All posts by Ryan Kelly

Library, Takoma Park Newsletter

Right in the Feels: Fiction and Empathy

by Jessica Jones

Something really interesting happens when we read fiction. Our brains take the words and turn them into imagery, characters, and feelings for which we suspend disbelief to appreciate. Even though fictional stories aren’t literally true, they give us a lot of intangible things, like entertainment, stress reduction, and empathy.

I don’t think that anyone who reads fiction would be surprised to learn that doing so encourages empathy, but science actually backs us up on this point. There has been a lot of research on this topic in the last decade especially, and it has been interesting to watch coverage evolve as the conversation continues. This is a very abbreviated summary of the conversation that, I think, is useful from an information literacy perspective.

For more about information literacy, check out the January and February 2022 issues of the City’s newsletter! In the meantime, a quick version:

Information literacy is a skill that is developed and utilized to evaluate the reliability of information. It involves using critical thinking to consider the context of information to make judgments about where and how that information may be applied. The ability to discern reliable information from “fake news,” and the veritable avalanche of uninformed and under-informed opinions we encounter, is crucial to safely navigating our world.

How do empathy and fiction fit into this definition? I believe they live in the “context” component.

Research shows a general consensus that there is a correlation between consumption of fiction and empathetic traits. John Best cites this consensus and notes in his 2020 North American Journal of Psychology article “Reading Literary Fiction: More Empathy, but at What Possible Cost?” that, “readers of fiction outperform nonreaders of fiction on empathy tasks.” This happens because when we read fiction, we, “use imagination and other cognitive processes to visualize and simulate social processes occurring among the fictional characters,” i.e., we take in the words and translate it through our lived experiences and observations into a mental picture with which we interact.

To my mind, validation and empathy are two sides of the same coin with fiction. When we see ourselves, it can be validating. When we see others in fiction — other cultures, ethnicities, religions, politics, disabilities, sexual orientations, genders, socioeconomic classes — in this setting where we are already mentally worldbuilding and imagining, we can expand our worldview, and we can empathize.

Granted, we bring our own biases wherever we go, and fiction is no exception. People can reach vastly different conclusions with the same text. I’m pretty sure that’s a big component of literary criticism as a field. But fiction can be a tool to get us outside of ourselves, if
we’re willing to go there. And, therein lies both the opportunity and the potential hazard.

In her 2009 TEDtalk, Chimamanda Adichie warns of the dangers of a single story, or expecting one narrative to speak for entire demographics. As wonderful as their stories may be, we can’t count on Adichie to speak for all women, Black people, or Africans; Isaac Bashevis Singer for all men, Jews, or immigrants; or, Joshua Whitehead for all two spirit peoples or Peguis Nation members, much less all Indigenous peoples.

Fiction can be a tool to help us understand, but there is no
single fictional title that is expansive enough to overcome every reader’s biases. To further illustrate, in Ann Jurecic’s 2011 article “Empathy and the Critic,” she states that, “one may read a novel that portrays the trauma caused by systematic urban violence in an American city and imagine that one understands the experience, but such identification can prevent one from recognizing one’s own complicity with the social and political structures that engender this violence.”

In other words, reading fiction will never be a substitute for understanding ourselves and the systems in which we operate.

The other unintended consequence of empathizing with fiction is that an author who understands how to elicit empathy from readers can also use it to advance their own agendas. They may not even identify their fiction as fiction. We see this happening everyday on social media, for example. How many of us know someone who was pulled into the toxic climate of disinformation that Facebook seems unable to correct? “Fake news” is just “News” when it’s taken at face value.

This article began as a piece about why reading fiction is good for us as a society, and I still believe that, overall, it is good for us. That said, I think it’s also important to interrogate why someone may want to elicit emotions from us as a sound information literacy practice.

Maybe we can file this under the “Nothing Is Ever Simple” heading, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. I believe we need to leave room for things to be complicated, because how will we ever begin to understand the people who think differently than we do, if we can’t put ourselves in their shoes? How can we imagine a better world for everyone without the understanding that our current systems affect everyone differently?

For recommendations on your next fiction read, please visit or contact the Library, and we will be happy to help you find something.

The works consulted for this article are available to any interested parties; please email library@takomaparkmd.gov for a bibliography and source attachments.

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

Public Notices, Takoma Park Newsletter

Takoma Park Hosts the City Nature Challenge

By Anna Mische John, Vegetation Maintenance Supervisor

Have you heard of the City Nature Challenge? How about a bioblitz? The City Nature Challenge is a friendly competition form of a bioblitz—an opportunity to observe and document plants, insects, animals, and fungi on a particular site.

On April 29, the City hosted its first City Nature Challenge event. While the City is new to hosting, some of our residents are veterans of the project and active in documenting living organisms through the iNaturalist website.

This event took place over one weekend, in 482 cities across 46 countries. Participation in the annual event has been steadily growing since 2018. The D.C. Metropolitan area ranked fifth worldwide for participants and ninth for the number of species logged.

For this event, we worked at Circle Woods, the two-acre site located between Cockerille and Poplar Aves. and Spring and Circle Aves. The day started off wet, but by the time our birding group gathered, the rain had stopped and held off for the remainder of the event. Over three hours, nearly 200 individual species of birds, insects, and plants were documented at Circle Woods. Some of our noted observations included a horsehair worm (a parasite not often seen outside of its host) and a wood thrush (a species of concern due to its population decline in recent decades). We also saw what turned out to be the most observed species globally: the mallard duck. A nesting pair has made Circle Woods their home.

The Circle Woods City Nature Challenge was a fun way to get out and explore our natural world and meet neighbors. We hope to continue to track biodiversity at the site over the coming years as the plant composition changes with ongoing restoration work.

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

Public Notices, Takoma Park Newsletter

Takoma Park Artist Leaves a Legacy of Passionate Kindness

By Eric Bond

Years of training and athletic instinct come together in a microsecond as the striker accepts a pass from her teammate and spots an opening between defenders. The stadium reverberates with energy as she swings her leg with focused power under the ball to send it sailing out of the grasp of the keeper—into the net.

This decisive moment was captured graphically by Takoma Park illustrator Noah Macmillan, and it is being widely distributed on a self-adhesive pieces of paper, about an inch by an inch-and-a-half. You can get a copy of Noah’s work by visiting the Takoma Park Post Office—where you can also pick up copies to share with your friends through letters and postcards. Noah’s stamp commemorating the July 2023 Women’s World Cup was released earlier this year.

This is Noah’s final published piece. He passed away from colon cancer on July 31, 2022, at age 33. Shortly before he passed, Noah learned that his illustration had been chosen, but he was not allowed to share that information. On October 24, 2022, the U.S. Postal Service announced Noah’s image would be the official Women’s World Cup stamp.

“It’s very heartening,” says Lucinda Leach, Noah’s mom, a retired art teacher. “We don’t have him with us anymore, but we have his work, and his work is being distributed so widely. I think they said they’re going to print 20 million copies of the stamps. So 20 million little reminders of Noah are flying around the country. It’s really a wonderful thing.”

“If there was one piece of art to be remembered by, this is kind of this perfect culmination of his interests,” says Jeffrey Macmillan, Noah’s dad, a professional photographer, “because he was fiercely devoted to soccer and to art.”

Noah’s team was Arsenal.

As a professional illustrator, Noah’s unique vision appears on murals and has been featured in publications such as Smithsonian magazine, the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, and Bloomberg Businessweek.

“I make pictures that tell stories with clear ideas, simple design, and obsessive attention to color,” said Noah, as quoted on his memorial page at the Sam Fox School at Washington University in St. Louis, where he earned his undergraduate degree in communications design.

“After teaching 18 years, there are always a handful of students you will never forget. Noah MacMillan was one of those,” says John Hendrix, professor and chair of the MFA program in Illustration and Visual Culture. “Noah had a rare and sophisticated visual language that cut across both design and images. I was in awe of his ability to draw, use color, and think graphically about edge and shape so seamlessly. “He had it all inside when I met him. His voice simply had to find a home,” says Hendrix.

“When he was a little boy, Noah had trouble writing,” says Lucinda. “And his hand would kind of cramp up, and he’d be miserable. But then he would use that same hand to draw, and he would sit for hours and draw. He drew incredibly intricate scenes of battles and soccer games and other things. We just pretty much always knew that drawing was going to be a big part of his life.”

Like most kids growing up in Takoma Park, Noah started kicking the ball early through Takoma Soccer. He kept playing during his years at the Edmund Burke School and at Washington University in St. Louis.

Then at age 23, just as he was jumping into his illustration career, Noah was diagnosed with colon cancer. After a long year of treatment, he was given a clean bill of health.

“He ran a marathon to celebrate,” says Jeffrey. “He had seven years cancer-free. He felt great, got engaged. And then, bang, back again.”

“It’s not expected at that age,” says Jeffrey, “so it’s often overlooked”.

While living in St. Louis, Noah met his fiancée, Hitomi Inoue, also a Washington U. grad, whom Jeffrey calls Noah’s third passion (along with soccer and art). Hitomi recalls how excited Noah was to be asked to illustrate a stamp in the summer of 2020, even as he faced a relapse of colon cancer.

“He was in the middle of his first year of grad school, getting his MFA [masters of Fine Arts] at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and COVID happened,” says Hitomi. “[We] decided to go up to Vermont. We’re up there thinking we’re going to be there for three weeks. But then we ended up being there basically for a year.

Illustrator Noah Macmillan’s stamp design was chosen by the U.S. Postal Service as the official image of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which begins on July 20. Image courtesy USPS.

“So Noah gets rediagnosed with cancer in June [2020]. It’s this crazy time where he had just restarted chemo. We were living at the lake. It’s beautiful, but we’re also very isolated from everything,” Hitomi continues. “And he gets an email from this art director who works on a lot of the stamps.

“Noah was like, yeah, I’m gonna design a stamp. And I was like, what?” Hitomi laughs, “Like a postal service stamp? He was like, yeah, it’s real.

So it’s a very dynamic and powerful stamp,” says Hitomi. It reflects Noah’s years of experience capturing movement and emotion with clean efficiency.

“He has a history of having done a lot of soccer art,” says Jeffrey, “which is how he probably popped onto the radar of the art director. Many of his first jobs were working for soccer publications in the U.S. and in Europe—and he was just devout follower of soccer.”

Noah’s family and friends remember him as an extraordinary  individual.

“Noah was a gentle soul,” says Lucinda. “He has two younger brothers who are twins [Seth and Julian]. He was just always sweet to them from the time they were born. Most kids, I think, would’ve resented having these other two babies come into their lives and turn everything upside down. But he just was always a really good big brother.

“And, you know, it’s a hard loss for them as well,” she adds.

“One of his best friends said that whatever you say about Noah sounds fake because it sounds too good to be true,” says Hitomi. “He was just very kind, like deeply kind and not superficially kind. He wasn’t really all about bullshit. He wasn’t going to be nice [just] to be nice, but because he was kind. He loved talking to younger artists and people who had just started freelancing to help them figure out
how to set up an office, how to get new clients. How to do taxes.”

With Noah’s combination of training and talent—and kindness—in mind, the Macmillan family has established the Noah Philip MacMillan Portfolio Plus Scholarship at Washington University in St. Louis. This summer program provides intensive art classes to rising high school seniors to help them build their portfolios.

“It’s a really great program and hopefully we can fund more kids to go there and really build their confidence in artmaking and learn from the Wash U. professors, who are wonderful,” says Jeffrey.

Find out more about the Noah Philip MacMillan Portfolio
Plus Scholarship at tinyurl.com/bddyrzf8. Proceeds from the
sale of Noah’s prints will help fund the scholarship. You can
find Noah’s work at society6.com (search for Noah Macmillan).

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

Library, Takoma Park Newsletter

Hot Topic: Censorship and Libraries

Content warning: Discussion of potentially sensitive topics with reference to those in the LGBTQIA2S+ spectrum.

With the public dialogue in a frenzy about book banning in libraries right now, I wanted to talk about how libraries experience and interact with censorship.

You may have seen recently that the Missouri State House
voted in April to advance a FY24 budget that defunds their public libraries. You may have also seen the photos coming out of Florida
of empty school bookshelves in the wake of their governor signing HB 1467. A library director in Llano County, Texas, was fired last year for refusing to remove challenged books.

Closer to home, the Proud Boys protested a Drag Queen Story Hour event at Loyalty Bookstores in Silver Spring this past February.

I am, unfortunately, no stranger to this topic; I fielded many book challenges in Texas. This is a personal topic for me, so if the tone reads as more emotionally charged than usual, that’s because it is. There is a time and a place for emotional distance, but this article isn’t it. I want people who have the ability to advocate for libraries to understand what is at stake for everyone involved.

I can think of at least six different titles that were challenged when I was working in Texas; all of them were under the LGBTQIA2S+ umbrella, many were challenged multiple times, and all of them were intended for young audiences. There was And Tango Makes Three about the male penguin couple who adopt an egg and raise the chick together; it was returned defaced on multiple occasions. Heather Has Two Mommies inspired a boycott of our library by a local church-affiliated group, which resulted in some of the most hateful emails I have ever received.

The toughest challenge I fielded, however, was for a book called My Two Dads, which was part of a series that was all shelved together about different family situations that children may experience, like having a parent in the military or having divorced parents or living with grandparents. My Two Dads triggered a patron’s nerve in a major way.

Some quick background: I spent a year working in crisis intervention with AmeriCorps while I was deciding if I wanted to go to graduate school to become a social worker. Ultimately, I chose information science, but the year with AmeriCorps taught me a lot about de-escalating people in crisis and empathizing with them. These have been the two most useful skills I have honed when fielding difficult situations anywhere, and they are crucial to working towards positive outcomes with book challenges.

The patron who objected to My Two Dads very quickly went from
asking me how to take this book off the shelves, to yelling and crying in the middle of the reading room, when I said that we would retain the book in the interests of the LGBTQIA2S+ families who need to be represented in the library’s collection, just like her own family is. When someone reacts that disproportionately, it is almost always something more deeply rooted than the issue at hand. I talked to her long enough to find out that she had recently disowned her 16-year-old gay son and kicked him out of their family home.

Knowing that the odds are stacked against gay homeless teens, I found it extremely difficult to access empathy. I had to disengage from my emotional state to get through the rest of the interaction. The book remained in the collection, and I found another book for her to take home to the children she hadn’t disowned. On the surface, this was a positive outcome for the library—the patron calmed down, and we kept the book in our collection—but it spoke volumes about the state of our community. I went back to my office and cried.

When we talk about book banning and censorship, the objectors tend to suck all the air out of the room, but in reality, they are the ones least affected by their actions. Remember the youth who see their burgeoning identities under attack, the families who lose representation in publicly funded collections, and the teachers and library staff who go to bat for our marginalized communities every day—sometimes under the threat of firing or legal action.

Youth, their families, and the library and school workers who
provide services to them need advocates in their communities.  I do believe that for every person who demands removal of a title that makes them personally uncomfortable, there are far more people who can see the value in that contested title. We need disengaged bystanders to channel the bravery of library workers who promote diverse books and programs, the teachers who refuse to compromise their inclusive values, and the kids speaking out at school board meetings.

I want these experiences to be something you think about before we get to Pride Month in June, because Pride should be a celebration! Pride is joyful, but we do a disservice to our LGBTQIA2S+  neighbors when we don’t acknowledge the oppression many people in this spectrum experience when the outspoken opponents to their identity (ugh, merely typing that phrase is painful) politicize and target them to create “us versus them” situations, manipulate their environment to minimize their own discomfort, and appeal to our worst instincts.

I could not function in this world if I didn’t believe that there is more love in it than there is hate, but sometimes, in uncontested silence, it can feel like indifference outnumbers them both. I am not so naïve as to think that this library is immune from actions taken by emboldened bullies to retain “safe spaces” for themselves while condemning the term as it is used sincerely by marginalized peoples who do not feel safe in public spaces. I hope that, if the time comes to defend our own values of diversity and inclusion, that our allies will be louder than our challengers.

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

Public Notices, Takoma Park Newsletter, Uncategorized

STEM Star

The Takoma Park Recreation Department was fortunate to have a STEM Spring Break Camp this year. We wanted to highlight STEM camp instructor, Tosin Adetoro. Tosin taught the teens various STEM subjects, such as circuitry, robotics, and coding. Over Spring Break she kept the teen participants engaged and excited to learn about STEM.

Tosin has a bachelor’s in physics from Frostburg State University and a master’s in technology education from Virginia Tech. She also received her Educational Leadership and Administration Certificate from George Washington University.

“I believe that teaching STEM and STEAM in schools encourages creativity and problem-solving in students, while also teaching them how fun the world around them can be,” says Tosin. “The Spring Break camp with the City of Takoma Park challenged the campers to
use the engineering design process and the 4Cs (collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking) to solve design challenges. I am looking forward to building upon these activities in the upcoming summer STEM camp in June.”

Another fun week of STEM camp is lined up for teens, June 26-June 30. Register now for a fun and educational week.

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

Public Notices, Takoma Park Newsletter

Farmers Market Season Sprouts in Takoma Park-Crossroads Farmers Market

Another farmers market also kicked off its newest season last month. The Crossroads Farmers Market—located on Anne St. at University Blvd. East—began its 17th season on Wednesday, April 26. Going through Nov. 22, the Crossroads Farmers Market is a “producers-only farmers market that features a range of vendors selling fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs, honey, coffee, flowers, and plants,” according to its website.

“Most of our vendors are returning and they come in year after year,” says Sara Servin, Senior Farmers Market Program Manager for Crossroads Community Food Network. “It’s smile-inducing to see everyone again after a long winter.”

This year, the market will feature a few new vendors, including Swamp Rose Cooperative, a worker-owned native plant nursery and landscaping company based in Montgomery County. Crossroads also partners with Takoma Park Presbyterian Church’s community kitchen to bring in ButterQueen Bakery, a Black-owned bakery specializing in southern homestyle pound cakes and treats with vegan and gluten-free options; and Cookie Yay, a father-daughter business that provides natural, gourmet, gluten free, vegan, non-GMO, and allergen-friendly cookie options.

Like the Takoma Park Farmers Market, Crossroads accepts federal nutrition benefits.

“We were the first in the U.S. to match SNAP at farmers markets and have been doing it for 17 seasons,” says Servin. “We match up to $60 in SNAP funds, and WIC is $1-to-$1 without a limit. I think that the
WIC sales make up about a third of total market sales, so it’s pretty significant.”

Servin says Crossroads is about much more than just the produce. The goal is to make it a social event for those looking for fresh produce, including hosting concerts and special events like health screenings, cooking demonstrations, and seed giveaways.

“We do a lot of activities that bring in the community and get people coming back week after week,” says Servin.

On May 10, Crossroads is holding special events for Mother’s Day, including plant giveaways, raffles and special discounts for moms. For information on Crossroads Farmers Market, visit crossroadscommunityfoodnetwork.org/farmers-market.

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

Public Notices, Takoma Park Newsletter

Farmers Market Season Sprouts in Takoma Park-Takoma Park Farmer’s Market

It’s that time of the year again. The days are getting longer, bees are buzzing, and the flowers are blooming. That also means it’s the season for fresh, local produce at the city’s farmers markets.

On Sunday, April 16, the Takoma Park Farmers Market—located at 6931 Laurel Ave.—kicked off its 40th season with Mayor Talisha Searcy ringing the opening bell.

The market runs on Sundays year-round and has fresh, seasonal produce, breads, meats, cheeses and more, all sourced within 125 miles of Takoma Park. When the market began in 1983, it was the D.C. area’s first Sunday market and had only six vendors along Laurel Avenue.

“It started as a small market that the city of Takoma Park introduced to bring fresh local produce to its residents,” says Laura Barclay of Main Street Takoma. “Now it’s completely farmer-run. There’s 24 full-time vendors and very little vendor turnover. When a space opens up, they look to replace the farmer or producer with something similar. If they lose a meat vendor, they look to add a meat vendor. It’s very curated to make sure everyone’s shopping
needs are met.”

According to a proclamation from Mayor Searcy marking the 40th anniversary, three family farms have continued to be a part of the market since the earliest years: Potomac Vegetable Farms (40 years), Twin Springs Fruit Farm (40 years), and Black Rock Orchard (39 years).

“The Takoma Park Farmers Market is a Takoma Park institution that is a lively, weekly shopping destination for residents and visitors and a favorite meeting place for neighbors,” the mayor’s proclamation reads.

This year, the Takoma Park Farmers Market has a new vendor—Oksana’s Produce Farm—which offers a variety of fermented foods including pickles, kraut, kimchi, pickled onions, and much more.

The Takoma Park Farmers Market is a proud supporter of federal benefits, and vendors accept credits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program(SNAP); Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT); the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program; Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Assistance (Senior FMNP); and D.C. WIC.

“The market has been a longtime supporter of the programs and offers the ability for EBT, WIC, and SNAP users to use their benefits at the market,” says Barclay. “The market applies for grants and matches a portion of what’s spent.”

The market is currently matching the first $10 spent through nutrition benefit programs.

In addition to accepting nutrition benefits, the market also partners with Shepherd’s Table and Small Things Matter to collect unsold food to serve the unhoused and others in need.

The market also hosts special events, like an upcoming garlic day that will feature cooking demonstrations and its annual pie contest in September that raises over $1,000.

“Last year, we had people lined up down the block to try the pies,” says Barclay. “There was a very strong sense of community pride.”

For more on Takoma Park Farmers Market, visit www.takomaparkmarket.com.

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