July 2015 Voices of Central Pennsylvania by Voices of Central Pennsylvania, Inc, a 501(c)3 Non-Profit

VOICES Stacie Bird pg. 7

OF CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA Thoughtful. Fearless. Free.

Police Museum pg. 17

A CLOSER LOOK AT LOCAL ARTS FEST ARTISTS Pg. 4

IN THIS ISSUE:

July 2015

Issue #217

Page Two: A changing of the guard By Marilyn Jones A new day is dawning here at Voices. I am finishing up a year as editor-in-chief and passing the helm to Katherine Watt. This job has been an illuminating experience for me. Although I had already been a writer for many years, I had never been in any editorial position. My learning curve was steep, and it took me awhile to figure it out. I was able to do so because of all the help I had: wonderful writers who seemed to appear out of nowhere, Amanda Dash, who was learning her layout job as I learned mine, our current layout person, Luciano Sormani, who was immediately willing to help before he was actually hired, the Board, who were very kind and supportive, and my husband, Jon Vickers-Jones, who took on the advertising job and helped me figure out how to organize the ads. It is with great excitement that I welcome Katherine Watt to her new position as editor-in-chief. She has already contributed hard-hitting,

EDITORIAL BOARD CO-EDITORS

MARILYN JONES & KATHERINE WATT Co-Editors important articles to the paper, and will be an excellent editor. She is a highly qualified and organized leader who will keep Voices speaking loudly and smartly for years to come. Welcome, Katherine! By Katherine Watt I’m very excited to be stepping into

opinion pieces commenting on local issues. Letters should be a maximum of 250 words;

copyeditor@voicesweb.org

opinion pieces should be a maximum of 800

editor@voicesweb.org LAYOUT

words. We reserve the right to edit length. Because of space limitations we cannot guarantee publication. Send submissions to:

Luciano Sormani

editor@voicesweb.org.

arts@voicesweb.org

Letters become the property of Voices.

OPERATIONS

ADVERTISING POLICY

Advertising Manager

Write to advertising@voicesweb.org for

Linda Meek

rate information. Only publication signifies

advertising@voicesweb.org Circulation Manager Kevin Handwerk circulation@voicesweb.org Webmaster Bill Eichman bill@voicesweb.org BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Elaine Meder-Wilgus

acceptance of an ad by Voices. Publication of an ad does not imply endorsement or recommendation by Voices of any product or service. Deadline to reserve space is the 15th of the month. Cancellation of an ad by the customer after the 15th incurs full charge. Voices accepts political ads regardless of party or viewpoint.

Voices of Central Pennsylvania is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit volunteer organization. Your donations and bequests keep Voices free and independent. Donate at voicesweb.org or email: editor@voicesweb.org for details. CONTACT US

Arthur Goldschmidt Jr.

Voices of Central Pennsylvania P.O. Box 10066 State College, PA 16805-0066 editor@voicesweb.org voicesweb.org

Chip Mefford Treasurer

2....... PAGE TWO: A changing of the guard 3....... 10 Reasons to visit the Bellefonte Art Museum 4....... A closer look at local Arts Fest artists 6....... People are a work of art 7 . . ...... Artist of the month ~ Stacie Bird 8....... Fast, sustainable pasta from Fasta Pasta 9....... Ground Ivy - One of the great healing herbs 10...... Local programs assisting sexual assault victims 11...... Students call for eduction on sexual consent 12...... A first-hand account of the Baltimore protests 13...... A new day on the streets of Baltimore 14...... Poet of the month ~ Katherine Bode-Lang 14...... Whitey Blue

SUPPORT VOICES

Vice President Secretary

IN THIS ISSUE

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Voices encourages letters to the editor and

Marilyn Jones Katherine Watt

the editor’s role at Voices. I graduated from Penn State in 1996 with a degree in Philosophy, and have worked as a reporter and columnist for newspapers in Massachusetts, Arizona, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Since moving back to State College in 2008 with my husband

and two children, I’ve been involved in community organizing work with Spring Creek Homesteading Fund, State College Community Bill of Rights campaign, Stop the PSU Pipeline campaign, Friends & Farmers Cooperative Steady State College and the Save State College Water campaign. In addition to getting to know the staff, contributors and board members better, and learning the ropes for layout and printing procedures, my goals are to maintain the strong arts, culture, health, nature, weather and other sections; deepen and expand Voices coverage of local government and politics, and local nonprofit and civic organizational work; and strengthen the bench of citizen journalists skilled and willing to help keep each other and the wider community informed about those community power centers and change agents. Drop in to the Voices office on Thursdays from 10 a.m. to noon for more information.

Peter Morris

15...... Summer reading: Re-thinking the Beach Book 16...... Canada Warbler, a bird of summer, eh! 17...... Former policeman needs space to educate 18...... College Boy graduates 19...... Whistleblower intimidation at Penn State 20..... A little forecasting competition 21...... A piece of Eden to create food for the soul 21...... Pennsylvania Organic FarmFest offers education 22.. .... Fourth Annual Pa. Organic FarmFest kicks off

22.. .... The wool village is growing!

July 2015

10 Reasons to Visit the Bellefonte Art Museum By: STEVEN DEUTSCH sdeutsch22@gmail.com

maintain or improve it—in fact, one could easily argue that by bringing people downtown it is contributing to the local economy. Funding is through grants and donations. For the past three summers, the Museum programs have worked around a theme. This year it is “The Art of the World,” which to quote the website, “will focus on cultural uniqueness, especially food and art to raise awareness and bolster good will in our community.” Listen up. Some of the planned events are for members only. Past history suggests attendees will be talking about these events with wonder for a long, long time. Membership is the biggest bargain in all of Centre County.

variety of art. There are 1}Wide nearly 150 local artists who show

and sell at the museum. These artists paint, sculpt, draw, collage or do something that is totally new. In one of the Museum’s galleries, you may find a piece of art that opens your eyes to a new way of seeing, perhaps to a new way of living.

building. The Museum 2}Beautiful is housed in the John Blair Linn

House. Did you know that the house is over 200 years old? Did you know that it once housed a station on the Underground Railroad? Did you know that two of the house’s three stories have been lovingly restored under the knowledgeable eye of the Museum Director, Patricia House? The house is spectacular in its own right and would be worth a visit, even art-free.

hours. The Museum 3}Excellent is open year-round from 1 to

4:30 PM on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays—or by appointment. The First Sunday public receptions have become a monthly destination for nearly 200 of your Centre County neighbors. First Sunday celebrates a new gallery show and offers free family art activities in the Children’s Gallery or around the Museum and its gardens.

evening programs. Evening 4}Great programs - often on Fridays –

feature the “Art of Words”—“Out Loud” for poetry and “What’s in a Word” for writing. Remember February? Sitting in that comfortable, colorful gallery with other happily engaged people listening to a poetry recital gave me the strength to make it to the spring. Just this year, we had the pleasure of hearing Katie Bode-Lang, a Centre County resident, read from her wonderful book, “The Reformation,” the winner of the American Poetry Review first book prize. It’s a hospitable venue for local poets to read and, since there is an open mike, you might find yourself on stage reciting a piece from the epic story of your life. I have.

Wide variety of art shows. In 2014, there were about 20 different art shows. The “Windows on the World gallery” features art from around the world—Japan, China, Africa, Canada. It has also had art from out of this world, with an exhibit of NASA space photography. There’s a special gallery for showing and selling jewelry, with a different artist’s work each month. The Museum also has an architecture gallery, featuring the work of Anna Wagner Keichline—a Bellefonte woman who was well ahead of her time. The architecture gallery has special events—including a recent

gifts. You need a gift 9}Fantastic for your great-aunt Martha? Well

the artwork in the Museum is for sale! There are wonderful art cards for sale. A new print gallery has opened on the second floor, featuring three different artists each month. The Museum even has a web site (bellefontemuseum.org) Photo by KAREN DEUTSCH with special sections to showcase art and events. Soon you’ll be able to buy The Bellefonte Art Museum in the John your favorite artist’s work in the new Blair Linn House at 133 N. Allegheny virtual gallery. There is something for Street. Come on in. everyone. book launch of “Women of Steel and Stone,” by Anna M. Lewis.

Patricia House, Executive Director of the Museum has worked for over eight years to help create a destination in Bellefonte to celebrate the creative arts. She brings with her 25 years of Museum management and development experience. Under her stewardship, the Museum has grown from one small history gallery to six art galleries with hundreds of members and artists. Large parts of the building have been restored and two gardens, including one with a large fountain, have been added. Over the next five years, Pat would like to see further improvements to the facility. Her top priority is to restore the two porches and the crawlspace between the second and third floors that once served as a station for the Underground Railroad. Addition of a large exhibit space, not necessarily attached to the Museum, would allow for travelling exhibitions from other museums, expanding the cultural variety available to Centre County residents. Perhaps, the Museum might, someday be able to organize their own travelling show! The growth of the Bellefonte

6}one but two intimate gardens, Beautiful gardens. There are not

one with a new fountain. We are a hardy bunch in Central Pennsylvania, laughing at what winter throws at us, but how nice it is to sit in a shady garden adjacent to a lovely Museum building on a spring day and contemplate contemplation.

You can bring the 7}Kid-friendly. children to the art museum.

There’s a special area for family art activity and it’s buzzing on first Sundays. The Museum partners with local schools, doing school art shows and classroom visits. There are also popular summer camps taught by local art teachers. The Museum was even recognized on the White House blog as a “Let’s Move” facility—a place combining heathy food and movement for children.

company. You will be in 8}Good good company. The Museum has nearly 400 members and runs almost entirely on the power of its 50 volunteers. It had roughly 7,000 visitors in 2013-2014, a number it is sure to surpass this year. The Museum has an operating budget of just over $100,000, and this year for the first time it has two salaried employees. Art teachers receive honorariums. While the Linn House is owned by the Borough of Bellefonte, the Museum receives no financial support from Bellefonte or Centre County to help

Photo by KAREN DEUTSCH

Part of the Windows of the World Gallery on the first floor. Art from around the world (and outer space) is featured. the receptions. And the 10}Oh, food. Who could have predicted that the core group of volunteers would also become the nucleus of an exceptional hospitality group? The food is interesting, tempting and delicious. And no, they don’t give out recipes—you’ve got to be there to sample it. What could be better on a Sunday afternoon then going to a beautiful Museum building, viewing the work of talented artists and then repairing to the tea room to sample delicious tidbits and drink some specially prepared Sangria? By the way, admission is free. Priceless. And there’s much more to come.

Museum gives Pat House, employees Lori Fisher and Amy Koll, the Trustees and the volunteers much to be proud of. Pat seems most pleased with the deep involvement of the local artists in planning the direction of the Museum. As Pat told us, “no museum has more respect for the local artist.” The local artists we have spoken to wholeheartedly agree.  Steven and Karen Deutsch have lived in State College since Hector was a pup. Steve writes a satire column for Voices while Karen is an artist. They love going to the Bellefonte Art Museum and hope to see you there.

July 2015

A closer look at local Arts Fest Artists By: ART GOLDSCHMIDT axg2@psu.edu

The second weekend in July now has three concurrent arts festivals for Central Pennsylvania residents and visitors. The newest is Lemont Fest 2015. The 23rd People’s Choice Arts Festival will occupy the grounds of the Military Museum near Boalsburg. The 49th annual Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts will be held on Penn State’s University Park Campus and in downtown State College July 9 through 12 (youth day is July 8). Voices interviewed three local artists who will take part in the sidewalk sales of the Central Pennsylvania ArtsFest:

Photo by Michele Randall

Art by Michele Randall

Michele Randall (woodcuts and encaustics), Sandi Garris (painting on silk), and Pat Little (photography). Michele Randall will be displaying her artwork here for the first time. She earned her MFA from Penn State in printmaking, but she has lately taken up encaustics. This technique uses multiple layers of hot wax, mixed with a wax medium and softened on a griddle. She applies the wax layers with an artist’s brush to a board on which she has already made an outline to create the image, similar to a woodcut. She uses a miniature iron or a heat gun to fuse the wax layers, but hopes to get a blowtorch in the near future. Her work shows an impressive variety of tints and hues because, she said, “color is very important to

me.” Her designs are mainly abstract. She works in short stretches, partly because she still has children at home, and because cleaning up encaustics is easier than it is for printmaking. Randall has displayed her work at Zola’s and the Bellefonte Art Museum. She teaches a Penn State evening art class that meets general education requirements for undergraduates who have no background in the visual arts. Sandi Garris’ main medium is fiber art, which she has been doing (and supporting herself) for thirty years while raising three children. She got some of her training at Village Crafts, where she became attracted to vivid colors, and was apprenticed to an Amish woman. Lately, she has been painting,

using liquid acrylic on a silk cloth on which she has already outlined her image, using Resist (gutta), a fastdrying, liquid-repelling, rubber-like substance. Her finished work is indeed colorful, reminiscent in its vividness of stained glass windows. Her artwork is unique in our area, and she is well-known for her skillful use of color. “People say that if they walk in and see my work, they feel happy,” she said. She loves what she does, works in long stretches, and has displayed and sold her art in many shows—most recently at Fort Worth, Texas. She has exhibited at the Arts Festival for at least twenty years. Her daughter, Karyn Debrasky, is also an artist (mixed media), and will exhibit separately at the Festival.

Pat Little, a career photojournalist who was trained at State High, Penn State, and Ohio University, took up photography as an art in the late 1990s. He worked for the Centre Daily Times for eighteen years and is the author of Penn State Then and Now, published by Penn State Press in 2000. His photographs have been published all over the world. A contract photographer for Reuters, he has taught photojournalism at Penn State since 1986. He served for 14 years as photo adviser to the Daily Collegian. His artistic technique is unique and complex. He places the object on a small and precise turntable, which is computer operated, as is his camera. Aided by a “smart friend” who wrote a program for his computer, he can

July 2015

Photo by ???

Artist Sandi Garris at work instruct it to rotate the object in small increments, and to have his camera take a shot each time it moves, until he has a 360 degree view of the object from all angles. He will then identify one spot and crops out one tiny row of pixels. He takes the same line from every shot he has taken of that object,

resulting in thousands of photos, each one pixel high. He brings the first image into a new frame and stacks the other images on top of it in the order that they were photographed, then compresses the whole stack, so that you see one line spiraling around the object.

The result can be seen in the two illustrations Little provided, one of the original object and the other of his final image. This technique is rare in still photography, but a video version of this technique was used in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, as a timetravel sequence.

Although he has always lived in State College and has exhibited his work intermittently at the Arts Festival since 1979, Little has presented his photos at many shows in the eastern United States. He won an award of excellence at the 2014 Festival.ď Ž

Photo by Pat Little

Pat Little, original subject and final image after processing.

July 2015

People are a Work of Art By: MARILYN S. JONES editor@voicesweb.org People are like forms of art. Just look around at your friends. I'm sure you all know a Pointillist. As defined by Webster's, these are people who apply "small strokes or dots of color to a surface so that from a distance they blend together." Don't you know someone who, the last time they visited you, talked on and on for hours and had nothing to say, but at the end made a big declaration as if they had just given the Gettysburg Address? And you were so mad at yourself because you suffered for 45 minutes trying to grasp at the straws of their conversation in an attempt to comprehend their point, when at last they got to it and it didn't even relate to their discourse? To be fair, there are some Pointillists who do know what they are talking about, and by cleverly and carefully suggesting fragments of their idea to you, they eventually supply you with a magnificent realization. I love this method of communication because it allows the receiver to draw his own conclusions from the conversation or written material, thus making him feel very clever. Then there are the Minimalists. Minimal art is "abstract art and especially sculpture consisting primarily of simple geometric forms executed in an impersonal style." We all know people like this. They walk around in a world of their own as if they did not come from the same planet as you and I. They have their own values and their own code of ethics, and don't really care what yours are. They go to a doctor or lawyer for advice, then get angry when they get it. They disagree with all authority figures and have their own simple explanation for everything. "He doesn't have an ear infection, it's just a cold in his ear, which will go away without that expensive antibiotic you're pushing," or "I don't think we need to bother with that long, drawn-out settlement procedure you're suggesting; just let some time pass and she'll come to her senses by herself." Don't try to tell a Minimalist anything; they know everything already - it's all very basic, clear and simple to them. Of course, there is an up-side to the Minimalists. They like their homes clean and orderly, so you can expect to enjoy a spotless environment when visiting. Certainly everyone knows plenty of no-nonsense realists. Realism, depicting "fidelity in art and literature to nature or to real life and to accurate representation without idealization," can be one of the most comforting personal styles. We can all relate to these folks. They see it like it is, tell it like it is, and never leave us in doubt. As reassuring and uncomplicated as this style can be, it can also lead to more treacherous territory. The realist has never heard of tact. He or she is as likely to tell you exactly what they think of your new unflattering hairstyle, or your child's unruly behavior, as they are to say anything nice. They never heard of the "white lie." Although one can get used to this type of communication by summing it up as "Sally's way," it can be hard to take at vulnerable moments, like early in the morning, on an empty stomach, or before bedtime. I just put the phone off the hook and certainly avoid a full-bodied confrontation with these people if I feel sensitive or irritable on a given day. On the gentler side, there are the Impressionists. Impressionism is defined by Webster's as "the depiction of scene, emotion or character, by details intended to achieve effectiveness more by evoking subjective and sensory impressions than by recreating an objective reality." Simplified, this means "one who softens the blow of reality." Your impressionist friends are the ones who always have something nice to say about any situation. They see only the good side of everyone's nature and like to paint a pretty picture when relaying stories of their daily experiences. They are pleasant to be with, are known as optimists, and never seem to have a bad word to say about anyone. Actually though, this behavior can become not only tiring, but suspicious. You begin to wonder if these people really are the incarnation of "Pollyanna" or if they are just hiding their true feelings and thoughts from you. Sometimes these people take the form of "yes men." Although they may be easy to be around, they

can drive you nuts after a while. You will begin to yearn to see a realist, and this will signal to you that something is wrong. Let's turn now to our friends the Surrealists. They practice the life art of "producing fantastic or incongruous imagery or effects in art, literature or theater by means of unnatural juxtapositions and combinations." These are your happy, peppy friends. They see the world from a different point of view that, although it may be bizarre, is definitely interesting. They always have the weirdest retorts to ordinary questions. Like when you ask "So, how's the insurance biz, Joe?" Joe answers, "Biz ain't bad, but you know what my Aunt Ethel always says, 'If you take two wise men and put them behind the counter of a delicatessen and give them each a roll of waxed paper and a customer, the one with the most elusive smile will always sell the bigger cut of liverwurst.'" Now that's what I call a good answer. However, this can get a bit difficult when you are trying to get down to basics and definitive calculations. "Now how much do I owe you, Lisa?" "Well, let me see. If I had a pound of candy and an encyclopedia to drag around for the next week and a half, that would be $34.50. But, as it is, you only owe me a five dollar bill." The main problem you have with a relationship of this kind is that if you don't understand what these people are saying to you (and you rarely do), you tend to feel dumb. But it's all in the mind of the beholder, because the Surrealists don't look at it that way. They just figure they're smarter than the rest of us, therefore our stupidity is not a personal reflection upon our lack of intelligence, but a simple and apparent fact of life. Get it? Now, class, I hope you understand all this thoroughly. If you don't, don't call me up and ask me what I mean, because I am a Dadaist. That means that I follow "a movement in art and literature based on deliberate irrationality and negation of traditional artistic values," therefore, I disagree with everything I have just said, which doesn't matter at all because I don't know what I'm talking about anyway. Class dismissed.ď Ž Marilyn Jones is a writer and Dadaist.

July 2015

Artist of the Month ~ Stacie Bird By KASSIA JANESCH hrg5049@psu.edu Appropriately enough, Stacie Bird’s first camera was given to her at age 12 by her parents to keep her occupied on their birding excursions. However, her first official instruction with photography began in high school when she had an art teacher who let her experiment. Bird’s preferred medium is photography, though she has done some collage and metal working in the past. Her photographs often showcase shadows, rust, or neglected buildings – situations in which Mother Nature and the manmade world meet and nature is winning, culminating in a beautiful juxtaposition. Bird’s talent lies in the fact that she sees and captures what other people don’t – a realization she had on a trip to Mexico when she was working in the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences. She is a member of the Lemont Art Alliance and is a Bellefonte Art Museum artist, and has several shows coming up: Juniper Village at Brookline in June and July, SPE Federal Credit Union in September and October, at the National Penn Bank on North Atherton Street in December and January, and a February exhibit at the Community Gallery at the Bellefonte Museum. To check out her work, visit her website at birdworks.smugmug.com.

Photos by Stacie Bird

The window with Virginia Creeper was taken in North Carolina and the blue door shot (left) is from Ireland.

July 2015

Slow food? How about fast, sustainable pasta? By: MEGHAN REYNOLDS mreynolds310@gmail.com

What started as a marketing class project at Penn State eventually ended up as a real business: Fasta and Ravioli Company. Bob Ricketts, the founder and owner, had no previous background in making pasta, but he loved it and wanted to learn all about it. With the help of his adviser teaching him on a small pasta machine in a school research kitchen, Ricketts learned how to make pasta and decided to start selling his creations locally. So far he’s been extremely successful. Ricketts supplies local restaurants such as Otto’s, the Tavern, Happy Valley Brewing Company, Rotelli’s, Spat’s, and others with his pasta products. He also sells his wares at several farmers’ markets and has two stores, in State College and in Pleasant Gap.

Photo by Meghan Reynolds// VOICES

Goofing Around - Matt McConnell , Bob Ricketts & Jeremiah McClanahan goofing around in front of the shop.

Ricketts said that typical store-bought pasta is dehydrated and contains chemical additives with names no one can pronounce. This process preserves the noodles for the long journey from production to store to table, but the noodles lose quality along the way. Fasta’s pasta ingredients are flour, water and natural foods and flavorings, which provide a more savory and textured taste. Fasta makes more than 60 types of pasta and more than 40 types of ravioli, along with sauces to pair with them. The all-in-one pasta cutter can customize to even more shapes and sizes as well, based on the customer’s needs. Fasta has experimented with countless combinations of dough flavors and various fillings to create what Ricketts calls “love on a plate.” Customer favorites include roasted red pepper fettuccine, garlic basil G spaghetti, New Orleans Voodoo (a take on shrimp and grits in ravioli form), and man three-cheese ravioli, stuffed with ricotta, Parmesan and mascarpone. field Fasta and Ravioli Company also delivers. Pastas, raviolis and sauces to create fam mouthwatering meals can be ordered online. cam Whenever possible, Ricketts buys ingredients from local farmers, and he Thes makes sure everything else is grown and produced in the U.S. It’s sometimes next difficult for Ricketts to get exactly what he wants when buying fresh local rub ingredients, so he’s starting a garden to grow custom herbs for his recipes. He’s is an also thinking about setting up solar panels and a small windmill to reduce the pote store's dependence on outside energy sources. nuis Ricketts cares about making the world a better place, and tries to incorporate trail sustainability into his business as much as possible. It takes a lot of work to run a a de sustainable, customer-centered business like Fasta and Ravioli Company, from cree buying locally to driving all over Centre County for deliveries to spending long defin days at farmers’ markets, but in the end, Ricketts said, the customer interaction tren makes it all worthwhile: meeting new people and forming relationships is his cree favorite part of the job. T Ricketts and everyone else at Fasta freely share recipe suggestions and brig friendly conversation, helping customers find great food to enjoy.  flow

Photo by Meghan Reynolds// VOICES

Fasta’s Cornerstone -This Italian Pasta Machine is the cornerstone of our production and great pasta.

can Meghan Reynolds is a Penn State student minoring in Sustainability for w Leadership. G

July 2015

CES

Photo by JP Hamon//WIKIMEDIA.ORG

Glechoma hederacea

Ground Ivy – One of the great healing herbs By: LINDA MEEK stonepondfarm@hotmail.com Ground ivy, Glechoma hederacea, is known by many names: gill run over, creeping Charlie, or field balm to name a few. It is a member of the mint family. When rubbed, the leaves give off a smell of camphor with a touch of citronella and peppermint. These scents are great for repelling insects. The next time you're on a walk, grab a handful and rub them on your arms and legs. Ground ivy is another weed that is not used to its fullest potential, but instead, discarded as a bedding nuisance. This small, invasive creeper grows in trailers that can extend to 36 inches. It forms a dense mat wherever it grows, and it loves to creep into your beds from the lawn, masking the defined borders we love so much. Those little trenches you dig to keep that definition? Ground ivy creeps right over them. The small scalloped leaves are heart shaped and bright green. The small mauve to violet colored flowers adorn the vine May through June. This plant can bloom up to three months, which is exceptional for wildflowers. Ground ivy is one of the great healing herbs.

Compresses made from a concentrated decoction, a very strong tea, are used for abscesses, wounds, cuts and bruises. In a hot herbal tea, it is especially good for treating nasal, throat, or ear infections by disinfecting the mucous membranes. It helps

Compresses made from a concentrated decoction, a very strong tea, are used for abscesses, wounds, cuts and bruises.

clear the lungs as an expectorant, strengthens the bronchial tubes, and energizes the gastrointestinal organs and the urinary system. Sitting in a bath steeping with some ground ivy gives relief to even the most miserable head colds, and can relax tense nerves. Infused in oil, ground ivy is a potent healing oil. It is excellent for wounds and bruises, and as a massage oil for muscular pain. The dried leaves used

as a tea are ideal for headaches, and sinusitis. Reports have been documented that ground ivy is a stimulant. It is said that nineteenth century immigrants would make a beer from ground ivy and women would deliver a jug of “beer” to the men working in the fields with their lunch. The men would work vigorously the remainder of the day. So make your tea mild and do not drink it before you want to go to sleep. Also, the flowers make a lovely spring garnish for a salad. Humans are not the only animals that are waking up and needing nutrition after a long winter. Skunk, raccoon, opossum and rabbits are beginning to come out of their winter dens and are hungry for fresh greens as well. Many of them are carrying young or nursing young in their dens. Our roads and highways intersect their search for food and fresh water. Please drive safely and slowly and allow them to pass. Linda Meek is the owner and operator of Stone Pond Farm in Julian, Pa.

10 |

July 2015

Local programs assisting sexual assault victims By: BRIANNA SHEA Bxs5176@psu.edu Penn State has been rocked by a large number of sexual assault reports since the Jerry Sandusky scandal broke in November 2011. The college has taken initiatives to address this issue, offering services to those affected by sexual violence. According to The Daily Collegian, President Eric Barron created the Task Force on Sexual Assault and Harassment in July 2014. The task force was asked to make recommendations to wipe out sexual violence.

students to determine what they think will be helpful,” said Mary Anne Knapp, Clinical Worker/Senior Staff Therapist for CAPS. “It really is an individualized holistic approach for each student because the ‘stuck points’ may be different.” For general counseling services, CAPS charges $15 for each 50 minute session, up to a total of nine sessions. Fees are waived for survivors of sexual assaults, relationship violence, stalking and gender-based bullying. “The CAPS staff members participate in university and community committees to address sexual assault prevention and intervention,” Knapp

order to make recovery more doable.” Help is also available at the Center for Women Students, located in 204 Boucke Building, including support for students who have been affected by sexual violence, relationship violence, stalking, harassment, and other issues. “We offer advocacy. We will go with anyone who has been victimized to the police station,” CWS Director Peggy Lorah said. “We offer academic advocacy, we talk or email instructors about a student being a victim, and request accommodations.” such as “trauma drops,” so students can withdraw from classes during recovery without negatively affecting their grade

point averages. Off-campus, women can obtain help at the Centre County Women’s Resource Center, including support during police reporting procedures and medical examinations. To promote healthy sexual relationships, “we talk with classes, R.A. groups, and we work closely with the Center for Women Students,” said Ann Arde, director of the Centre County Women’s Resource Center The resource center offers crisis intervention, a domestic violence support group and a sexual violence support group. The domestic violence group focuses on emotional, physical, verbal, mental, and financial abuse. The sexual violence group provides information and an outlet for people to discuss childhood sexual abuse and issues revolving around sexual abuse and violence. These women have a message for survivors: “We are here for you. We want to help,” Knapp said. If you or anyone you know has been affected by sexual assault and would like help, please contact:

Police: 911 CAPS: 814-863-0395 Centre County Women’s Resource Center: 814-234-5050 Center for Women Students: 814-863-2027 CAN HELP line: 1-800-643-5432 Photo by Breanna Shea// VOICES

Ann Arde is the director of the Centre County Women’s Resource Center. The center is a safe haven for those who have been affected by sexual assault and domestic abuse. On January 29, 2015, the task force presented a list of 18 recommendations, including hiring a full-time Title IX coordinator and creating an office to handle Title IX violations. Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education. Eleven of the 18 recommendations are set to be handled by the office tasked with investigating these violations. According to news.psu.edu, Barron accepted the entire list of recommendations on February 17, 2015. Penn State and the State College community offer an array of existing services to help survivors. Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), located in the Student Health Center, is a safe place to go for help. CAPS provides counseling, intervention and a support group solely for sexual assault survivors. “CAPS counselors work with

said. “During the fall semesters of 2013 and 2014 there were 85 students each semester coming in related to sexual assault. Some of these assaults happened in high school or while students were off campus, but many occurred on campus.” She explained that CAPS counselors can help survivors understand that they’re not at fault for the assault, and to develop safety plans and relaxation techniques, noting that each survivor is different and will deal with their experience in his or her own way. Knapp said family and friends can also help survivors. “Listening, believing and supporting the survivor in ways the survivor chooses can be powerful in helping a victim recover from the trauma and move to feeling like a survivor,” Knapp said. “It’s always good to take things a day at a time or even parts of a day in

Brianna Shea is a recent graduate from Penn State with a B.A. in print journalism.

LOO KI N G FO R We’re looking for writers to produce well-researched, well-written articles of local interest. Contact Katherine Watt at: editor@voicesweb.org

July 2015

| 11

Students call for education on sexual consent By: BRIANNA SHEA Bxs5176@psu.edu that sexual intimacy would be welcome? mind, making it difficult for them to What denotes sexual consent I asked two females and two males make sound sexual decisions. Daphine between two adults? How can both how they signal to their partner that believes in abstinence before marriage, parties know that they are saying “Yes”? they are ready for sex, then compared but that verbally giving consent is Even though I got the “sex talk” from their answers. the only true way of giving consent to my mom when I was young, and learned Shannon, 20, said that consent someone’s partner. In her view, words about sex during health class in middle should be vocalized to a partner speak louder than actions. school, I never got advice about mutual before having intercourse. Consent is Daphine had never heard of classes consent: how to give consent or pamphlets that Penn to my partner and how to State hands out to students know if my partner wants to on consent. She lives in “Asking for consent and then asking again have sex. the North dorms and has is very important,” Colin said. “It’s when the As a female, before I have seen advertisements about had sex, I’ve always told my mind and the body connect when consent is awareness of consent on partner if I wanted to, and, the bulletin boards, but truly consent.” luckily, have not encountered even those were not visually anyone pushy or aggressive. appealing enough for her and My current partner and I some others to stop and read . have been together for almost “The million dollar four years, and he has always question [for decreasing asked me explicitly, “Do you want to important for her to have and to give to sexual assaults] is how to bring have sex?” her partner to make sure they are both awareness and education to Penn State I’ve sometimes been annoyed by this comfortable with what they are doing. about consent,” Daphine said. behavior, because I thought my actions “I vocalize my consent. If I didn’t want Ian, 21, feels that consent is about were telling him I was interested. making your intentions known to do it, I would say ‘No.’ ” I asked him why he always asks, and She believes that Penn State can do to the other person, and that the his answer surprised me. more to educate students about mutual communication must be verbal. “Verbally having consent makes me consent. “I can generally read body language, feel more comfortable to have sex with “The school needs to address consent but I am pretty worried about being you,” he said. “I don’t want it to feel during Freshman Seminar; (freshmen) aggressive or unwelcome. I am always ‘rapey,’ as if I am pushing you to have are transitioning to a new environment pretty conservative in situations like sex with me. I want to know you want to and on their own for the first time,” she that,” he said. have sex with me.” Ian has not seen any information said. I’m glad he asks me, because he’s Daphine, 21, has the strong opinion regarding whether Penn State offers telling me he cares about me and how that consent must be vocalized. classes or education about consent. I feel. “Consent would be being in the right He believes Penn State’s efforts to Do students know when they are state, no alcohol, no drugs, and saying raise student awareness about consent giving and receiving consent for sex? ‘yes’ willingly,” Daphine said. She are inadequate. “I have not had any Do students believe that consent always believes that the meaning of consent exposure to it, nor do I know anybody involves saying “yes,” or are there other, has become blurry due to heavy use of who has. The closest thing is probably more subtle ways to signal to a partner alcohol and drugs that cloud a person’s when I handed condoms out on

Valentine’s Day, out front of Willard,” Ian said. Colin, 21, a junior, believes that giving verbal consent is the clearest way of saying “yes” to your partner before having sex. “Asking for consent and then asking again is very important,” Colin said. “It’s when the mind and the body connect when consent is truly consent.” Colin, like the rest of the students interviewed, said he has not had much exposure to university awareness campaigns about consent. He has seen bulletin boards in the dorms regarding what sexual assault is and what to do if it happens to you or someone you know, but he has not seen anything about consent. Colin wants to see the university take steps to bring awareness to the students. These four people agreed there was nothing “subtle” about communication when it comes to sex. They all feel strongly that consent must be given verbally, when sober, and in the right state of mind. Being intoxicated and saying “yes” may not lead a person to do what he or she really wants to do. Even if a person feels comfortable at first and then decides to back out, these students are clear that your partner should never force himself or herself upon you. What does consent mean to them? Solid and sober verbal “yes” statements between sexual partners. Brianna Shea is a recent graduate of Penn State, with a B.A. in Print Journalism.

12 |

July 2015

A first-hand account of the Baltimore protests By: SHARON BARNEY sharon@sharonbarneylaw.com David Flores saw community members line the streets of the Western District of Baltimore 24 hours after Freddie Gray died. “There was a lot of deep tension, anger, pain, and raw emotional energy that was coming out,” Flores said. “People were calling out black police officers for protecting their own instead of protecting the community. Some of the police officers started crying. It was stunning to see.” The story of Freddie Gray’s arrest and death has had a widespread impact. Gray, a 25-year-old black man living in Baltimore’s Western District, was arrested on April 12, 2015. Police officers claimed that he was in possession of an illegal switchblade, although a later investigation showed that his pocket knife was legal. Between 8:39 a.m. and 9:24 a.m. that morning, the police van carrying Gray made four stops, not one of them to a medical center. Yet Photo by U.S. Army National Guard Sgt. Margaret Taylor//WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Gray suffered a critical neck injury. News of Gray’s mistreatment and subsequent coma spread through Maryland Army National Guard Soldiers and local law enforcement watch protesters gathered in front of City Hall, the community, and hundreds of Baltimoreans Baltimore, April 30, 2015 protested outside of the Western District police curfew in white, affluent neighborhoods, while the nationally, about issues relating to race, police station. Tragically, Gray died on April 19. police officers were concentrated in poor, black militarization, income inequality, and governmental “During the first few days, the protests were very neighborhoods. White protestors out after 10 accountability. visceral,” Flores says. There was little chanting and p.m. were given numerous notices and chances to More protests, anger, and attention will come to few signs. It was pure emotion tied to decades of leave the area past the curfew, and many were not Baltimore once the trials for the six police officers living in a complicated city with a long history of arrested. Black protestors were grabbed, pepper- begin, but Flores remains optimistic. “We did not segregation. Baltimore is described as being two sprayed, and shackled if they were seen out past 10 bring a revolution to a city (through the protests),” cities - an affluent, p.m. racially and ethnically Surprisingly, on diverse center, May 1, Marilyn Mosby, Flores was in the Penn North district when surrounded by the the charges were announced. The emotion the state’s attorney in Eastern and Western Baltimore, announced Districts, which are among the protestors was less pain, more that criminal charges low-income and exuberance. Disturbingly, in contrast to would be filed against predominantly black. the six police officers the crowd’s enthusiasm, law enforcement Flores, a responsible for Gray’s presence increased and became more lifelong resident arrest. The charges of Baltimore and militarized. “There were tanks, high assault ranged from secondcurrent law student degree murder, the rifles…it looked like a war zone,” at the University of most serious charge, Maryland School of against Officer Caesar Law, volunteered to Goodson, Jr., to be a legal observer assault, manslaughter, during the protests, false imprisonment, and misconduct in office. Flores someone who ensures that police and government was in the Penn North district when the charges actors are held accountable if they violate protesters’ were announced. The emotion among the protestors constitutional rights. “We would make sure that was less pain, more exuberance. Disturbingly, in those arrested would be connected with legal contrast to the crowd’s enthusiasm, law enforcement Photo by Source (WP:NFCC#4)// WIKIPEDIA.ORG support if they needed it,” Flores said. presence increased and became more militarized. A photo of Freddie Gray There were plenty who needed legal support. At “There were tanks, high assault rifles…it looked like least 486 protesters were arrested, with charges a war zone,” Flores said. Flores says, “but I hope there is a revolution in the ranging from disorderly conduct to burglary and Things have quieted down in Baltimore. A “new way people from the community view the inequality assault. Some were kept in jail for over 48 hours normal” has spread across the city. There is still in services, opportunities and policing between the without being officially charged with a crime, while ongoing tension. Some believe that Mayor Stephanie two Baltimores. We need realistic expectations and others were kept even longer. The mandatory curfew Rawlings-Blake went too far in the law enforcement a meaningful response.”  of 10 p.m. in certain parts of the city added to the action and policies that were implemented. Others number of arrestees. Enforcement of the curfew believe she did not go far enough to prevent looting Sharon Barney practices immigration law, highlighted the continuing issues and tensions and property damage, especially in the outskirts family law, employment law, and victim rights law related to race and income level. Flores noted that of the city. But one thing is certain: the protests in the Centre County region. there was hardly any police activity to enforce the have sparked a continuing dialogue in the city and

| 13

July 2015

A new day on the streets of Baltimore

authority’s inclination to maintain order by confronting protesting citizens who could be potential lawbreakers, the police withdrew. The first odd thing we noticed They allowed the protesters space. about Baltimore on the Saturday of More importantly, they permitted the occupation was the behavior of the other members of the community National Guard. They were friendly. to intervene, to interact with their Almost everyone of them that we neighbors. The message was simple: encountered said “good morning” or We understand your anger and “beautiful day,” the kind of chit-chat frustration. Be patient; let justice take that passes between neighbors on a its course. warm spring day. It was a lot to ask. There have been The troops were many - too many decked out in full - young unarmed military gear, bulletblack men killed by proof vests, visored police these days, and helmets, AK-47’s. But justice has not been most of them had blind. It has seemed their helmets off. They narcoleptic. were taking selfies Police officers who and group pictures to have killed black men ONS send home. A few of us have been exonerated Hall, took the opportunity or not even charged. to take photos with Often they have said them. that they were just A white police doing their job, as if officer was fixing a murder was part of the bicycle tire for a black job description. kid while his partner CHARLES DUMAS This time the held his gun. Another Theater Professor, PSU people’s trust was was making balloon justified. On Friday, animals. There was a the recently-elected sense of celebration States Attorney for in the community. This was not The Baltimore, Marilyn Mosby, announced Wire, but it wasn’t Mister Rodgers that this kind of police behavior Neighborhood either. would not be tolerated. She filed It was the fifth day of a curfew charges against six officers who had during a military occupation. participated in Gray’s illegal arrest. On the Monday before, during the The officers, three black and three funeral of Freddie Gray, a young black white, were arrested. man who had been killed while in Mosby, the daughter, granddaughter police custody, some citizens rioted and sister of police officers, was in protest. A CVS pharmacy was immediately attacked by some of the torched, a police car burned. Dozens police and some of the media. They of people, particularly young people, accused her of rushing to judgment in were arrested. Mayor Stephanie bringing the charges. But a grand jury Rawlings-Blake and Baltimore Police recently brought indictments, which Commissioner Anthony Batts imposed vindicated her actions. a 10 p.m. curfew. Maryland Governor In her press conference announcing Larry Hogan called in the National the indictments, Mosby spoke directly Guard. to the youth of the city. She said that A fragile peace developed because she was acting on behalf of the people, ORG nobody knew how the people would all of the people, but particularly all react to yet another killing of a young young people of the city. Their time black man by the police. had come, she said. The peace surprisingly held. There The next day we drove down to the were few arrests for curfew violations city to participate in a political rally. on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday It was a joyous celebration. Several nights. No more buildings or cars thousand people, mostly young, black burned. It held partly because the and white, listened to speeches, sang same officials, Mayor Rawlings-Blake songs, picnicked. Their protests had and Commissioner Batts, had adopted been heard and their elected officials a courageous but risky strategy. had responded. There were a halfInstead of following the usual police dozen hotheads who taunted the

By: CHARLES DUMAS cxd28@psu.edu

Photo by Veggies//WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Protest at the Baltimore Police Department. officers who were standing at the edge of the crowd. They were ignored. Later that night we saw that a few of them had been arrested for violating the curfew. No one knows what is going to happen at the trial of the six officers. In a way, it doesn’t matter. The messages are clear, at least, in Baltimore. The killing of unarmed Black men will not be tolerated. Black lives matter. All lives matter. Police confrontation is not the best way to bring civility and humanity to

a tense situation; too often it ignites rather than quells violence. When the police rely upon community support and interaction, it promotes peace and efficiency. And finally, when the community can trust their elected officials and police to behave correctly and act accordingly with justice, the promise of democracy is fulfilled. It is a new day in Baltimore. We can only hope that the sun will rise in other communities across America.

P.O. Box 125 133 N. Allegheny St. Bellefonte, PA 16823 (814) 355-4280 www.bellefontemuseum.org

Museum Hours: Fri., Sat. & Sun. 1 - 4:30pm

A Global Perspective on Art, Culture and Food Visual Art Exhibition

Celebrating cultural groups living in our multicultural community.

June 5 - July 26 Special Series of Social Gatherings

Featuring a variety of performances, including music, dance, art, games and food.

Opening Receptions: June 7th and July 5th 1-4:30pm

14 |

July 2015

VOICES CHOICES Poet of the Month ~ Katherine Bode-Lang By SARAH RUSSELL voicespoetry@aol.com

The search for connections, for meaning, is what poetry is about for Katherine Bode-Lang. She said that as a child she wrote poetry to say something she didn’t have any other way of expressing, and she still feels this way about it, both as a reader and a writer. Bode-Lang’s poems are often autobiographical, concentrating on the small things of everyday life, “really zooming in on the details,” to see something in a new way. She hopes her ideas will then link the everyday to a universal concept, “zooming out, if you will.” For Bode-Lang, the connection, the leap, is what matters. “In my own poetry, there needs to be something that matters, something at stake,” she said, “and that’s what I appreciate about poetry in general.” Poetry is important, she feels, because it has the potential to help us see our lives in a new way, to help us as we go through the daily task of making meaning and understanding. She marvels at the form of the medium. “Certainly there’s something I love about the concision,

A Poem on Love for A. When I first met him, it was the river, frost on the windows in the morning, olive oil. Then bread and wine, the mountains. Coffee, comfortable chairs. Lights. When he loves, he loves so fully, it’s as if the world did not exist for him before the sound of dried leaves on the sidewalk or the moon quietly rising. He has brought every small joy with him, a tender trail marking the way to here: today, late afternoon when the sky fills and the trees start to scratch. Watch him marvel at the color gray. “A Poem on Love” appears in The Reformation, published by The American Poetry Review, 2014.

the precision it requires to do poetry well, to find the heart of something and then deliver it in such a small amount of space.” Bode-Lang said she especially enjoys that challenge as a writer, and she admires that challenge as a reader. “Most of all, I hope my poems, at their best, lend a larger perspective, create a connection for the reader.” For the Summer issue of Voices, Bode-Lang has contributed a love poem dedicated to her husband. “A Poem on Love” is also included in her first book, The Reformation, winner of the American Poetry Review/ Honickman First Book Prize in 2014. Her chapbook, Spring Melt, was published in 2009 by Seven Kitchens Press as part of their Keystone Chapbook series. Bode-Lang is a graduate of the MFA program at Penn State, where she works as an IT Trainer in the Office for Research Protections.  If you would like to be a Voices featured poet, please contact Sarah Russell, voicespoetry@aol.com.

Whitey Blue can't wait to ride in the clown car By: DAVID M. SILVERMAN VOICES satirist dsilverman104@comcast.net

I was talking the other day to Whitey Blue, longtime Centre Region resident and hardnose. Whitey, what do you think about so many right-wing candidates running for national and Pennsylvania offices? “It’s great! Enough of all this ‘do-good’ stuff. Let guys get in there that want to help other fellows make a buck by hook or crook!” But we already have many people now with no jobs or low-paying ones! “C’mon! Am I my brother’s keeper? That was already settled ages ago!” David M. Silverman grew up hearing platitudes like “prosperity is just around the

corner.” It was a helluva long corner for him. He worked summers as a busboy and waiter until he spent almost five years in the U.S. Army in WWII, most of it overseas, including combat duty.

Photo by Wallyir// MORGUEFILE.COM

| 15

July 2015

Summer Reading: Re-Thinking the Beach Book By ABBY MINOR abbyminor@gmail.com If life is short, it’s certainly too short to read books that don’t change your life. Who says you can’t read luminous poetry, expansive essays, and vision-shifting cultural analysis at the beach? The lovely thing about books is that there is an almost infinite number of good ones available, and other people are writing them - all we have to do is pick them up and read. Talk about summer leisure! This summer, I’ll be taking the following reads (some newer, some oldies but goodies) to Poe Valley: Notes From No Man’s Land, by Eula Biss (Graywolf Press, 2009) Eula Biss is one of those writers I wish would ABBY MINOR run for president; in these essays Biss thinks Poet, writer, teacher like a poet, a philosopher, and a journalist all at once. She’s also one of the relatively few white writers who have taken on writing about race, racism, whiteness, and blackness in America, although she might better be described as writing about belonging, place, history, boundaries, and power. These essays do what great essays do: they both complicate and illuminate their subjects. Every time I buy a copy of this book and lend it out, I never get it back. Ghost Letters, by Richard McCann (Alice James Books, 1994) When I think of these poems I think of white flowers, night colors, grief, the erotic, and memory. In the poem “After You Died,” McCann writes, “for a long time I was grateful / only for what your dying was taking from me.” In “Fragments From an Explanation” he writes, “It was irreducible. I wanted you. In the end / it was day after day irreducible. I wanted you. You went alone.” Written during the height of the U.S. AIDS pandemic, Ghost Letters is fiercely sad, elegiac, gently funny, gorgeous and tender. Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places, by Ursula K. Le Guin (Grove Press, 1989) Le Guin is perhaps best known for her gender-bending science fiction and fantasy novels, but her essays, reviews, and talks are also pretty radical, and easy enough to read in between trips to the pool snack bar. I like to imagine her in 1986 visiting Gary Snyder’s class “Wilderness” at the University of California at Davis and saying, as part of her introductory remarks, “Where I live as a woman is to men a wilderness. But to me it is home.” Yeah, girl.

. He Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays of June Jordan, il he by June Jordan (Civitas Books, 2002) June Jordan is often described as a warrior - and her unapologetic fierceness WII, is awesome - but she is also, even primarily, a lover. She loves justice, she loves language, loves the role of language in working for justice. She loves people, writers and activists, and students and dissenters: “To live means you owe something big to those whose lives are taken away from them.” More than any writer I know of, Jordan writes like she owes something.

COM

Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, by Julia Serano (Seal Press, 2007) Isn’t it time to try to explain the difference between gender expression, sexual orientation, and subconscious sex while at your next family reunion? This book came along and answered questions, corrected misconceptions, and breezily clarified confusions I didn’t know I had. Julia Serano writes smartly and accessibly about sexism, transsexuality, and the demonization of femininity in all its forms and expressions. What If Your Mother, by Judith Arcana (Chicory Blue Press, 2005) What if a member of “Jane,” Chicago’s pre-Roe v. Wade underground abortion

service, wrote a kick-ass book of poems about all manner of reproductive experiences, from pregnancy, abortion, and miscarriage to birth control, giving birth, and adoption? Judith Arcana did! The title poem begins, “Sometimes when you talk to them, in argument / they say, What if your mother had an abortion?” And goes on, “Then everything / would be different, wouldn’t it? One thing sure, / I wouldn’t be standing here talking to some jerk / who asked me that dumb question.” Loving Mountains, Loving Men, by Jeff Mann (Ohio University Press, 2005) I like Jeff Mann because he’s concerned with place, contradictions, and self-making; as a gay Appalachian poet, as an intellectual and a woodsman, he insists on inhabiting identities that aren’t neatly or easily linked. These essays and poems are filled with chow-chow and leather bars, wood-chopping and white wine, urban and rural experiences, mountains and men. He takes on both homophobia and the stigmatization of Appalachians, tells stories about grief and about pleasure. The essays are short, the poems are lovely. The landscape and culture Mann describes could be our own Central Pennsylvania milieu; the process of self-making he records reminds me how important it is to make space for disparate identities, especially when they coexist within us. Beach books? Well, they aren’t necessarily sexy or full of laughs, although many of these writers are passionate and quite funny. But I promise that all of these books will go well with the sound of waves, ice cream on a stick, and a big sky above. They just might make you want to change the world after you dry off.  Abby Minor is a poet and community writing teacher who lives in Penns Valley.

Letter to the editor Clean & Green and the rich get richer The Pennsylvania Farmland and Forest Land Assessment Act of 1974, better know as "Clean and Green" or Act 319, provides real estate tax benefits to land owners who have land in "agricultural use," "agricultural reserve," or "forest reserve" and are enrolled in the Clean and Green Program. This enables their land to be assessed according to its use rather than its market value. This act was enacted primarily to keep agricultural land in use and or provide soil conservation. The act has two real components : 1. Comprised of 10 or more contiguous acres, including any woodlot; or 2. Has an anticipated yearly gross income of at least $2,000 from the production of an agricultural commodity. The first component makes a great loophole for the rich to maintain their golf course lawns and receive real estate tax breaks on top of it, putting the tax burden on the other poorer tax payers that can't afford to purchase 10 plus acres. I believe it’s time to take a closer look at this act and see exactly how clean it is. In this day and age with higher gas prices and the effects of global warming from gas emissions that lawn tractors emit, just how "clean" is this? If you also look at the countless number of birds and mammals that are killed by keeping these "golf courses" mowed - what a waste of energy and resources and tax burden on the other tax payers. I think it’s time for a change. Patrick R. Sharbaugh

16 |

Canada Warbler, A Bird of Summer, eh!

July 2015

By: JOE VERICA joeverica@gmail.com The summer is a great time to watch birds, even though it may lack the diversity of spring. For most song birds, summer is the time for breeding and raising young. Here in Central Pennsylvania, there are close to 130 species of birds that potentially breed locally. During this time, birds move around less, as they tend to stay on or near their established breeding territories. This gives birders opportunities to observe birds over time at reliable locations. It also means birders also observe bird behaviors such as nest building, egg incubation, foraging and raising of young. As the summer progresses, the young birds will fledge and leave their nest. Watching young birds learn to fly is highly rewarding. One of my favorite local birds to watch in the summer is the Canada Warbler. The Canada Warbler is a slender warbler with a blue-gray back and bright yellow underparts. It can be distinguished from other similar-looking warblers by its facial markings. The male Canada has a black face which is subtended by a vivid yellow throat. The forecrown is also black. A narrow white ring encircles the eye, and a bold yellow stripe extends from just above the eye forward to the base of the bill. The most distinguishing feature of the Canada Warbler is a fringe necklace formed by a series of short longitudinal streaks across the upper portion of the breast. In females, which are less vibrantly colored than males, the necklace is typically faint or lacking. Canada Warblers are long-distance migrants. They spend the winter in northwestern South America, in the region from Venezuela and Colombia, south to northwestern Brazil, Ecuador and northern Peru. In the spring, they return to their breeding grounds in North America, which span from British Columbia and the Yukon in the west, to Nova Scotia in the east. The southern limit of their breeding range extends through the northern portion of the upper Midwest, east through northern Pennsylvania to New York and northeast New Jersey. In the Appalachians, the breeding range extends even further south to the Carolinas, east Tennessee and northern Georgia. As migrants go, Canada Warblers are among the latest arriving warblers. Most warblers return to their breeding grounds in late April and early May. Canada Warblers, on the other hand, typically return in mid to late May. Their preferred breeding habitat consists of cool shaded woodlands with a thick understory. They particularly favor areas in close proximity to water, such as swamps, bogs, ponds and forest streams. Here in Central Pa. and throughout the Appalachian region, they are most often found in rhododendron and mountain laurel thickets with an overstory of mature hemlocks. The Canada Warbler spends the bulk of its time foraging low in the thick understory. As such, one would think that the Canada would be a difficult warbler to see. On the contrary, it is quite accommodating to the inquisitive birder. For starters, the Canada Warbler will usually betray his presence with his song, which is quite distinctive. The song begins with a sharp chip note, followed by a variable series of jumbled musical notes. You can often observe the Canada Warbler as it forages for its prey, which consists primarily of flying insects which it flushes from the foliage and captures via short sally flights. It also gleans other insects and arthropods off of leaf surfaces.

Photo by William H. Majoros//CREATIVE COMMONS

Canada Warbler (Cardellina canadensis). If you unwittingly trespass on the Canada’s territory, he will find you before you find him. The Canada Warbler becomes agitated when it encounters an intruder. The Canada will fly up to a branch to investigate. He will typically perch with his tail cocked and his wings hanging loosely. If a threat is perceived, the Canada will begin chipping vigorously as it flutters in the underbrush around you. It may even engage in distraction displays by fanning its wings and tail, presumably to draw your attention away from its nesting area. The best local places to see Canada Warblers are in Bear Meadows, particularly along the John Wert Path, Detweiler Run Natural Area, Alan Seeger Natural Area and Black Moshannon State Park. As with all birds, if you happen to come across nesting birds, please keep a respectful distance. Joseph Verica is a vice-president of the State College Bird Club. He received a PhD in Biology from Penn State in 1995. He has been a birdwatcher for over 30 years.

HOT TUNA ELECTRIC

July 17 ZAPPA PLays Zappa

Sept 16 Mom’s Spa Getaway weekend at gateway lodge in cook forest, pa

May 8–10th

www.theSTATETHEATRE.ORG Special includes two nights in a luxury suite with dinner one evening and breakfast both mornings. Offer available Mon —Thurs. (814) 744-8017 Only $399! Call us at (814) 744-8017 to reserve. Visit GatewayLodge.com.

MIDWEEK ESCAPE SPECIAL

GatewayLodge.com

BOX OFFICE: 814-272-0606

| 17

July 2015

Former policeman needs space to educate By: SAMANTHA KREBS Sjk5296@psu.edu You can’t read the news today without hearing about a case of police brutality somewhere in the United States and around the world. But not all policemen are bad, and that’s what former policeman Clarence Zimmerman wants to teach young children. Zimmerman, 76, would like to create an International Police Museum here in State College to “build a rapport between the police and the children, young children, youth, and to get that stigma out of their minds that policemen are bad.” he said. “Policemen are human just like anybody else. They make mistakes; everybody makes mistakes, even if you’re a policeman. I want to let people know that policemen are their friends, not their enemies.” Zimmerman has been in law enforcement for over 30 years and has worked in Reading, Pennsylvania and Mohave County, Arizona and has held almost every position from walking a beat to sergeant to detective. He moved back to the State College area to be closer to his children and grandchildren after facing some health issues. He has collected a huge trove of police memorabilia over the years, including police uniforms from all over the world, model cars and police badges and hats. Zimmerman keeps the collection at his son’s house, where he lives. He would like a building to move his museum to so he can regain some living space. “I have nothing except the basement to put my stuff in and it’s expensive stuff; it’s not cheap; it’s nice. And I need a place where I can spread out and put different showcases to display it properly,” he chuckles. “Everything here has been purchased and donated to the museum by myself. You know, I’m living on a pension, and it’s coming out of my pension, and it’s getting to where I can’t do it anymore.” Zimmerman is seeking donated space to convert his personal collection into a public museum that will live on past his lifetime. “If I get a building, I would like to pass it on to the city or the police department or the college police and have them take care of the museum,” he explained. Zimmerman continues to buy memorabilia for the museum, but says that as he is getting older he can’t always do the things that once came easily for him. “Just to get a pair of shoes onto a mannequin is a problem, and I’ve been doing it, but not that easy. I need help sometimes with doing that kind of stuff, dressing them and keeping them nice.” The International Police Museum is a non-profit organization, so Zimmerman does not and would not profit from any funds the museum would earn. For more information on the International Police Museum, you can visit www. internationalpolicemusuem.com or the Facebook page of the same name. Samantha Krebs is a recent Penn State graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in Print Journalism.

Photo by Samantha Krebs// VOICES

Former policeman Clarence Zimmerman has over 30 years in the police force and has a basement dedicated to police memorabilia that he has collected over the years.

Photo by Samantha Krebs// VOICES

Zimmerman admits that he is getting older and needs help doing simple tasks such as putting boots on his mannequins. He hopes the public will be willing to help him acquire a building.

Photo by Samantha Krebs// VOICES

Clarence Zimmerman poses with his police mannequins. Zimmerman hopes to acquire a building to set up an International Police Museum to teach children not to be afraid of policemen, and to show them what police from different countries look like.

18 |

July 2015

College Boy Graduates By: CHARLES DUMAS cxd28@psu.edu The sanctuary of Wharton Wesley Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was filled to capacity. Five or six hundred well-dressed, dignified mourners filled the pews on the warm Thursday evening. Suddenly the air was pierced by loud shouts from at least a hundred leather-clad, tattooed motorcycle club members marching in formation, fists raised high in a black solidarity salute. It was startling and unexpected, suggestive of the beginning of a confrontation between two very dissimilar worlds. But this event was not about conflict; it was about the melding of two distinct cultures for one purpose. The club members marched in single file to the front of the church. Lining up on both ends of the flower-draped coffin, they shouted, several times in unison, “College Boy, College Boy.” The walls of the church shook with the intensity of their chants and the ferocity of our tears. They had come to pay tribute to their comrade in arms, their friend, their brother: Kevin “College Boy” White. Kevin White was born and raised in a working class community in West Philly. He started riding Harleys as a teenager. He won a scholarship to play basketball at Penn State Dubois, where he was a starter on the varsity team. Then he got injured. For most students that would be the end of the story, but not for Kevin. No one in Kevin’s family or his motorcycle club had ever gone to college. Few people in his surrounding community had attended college; fewer yet had finished. Instead, most West Philly youth had stumbled through the traps that can snare young black men these days. But Kevin was not like the others; he was determined. He transferred here, to University Park, and enrolled in the College of Communications. He was not a great academic, but he was a wonderful student. His earlier schooling had not equipped him with the required academic skills to successfully complete a rigorous college program, but he had other skills – tenacity, hope, a strong will to succeed. His friends nicknamed him “College

Home of the 9-to-5 No-Repeat Workday VOICES AD: 5” X 5-1/2”

Boy” because of those qualities. I had him for one class. My wife had him for four. Kevin was not a good test taker. Neither of us could remember him getting higher than a 70 percent on our exams. But he was a great student. After every test he would be in our office asking to go over the exam, to determine what he got wrong and how to improve. He was wonderful to work with. We knew he was learning how to navigate through what was, for him, a strange and brave new world. Although his father, grandfather, mom and girlfriend had always believed and supported him one hundred percent, he even started making believers out of other folk in his West Philly neighborhood. Though skeptical at first, they started to believe that College Boy might actually finish college. It took Kevin six years to do that, a bit longer than most, but he got the credits to graduate. He went home to celebrate. A week before he was to do the graduation stroll across the stage in the Bryce Jordan Center this spring, Kevin “College Boy” White was killed in a motorcycle accident. A few days later, 100 motorcycle club riders and 500 other people gathered to mourn his passing and to celebrate his life, his hopes, his dreams. A few days after that, Penn State University, breaking with tradition, announced that a degree would be awarded posthumously to Kevin, and his mother and father would walk across the stage in his honor. As they walked, the many people from West Philly who had come to share this moment, stood up and applauded. They were joined by Kevin’s classmates. Then the entire Bryce Jordan audience stood up for a standing ovation. Cheers mixed with tears. In my twenty years as a professor, I have never been prouder of my university community. I do not understand why some things happen - why war kills children, or some die when boats capsize and others are saved. Sometimes I can barely comprehend the ways of men, and stand amazed in wonder at the ways of God. But I know that in the narrative of the life of College Boy Kevin, my wife and I were both torn by the tragedy and lifted by the hope, which touched us deeply and helped, for a moment, to transform a community and a college. Charles Dumas is a professor emeritus from Penn State University, where he teaches but is more often taught by students.

| 19

July 2015

Whistleblower intimidation at Penn State By: KATHERINE WATT katherine_watt@hotmail.com

“fear of retaliation for reporting concerns is also real and justified for staff and faculty — non-tenure line and tenure line — across the university.” He concluded: “At Penn State, retaliation is not isolated; it is systemic. It is part of a suite of condign ‘management tools’ that are deeply embedded in this very hierarchical institution’s DNA.” I’ve run into this systemic fear a lot while gathering information to write about regional issues for the CDT, Voices, and Steady State College. I’ve encountered it in community organizing work as well, most recently during the ongoing fight to stop the Penn State/Toll Brothers attack on public drinking water wells and rich farmland designated as agricultural security land in the Centre Region Comprehensive Plan. For example, there are probably at least 50 paper copies of the 2008 Wiley & Wilson/Penn State Energy System Master Plan circulated during the drafting process to OPP staff, consulting faculty and student interns. I’ve sought access repeatedly, to report on corporate Penn State’s enrollment and energy consumption projections for the 2008 to 2038 period. These are internal University plans with profound implications for every external support system the University Park campus depends on, from regional water supplies and sewage treatment, to policing capacity

Corporate Penn State’s fortress of secrecy and whistleblower intimidation is starting to crack. It’s an excellent development. In a June 4 letter to the Centre Daily Times, Barry Fenchak wrote about an incident at the June 2 Penn State Town Hall meeting. An audience member “raised the issue of university employees’ fear of retaliation for reporting wrongdoing. In his response, Vice President of Finance and Business, David Gray, acknowledged what the recent Photo by George Chriss//WIKIMEDIA COMMONS university-wide employee survey confirmed: ‘that particular issue Penn State Old Main Bell Tower. — sadly — was most deeply rooted within finance and business. ” Fenchak pointed out that Gray is worse in the places where everybody deal Penn State – corporate and responsible for several programs in is kept in the dark.” In the wake of academic – significant political and addition to F&B, including the Office the Sandusky pedophilia scandal, the economic blows. But dismantling of Physical Plant (OPP), Human people of the Centre Region know this the corrupt hierarchy is an essential Resources, Diversity and Ethics. Gray all too well. part of laying the groundwork for is perfectly positioned to support and David Gray and other upper a future transparent, responsive encourage whistleblowers. administrators and trustees are administration when today’s top tier But instead of acting decisively essentially using the plain-view, are gone, whether through criminal to set up and enforce whistleblower publicity-friendly academic research, prosecutions, or their voluntary protections, he simply laments the teaching and service reputations of departures when they decide the cash sad situation for which he is primarily tenured and adjunct faculty, staff and cow’s run dry. responsible. It brings to mind the students as a human shield to hide Further isolating corporate Penn maxim attributed to Albert Einstein: their corporate acts – whether ethical, Staters to accelerate that power “Never attribute to malice that which legal, or neither. transition means helping academics, can be adequately explained by Meanwhile, faculty, support staff support staffers and local government stupidity, but don't rule out and many local government officials align themselves with malice.” officials are gagged and local civil society and against the “Fear of retaliation for reporting Further evidence for immobilized by their well- corporate elite. It means widening the malice theory of founded fears about job the corporate-academic split and concerns is also real and justified for whistleblower intimidation security for themselves and sharpening the blurry boundaries staff and faculty — non-tenure line and is the February appointment their loved ones. By day, that shield wrongdoers from public tenure line — across the university.” He of Margaret Gray, David they create and deliver the accountability. Gray’s wife, as Penn State’s concluded: “At Penn State, retaliation is not educational programs sold And it means painstaking new Director of Local by corporate Penn State to construction of a community network isolated; it is systemic. It is part of a suite Government and Community students and parents. By to support whistleblowers morally as of condign ‘management tools’ that are Relations. Between the two night, they live in and govern they work up the courage to speak out, deeply embedded in this very hierarchical the communities that absorb and financially if they do speak, and roles, they personify Penn State’s corporate strategy: the impacts of corporate Penn then get fired. institution’s DNA.” control institutional revenue State’s private financial and Katherine Watt is a State College streams from student tuition, business decisions. writer and community organizer, and public subsidies, donations, Greater public understanding the incoming editor-in-chief for Voices. and endowment investments, and and zoning. of the systemic corruption will No one with access will turn it stifle or manipulate all attempts at over for public inspection, either to public oversight by local governments journalists or to local government and civilians. officials who have made informal It’s worked for several decades, but the secrecy walls between town and requests, but not yet resorted to gown protect only that small sliver subpoenas. If you are interested in helping strengthen Voices coverage It’s one local manifestation of what at the hierarchical top, and the mere Bill Moyers recently observed, citing a fact that Gray had to acknowledge, of local government and politics - including investigative in a public forum, that the secrecy mentor who told him: “News is what reporting on corporate Penn State damages employee morale, suggests people want to keep hidden, everything else is publicity.” Moyers followed up the control is slipping. contact Katherine Watt at editor@voicesweb.org On June 11, Lee Samuel Finn with a Tom Stoppard quote: “People followed up on Fenchak’s letter, writing do terrible things to each other, but it’s

✍

20 |

July 2015

Could A Little Forecasting Competition Make Some “Pros” Hot “Under the Collar”? By: JAY SEARLES jay@weatherranger.com Now that WeatherRanger is the new kid on the block for weather forecasting in State College – joining AccuWeather and the National Weather Service – I thought it would be good to see who offers the most accurate predictions. I decided to use the “skill score” technique, in which penalty points are accumulated over a period of time based on the accuracy of predictions. The lower the penalty point total, the more accurate the forecaster. Penalty points can be based on predictions of temperature, wind, clouds and precipitation. It can become very time-consuming, so for the sake of the analyzer (me) and to also keep it simple for readers (you), I chose to assess high and low temperature predictions for one day (24 hour) and two day (48 hour) forecast periods. I entered the high and low predictions for temperature at 7 p.m. each day the first week of May into a spreadsheet, and then compared these numbers to the actual temperatures recorded for that day. It got tricky, because there is a lot of temperature variability around State College. I’ve seen it as much as 15 degrees colder at Millbrook Marsh than on the Penn State campus, and the two temperature measurement points are only three miles apart. There is also the issue of the “heat island” of Penn State campus. Temperatures on campus are generally recorded near Walker Building, where recordkeeping began back in the 1800’s. The build-up of the campus around Walker Building has impacted the accuracy of the records through an enhanced heat island effect. More on this in a future article. Error points are calculated by squaring the difference between the observed and predicted values. For example, a difference of 2 degrees is 4 points, 3 degrees is 9 points, and so on. Then high and low error points are added up for a total score. Figure 1 shows the results for 24-hour forecasts made between May 3 and May 9. For the 24-hour forecasts, the most accurate temperature forecasts came from Weather Ranger with 120 points, just ahead of the National Weather Service with 127.

JAY SEARLES Meteorologist However, there was a large difference for the next two contestants: AccuWeather and the model output each racked up close to 240 penalty points. Figure 2 shows the results for 48-hour forecasts made between May 3 and May 9. Weather Ranger’s score of 129 was roughly the same as the 24hour score, but a couple of key error points for the National Weather Service bumped their score to 266. AccuWeather and MOS had lower scores (higher skill)

for the 48-hour predictions: 173 and 180 respectively. What about precipitation and storms? That will take a third party analysis looking at all the parameters, considerably more time and effort, so beyond the scope of this assessment. Weather Ranger’s temperature predictions stand out, with a much higher degree of accuracy and consistency. AccuWeather seems to follow the Computer Model or MOS output very closely, at least in the first 48 hours. Weather Ranger relies more on observations and all the model analysis and output. Personal accumulation of knowledge and skill combined with reviewing all the relevant model output provide for the best predictive weather products. The vast majority of the research projects examining the quality of weather forecasts have reached the same conclusion: computer systems do a wonderful job of simulating the atmospheric motions and processes, but are not able to turn that into direct high-quality and accurate predictions. It takes the human bridge to connect the dots, and make it all relevant for the users, the general public. Jay Searles is a meteorologist with over 20 years of experience in forecasting. He spends his time as lead forecaster with Weather Ranger and teaching college level meteorology online. Learn more about Jay and the weather at http://weatherranger.com.

Figure 1. The date and 24-hour forecast temperature penalty points for Weather Ranger, National Weather Service, AccuWeather and MOS (model output statistics).

Figure 2. The date and 48-hour forecast temperature penalty points for Weather Ranger, National Weather Service, AccuWeather and MOS (model output statistics).

| 21

July 2015

A piece of Eden to create food for the soul By: ABIGAIL BOYD aob5443@psu.edu Eric and Cindy Noel own and work part of Eden View Farm, a fourth generation family farm in Warriors Mark, named for being their “piece of Eden” here on Earth. The Noels personally experienced the benefits of eating nutritious, fresh whole foods, free of harmful chemicals and additives, and decided to grow and raise as much of their own food as possible. So they expanded their vegetable garden, purchased a few chickens, and developed partnerships with other local farmers. Eric is a Penn State alumni from Hollidaysburg, and said that he never pictured himself as a farmer, but is glad he ended up in farming and proud of the progress and improvements he and Cindy have made over the past 11 years. Eric said the most challenging time of the year is the winter, when there’s less food to harvest, but that winter makes the spring even more gratifying when the weather breaks and he can begin working the soil. Eric plants, cares for, and harvests a variety of chemical-free vegetables and herbs, from lettuce greens, spring onions, spring garlic, beets, rhubarb, and herbs to kale, collards, green beans, potatoes, berries, and more. Eden View is not certified organic, but strives to follow USDA organic guidelines. Cindy uses these ingredients to create from-scratch entrees, soups, salads, and dressings. Eden View Farm also offers a large selection of organic whole grain baked goods, baked with as many local and organic ingredients as possible. Cindy uses spelt flour (a whole grain non-wheat flour) because it’s higher in fiber,

protein, and nutrients than wheat flour. The newest development at Eden View is a two-acre berry field with 2,000 blueberry bushes and other berry varieties. The Noels plan to start a pick-yourown berry patch in the future; Eric said he hopes on-farm activities like pickyour-own berries will help narrow the disconnect he sees between farmers and consumers. The Noels also hope that in the future they will be able to provide customers with farm-to-table meals in the beautiful pavilion on their property. Eden View offers a unique Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) plan: their Harvest Share program. Year-round, Harvest Share members receive weekly emails listing available products, including produce, meats, prepared foods, baked goods, breads, and specialty and partner items. Members place orders by email, and then pick up their food at Eden View Farm, at one of the farmers’ markets, or at a delivery location in Altoona. Advantages include flexibility, plenty of choices, unlimited quantities of products, and no commitment to buy each week. For more information check out the farm website at edenviewfoods.com or visit the farm stand on Tuesdays at the Boalsburg Farmers Market at the Pennsylvania Military Museum. Abigail Boyd is a junior studying Environmental Resource Management and Sustainability Leadership at Penn State.

PCO FarmFest Offers Organic Education By: LEE RINEHART lee@paorganic.org Since its inception in 2012, FarmFest has set the bar for delivering high-powered inspirational educational programming, and this year we are excited to build upon our history to bring several innovative speakers to the stage once again. New this year is the Pennsylvania Certified Organic Member Day, on Friday August 7, with a dynamic slate of speakers. The educational programs begin at 1 p.m. after the PCO annual meeting on Friday, with a keynote address by Mike Smith, Pennsylvania’s Executive Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. A native Pennsylvanian, Mr. Smith graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and provides strategic counsel while managing the day-to-day operations of the department. Following the keynote, Gary Zimmer returns to FarmFest with his unique flair for advancing sustainable approaches to soil and health. The inspirational founder of MidWest BioAg, Gary provides biological agriculture consulting and services to farmers nationwide. PCO is also excited to have Andre Leu take the stage on Friday afternoon. Currently the president of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, Andre has been published in magazines, newspapers, and journals on many areas of organic agriculture including climate change, the environment, and the health benefits of organic. He is the author of The Myth of Safe Pesticides. Coach Mark Smallwood, the Executive Director of the Rodale Institute, will hit the main stage Friday to present his unique vision for moving organic and sustainable agriculture into the mainstream. Saturday August 8 is the day for delving into the nuts and bolts of sustainable living. Educational

programming will include a keynote presentation by Gary Zimmer at 11 a.m. The Spring Creek Homesteading Fund workshop series begins at 10 a.m., with Joshua Lambert giving a presentation on Food Preservation Without Canning (using drying, fermentation, and alcohol to put food by), followed by Garrett Morrison with a talk on Home Mushroom Production at 11 a.m.. At noon, join Jackie Bonomo to learn about Permaculture as an Approach to Homestead Level Food Production, followed by a 2 p.m. talk by Laura Young of Spring Mill’s Rising Spring Meats, a PCO-certified organic meat processor. Spring Creek Homesteading is a founding partner of FarmFest’s educational programming, and supports local self-sufficiency through new, renovated, and expanded food gardens and orchards,

urban farms, community greenhouses, kitchens, bakeries, farmers markets, and workshop programs in the homesteading arts. As an added bonus, FarmFest presents our Saturday afternoon keynote presentation by Ken Roseboro, editor and publisher of The Organic & NonGMO Report and The Non-GMO Sourcebook. Ken has been called “the nation’s reporter on all issues surrounding genetically modified foods” by Acres USA, one of the country’s best-known magazines on sustainable agriculture. Ken’s talk will be held in association with the GMO-Free PA annual meeting to be held on Saturday at FarmFest, and includes the annual business meeting, plus a workshop and Q&A on GMOs. Lee Rinehart is the Director of Education and Outreach at Pennsylvania Certified Organic

Photo by Sabine Carey//FreeRanging Photography

The FarmFest parade

22 |

July 2015

Fourth Annual Pa. Organic FarmFest kicks off By: ERIN CONDO-MCCRACKEN farmfest@paorganic.org

of the Valley. Local kids acts and dancing groups populate the Family Arena stage as well.

Pennsylvania Certified Organic (PCO) announces the Pennsylvania Organic FarmFest, back for its fourth year, August 7 & 8 at the Grange Fairgrounds in Centre Hall. Join us as we celebrate the ever-growing organic community through inspiring speakers, family activities, parades, hayrides, live music, dance and of course, organic food! This free event is great for the entire family. In addition to the programs listed below, check out the sidebars about the Wool Village and organic education tracks.

Book Nook - Book Nook features an opportunity to meet local and national authors in a casual setting. Hear these writers read excerpts from their books, and tell their own stories related to health and well-being: Robin Moore, local author and storyteller; Herbalist Jennifer Tucker; Spiritualist Nick Brink; Non-GMO Report Editor Ken Roseboro and Environmentalist Andre Leu.

Organic Valley Family Arena - A main focal point of the festival, the Organic Family Arena offers live entertainment, hands-on activities, and learning opportunities for children and adults alike. Featured on the Family Stage are KJ Smiles, Gary Gyekis, Smoke in the Light, Jamie DuVall, Jim Pierce, and Barafo West African Drumming Collective, with more acts to be announced. The Family Arena will also have demonstrations with live farm animals, birds of prey and more. PASA Summer Conference - In conjunction with FarmFest, Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) will hold a two-day Summer Conference on Thursday, August 6, and Friday, August 7. This two-day learning experience will dive into “The Story of Soil” with practical and effective information on how to build and maintain soil health on your farm. (Registration and fee required. Visit pasafarming.org.) The Bell & Evans Homemade & Homegrown Market - A main staple of FarmFest is the Bell & Evans

FarmFest 5K - On Saturday the FarmFest 5K and fun walk has always been a great way to wake up and get ready for a full day at FarmFest! The 5K course takes runners through the extensive, scenic Grange Fairgrounds. Register now to run the FarmFest 5K at farmfest@paorganic.org/5k/ Browsing Barn - Back by popular demand is the Browsing Barn, which houses the Book Nook, a Tasting Area, an Organic Vegetable Contest, the Pie Tasting Contest and the Pennsylvania Farmers Union Benefit Auction, full of great local gifts and goodies. Photo by Sabine Carey//FreeRanging Photography Camping, bikes, pets welcome The famous Grange Fair tents will be Tessa Wren Fix, 2014 FarmFest Fun Run participant. set up for campers or you can bring Homemade & Homegrown Market, can be the judge by eating pie. Organic your own tent or RV. There’s plenty which includes the wildly popular produce contests are new this year of space for kids and adults to bicycle Mom’s Organic Food Court, with a and include vegetables, fruit, flowers around the fairgrounds and your wellvariety of regional food trucks and and baked goods. Photographers are behaved family pets are invited, too! vendors using organic and local whole encouraged to enter their organic farm Bring your water bottle, coffee mug food ingredients for their entire menu. and food-related pics in our calendar and shopping bags – FarmFest is (of course) a “zero waste” event. The Market also includes unique craft photo contest. There is so much to do and see at vendors and farmers market vendors. Live Music! - Experience some this FREE festival. Be sure to bring It’s a great time to shop for local of the best local music on FarmFest’s the whole family for a whole lot of fun. produce and for that perfect gift! three live music stages. Headlining Vending, sponsorship, and Friends & Farmers this year’s barn dance is Marah. The Cooperative Pie Contest - Friends Homemade & Homegrown Stage volunteer opportunities available. farmfest.paorganic.org or and Famers Co-op will be back with features performances from the Visit the wildly popular pie contest. Get out Raven & the Wren, Harold Taddy, contact Erin McCracken, FarmFest your apron and dust off your recipe box! and a Variety Hour sponsored by the Coordinator, at farmfest@paorganic. Or, if you don’t want to bake a pie, you fledgling radio station WSOV: Sounds org or 814-422-0251.

The Wool Village is growing! By: KIM BIERLY kimbierly@hotmail.com Fiber enthusiasts can enjoy a variety of fiber-related activities at the annual Pennsylvania Certified Organic FarmFest on Friday, August 7 and Saturday, August 8, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. both days, on the Centre County Grange Fairgrounds in Centre Hall. Admission and parking are free. The Wool Village brings together knitters, crocheters, spinners and weavers, and is sponsored by The Fertrell Company. It offers the opportunity to observe fiber craft demonstrations, shop at vendor booths, and start a new hobby. Last year’s inaugural Wool Village was well-received by hundreds of fiber enthusiasts. Its popularity convinced FarmFest organizers to move it to a larger building in the heart of the festival activities.

There are several exciting new additions this year, including: • An educational program “Where Does Fiber Begin,” with fiber animals and their owners who will discuss the animals, the fiber they produce and proper animal care needed. • A Fleece-To-Shawl Demonstration on Saturday in the Wool Village building. • Free fiber craft projects for youngsters. • Demonstrations by volunteers including: spinning with a drop spindle and spinning wheel, machine knitting, and needlearts. Visit farmfest.paorganic.org or call 814-422-0251 for more details and to learn how you can reserve a coveted Grange Fair Army Tent or camping spot, run in the FarmFest 5K, or select the educational workshops you’d like to attend. Kim Bierly is the Wool Village coordinator and owner of Main Street Yarn in Rebersburg.

and mily

ures and ting. rom ories obin eller; alist ditor alist

the ways d get The h the nds. t 5K

pular hich Area, e Pie ania ull of

ome ll be ring enty cycle welltoo! mug s (of

ee at ring fun.

and able. or Fest anic.

year,

Fiber who and

ng. and

and ping ke to

Yarn

VOICES OF CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA Thoughtful. Fearless. Free.

VOICES OFFICE HOURS THURSDAYS from 10 a.m. to noon

SEPTEMBER ISSUE Deadline for article proposals: AUGUST 1 Deadline for content submissions: AUGUST 15