Scholarships”.

As always, you are welcome to contact the Recreation Department at 301-891-7290 for information.

This article was featured in the February 2023 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see the full list of past newsletters.

Last month, new regulations were enacted that allows tenants to request window guards be installed in their apartment at no cost. A tenant can request a window guard for any window if it meets the following criteria:

• It is not a ground  floor or basement window
• The window does not contain an air conditioning unit that is bolted to the window with gaps of less than 4 inches
• The window can be opened greater than 4 inches
• The window is not a means of escape in the case of fire or another emergency

When you request a window guard, the landlord has 14 days to install the guard. A guard can be any combination of bars or window stoppers as long as it can securely ensure that an opening of greater than 4 inches is not possible. You can find out more by going online to the Window Guard Regulation webpage. The Housing Division is also available to answer any questions or assist. You can reach the Division through phone by calling 301-891-7222 or by emailing the Housing Division.

This article was featured in the February 2023 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see the full list of past newsletters.

It’s that time of year when you turn on a TV, radio, or streaming service to hear someone try to sell you a gym membership,
diet plan, or supplement. January is a vulnerable month. We get a “reset,” but what can we reasonably expect to change? And why do we so often expect it to be our bodies?

I know that a single article cannot overpower the pervasive messaging of diet culture, but let this be one place where someone
says that you don’t have to change your body or aspire to change it because it belongs to you, and you are enough.

The late, great Carrie Fisher once said, “My body is my brain bag, it hauls me around to those places & in front of faces where there’s something to say or see.”** Allow me to invite you to haul your brain bag to the Library in 2023 to check out some materials that eschew diet culture, have positive messaging, and generally resist exploiting our insecurities.

Reconciling with corporeality:
I saw a tweet the other day where someone said, “How do I teach my body that my fight or flight response is supposed to be for life or death situations, not answering an email,” and it hit home. These books may help find ways to be more comfortable in your body and navigate the world from within it.

• Your Body Is Not an Apology, by Sonya Renee Taylor is a book about accepting our physical selves as a way to address social inequality.
• The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, by Bessel van der Kolk, MD reminds the reader that trauma is not what happens to you; it’s how your body reacts to it.
• Reclaiming Body Trust: A Path to Healing & Liberation, by Hilary Kinavey, teaches us why and how to develop trust in our bodies, despite the messaging we receive from the outside world.
• The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, & Healing in a Toxic Culture, by Gabor Maté, MD – Dr. Maté is not without his critics or controversy, but the way he connects how the body feels with our emotional state is compelling.

Self-care in a world that has endless demands of you:

• Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto, by Tricia Hersey – this book is from the Nap Bishop herself. It’s also worth following the Nap Ministry on social media if you benefit from regular reminders to take a break. **raises hand**
• Notes on a Nervous Planet, by Matt Haig is a collection of thoughts about modern life by someone who has publicly struggled with mental illness and has found resourceful ways to cope.

If you have a complicated relationship with the concept of “resilience:”

• Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, by Emily and Amelia Nagoski, because it’s easier to prevent burnout than recover from it.
• You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience, by Tarana Burke and Brené Brown teams up two leaders in critical thinking about how we move through the world.

Fiction that will hopefully leave you feeling better than when you started it:

• Sourdough, by Robin Sloan, is such a weird and wonderful book. I still haven’t decided if it’s magical realism or fantasy.
• The Martian, by Andy Weir, defies sci-fi stereotypes by ending on a high note. If you haven’t read this modern classic already, now is the perfect time.
• A Princess in Theory, by Alyssa Cole, has everything I want in a romance novel: healthy skepticism, healthy boundaries, escapism, and more books in the series.

**Source: https://twitter.com/carrieffisher/status/681769730139492352?lang=en

This article was featured in the January 2023 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see the full list of past newsletters.