Volume LXXVI, Number 23
Tours Feature Hidden Gardens in Trenton, Lambertville . . . . . . . . 5 Planning Board Endorses Hun School’s Rezoning Request . . . . 8 Princeton Battle Monument 100th Anniversary Commemoration . . . . . . 9 Kate Bush Saves a Soul in Season 4 of Stranger Things . . . . 13 NJSO Concludes Princeton Series . . . . 14 PU Men’s Track Primed For NCAA Championship Meet . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 PHS Boys’ Tennis Makes State Group 3 Final . . 27
Paige Gardner Helps PDS Girls’ Lax Win Non-Public B State Title . . . . . . . 25 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 20 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . 32 Luxury Living . . . . . . . . 2 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 30 Performing Arts . . . . . 15 Police Blotter . . . . . . . 10 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 32 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Summer Living . . . . 18, 19 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.towntopics.com
University Building Will Be Named Laura Wooten Hall A Princeton University building will be renamed in honor of former Princeton and Lawrence Township resident Laura Wooten, who has been recognized as the longest serving election poll worker in the country. Intended to honor Wooten’s contributions and to emphasize the importance of civic engagement at all levels, the naming of Laura Wooten Hall was approved by Princeton’s Board of Trustees and announced, appropriately, on Monday, just one day before yesterday’s New Jersey Primary Election Day. The naming was recommended to the trustees by the Council of the Princeton University Community Committee on Naming, which is made up of faculty, staff, student, and alumni representatives. “I am grateful to the naming committee for this inspiring recommendation, and I am delighted that Princeton will honor Laura Wooten for her extraordinary contributions to our nation and the democratic process,” said Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber. “The addition of Laura Wooten’s name to the tapestry of our campus will recognize Princeton’s history, the breadth of our community, and the positive impact that one remarkable person can have through lifelong dedication to public service and civic values.” Wooten, who worked in campus dining at Princeton University for more than 27 years and also worked as a nurse’s aide at Princeton Medical Center and as a teaching assistant at Community Park School, volunteered at local, primary, and general election polls in New Jersey for 79 years, up until her death in 2019 at the age of 98. Born in North Carolina in 1920, Wooten moved to Princeton when she was 4 and graduated from Princeton High School in 1939, the same year she started working at the polls. On July 23 last year New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed “Laura Wooten’s Law,” requiring civics instruction at the middle school level throughout the state. “Laura Wooten’s life is a study in civics,” said Murphy at the signing ceremony. “She set a tremendous legacy of service. Even more importantly, in her life, born in the segregated South, she persevered through sexism and racism, Continued on Page 10
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Wednesday, June 8, 2022
Rally Against Gun Violence on Saturday With a focus on mourning the lives lost in recent mass shootings and advocating to halt the surging epidemic of gun violence, Princeton will be hosting a rally at Hinds Plaza next to the Princeton Public Library on Saturday, June 11 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Sponsored by the Princeton-based Coalition for Peace Action (CFPA), the rally is part of a Day of Action taking place in about 500 locations around the country and coordinated by March for Our Lives, the student-led gun violence prevention group formed following the 2018 Parkland, Fla., mass shooting. “Our nation has been traumatized by the brutal, senseless killing of so many innocents in mass shootings in recent weeks,” said CFPA Executive Director the Rev. Robert Moore. “We invite everyone to come together to mourn, but even more important, be empowered to unite to stop and reverse the surging epidemic of gun violence across our nation.” In addition to Moore, speakers and performers at the rally will include Teska Frisbee, Mercer County gun violence prevention lead for Moms Demand Action; Rabbi Arnold Gluck from Temple Beth-El of Hillsborough; musician Sharleen Leahy; Dolores Phillips, legislative
director of CFPA’s Ceasefire NJ Project; gun violence survivor Sue Repko; Laura Zurfluh, coordinator of Indivisible Cranbury; and New Jersey State Sen. Andrew Zwicker. In a phone conversation on Monday, Moore discussed ongoing efforts to curb gun violence in the wake of a surge of mass shootings averaging nearly two per day and a total of 45,000 gun deaths in the past year. Moore pointed out that Gov. Phil
Murphy has proposed a package of eight new gun. safety laws, including bills to strengthen firearm storage laws, to reform the gun permitting system, to promote micro stamping technology, and to hold irresponsible gun industry members accountable. “The near-term handle to do something effective to reduce gun violence right now, and especially the danger of mass shootings, is to pass this eight-bill package in Continued on Page 8
Princeton Pride Parade and Afterparty Will Be Back in Person on June 18
The Princeton Pride Parade is back in person this year, on Saturday, June 18, starting from the Municipal Building at 400 Witherspoon Street at 11 a.m. and proceeding to the YMCA field on Paul Robeson Place for an afterparty. Organized by the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice (BRCSJ), this year’s Pride Parade will be in person for the first time since 2019, when Princeton’s first-ever Pride Parade drew more than 3,000 people. Virtual pride parade events in the 2020 and 2021 pandemic years attracted more than 25,000 online viewers, according to BRCSJ Chief Activist Robt Martin Seda-Schreiber.
“We invite all to join us as our LGBTQIA community and their friends, allies, and families (chosen or otherwise) march, dance, roll, stroll, and sashay through the historic Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood to end up at a fabulous afterparty at the Princeton Y,” Seda-Schreiber wrote in an email. “What better way to walk the walk (both literally and figuratively) of inclusivity and intersectionality than to bring together all of our beautifully diverse folk in Princeton and the greater community!” Leading the festivities as grand marshal of the Princeton Pride Parade will be Continued on Page 10
SHOWING THEIR PRIDE: The Princeton Community Pride Picnic on Friday evening celebrated Princeton’s LGBTQIA+ community with music, games, art, yoga, giveaways, and more in the courtyard at the Princeton Shopping Center. Participants share what brought them to the event in this week’s Town Talk on page 6. (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)