downtowner Trenton’s City Paper
November 2020 |
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Welcome Back
Joan Perkes and Ellarslie are reopening the doors for visitors. Page 10 Program brings Trenton youth outside, 6; Smokehouse gives barbecue a vegan edge, 8.
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2Trenton Downtowner November 2020
UP FRONT Passage Theatre launches online readings
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cer County” on Saturday, November 14, at 1 p.m. The illustrated talk outlines the Continental Army’s historic march through Mercer County to the final battle of the Revolutionary War at Yorktown in 1781. The program will be presented by local historian David Bosted via Zoom (https://bit.ly/32UKTzr). Questions and answers will follow. The route of the march from Massachusetts to Virginia follows the roads and waterways taken by the troops of General Washington and French General Rochambeau, passing through Mercer County. Bosted’s talk will describe the route through Mercer County and highlight the role played by Trenton and the Trent House. He will also illustrate how posters can promote this important part of New Jersey’s history as the nation looks ahead to the 250th anniversary of the Revolution in 2026. For more information, visit www. williamtrenthouse.org.
assage Theatre moves into its current season by presenting the first of its live online play readings, “Welcome to Matteson!” on Saturday, November 21, at 7 p.m. Written by Los Angeles-based playwright Inda Craig-Galvan and directed by Newark’s Yendor Theatre Company artistic director Andrew Binger, the play uses a welcome-to-theneighborhood dinner party to explore classism, internalized racism, and issues of choice. The reading will be recorded and be available for viewing November 22 through 24. $10. Additional virtual offerings include a Wednesday, November 4, interview with Craig-Galvan, who will share her process and the creation of the new work, and two educational interactive Learning Lab programs: “Caring for My Community” on Monday, Novem- Artworks exhibition mixes ber 9, and “How Can I Help My Com- painting and poetry munity?” on Monday, November 23. rtworks Trenton continues its The online programs are free but a $5 gradual reopening with “Peaceful donation is requested. – Thoughtful.” For more information, visit www. Featuring the artwork of Belmarpassagetheatre.org. based artist Shahla Mansouri, the main gallery exhibition is on view through Saturday, November 21, by Trent House examines appointment only. road to victory In a statement, the artist says, he Trent House Association will “Here, I have focused on three elepresent the virtual talk “Road to ments: woman, poetry, and nature. I Victory at Yorktown — The Washing- have also emphasized collage, as my ton-Rochambeau Trail through Mer- technique.
“The female figures are painted looking away, with their backs to the viewer, immersed in thought. The poetry written out and surrounding them, comes from Nezami Ganjavi, the Iranian poet (13th century). The poems are on love and peace. “Woman and nature are taken as symbols of growth, fertility, patience, and endurance. The sun and the moon appear a lot in the works. The use of various textures, by way of collage, also appears as my way of showing these feelings. I have used paper, cloth, and metal, as my chosen media.” Artworks Trenton, 19 Everett Alley. Free. For more information: 609394-9436 or www.artworkstrenton.org.
Works by Shahla Mansouri are on view at Artworks by appointment through November 21.
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DOWNTOWNER Phone: (609) 396-1511 Fax: (609) 844-0180 Website: communitynews.org SENIOR EDITOR Dan Aubrey MANAGING EDITOR Sara Hastings SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Jennifer Steffen (Ext. 113) ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Mark Nebbia
A publication of Community News Service, LLC © Copyright 2020 All rights reserved. CO-PUBLISHER Jamie Griswold MANAGING EDITOR, METRO DIVISION Sara Hastings MANAGING EDITOR, COMMUNITY DIVISION Rob Anthes
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November 2020 | Trenton Downtowner3
City News: THA, Conifer Realty unveil Turner Pointe community
T
he Trenton Housing Authority (THA) held an October 15 ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of Turner Pointe, a new affordable family rental community located in North Trenton. The first residents to occupy apartment homes in Turner Pointe were expected to move in around November 1. Turner Pointe is a joint venture between the Trenton Housing Authority and Conifer Realty. Turner Pointe represents the redevelopment of the former George W. Page Home complex, which was built in 1954 and had been vacant and non-performing for several years. The redevelopment plan included the demolition of the old buildings and the new construction of 77 townhome-style apartments that include modern amenities with energy-efficient appliances. The THA Board of Commissioners selected the name Turner Pointe in honor of Senator Shirley K. Turner, the first woman and first African American to be elected as Senate President Pro Tempore. Each apartment home includes a full kitchen with energy-star-rated appliances, living and dining area, full bath, large bedrooms, and closet and cabinet space. The entire community utilizes energy-efficient heating and cooling systems that meet the Energy Star Program and Enterprise Green Requirements. Other amenities include a smart-card laundry center, fitness room, and community room. Applications are still being accepted for Turner Pointe apartment units. For more information: www.tha-nj.org or 609-278-5000.
4Trenton Downtowner November 2020
THA Chair Clifton Anderson presents a proclamation to State Senator Shirley K. Turner during a ceremony to mark the completion of the Turner Pointe affordable rental community as THA Commissioner Darlene Weldon looks on.
City, East Trenton Collaborative win award for redevelopment efforts
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he Housing & Community Development Network of New Jersey (HCDNNJ) awarded the City of Trenton and East Trenton Collaborative (ETC) the “Outstanding Municipal Partner – Redevelopment” award at the HCDNNJ annual conference held on October 15 and 16. HCDNNJ comprises more than 250 nonprofit, community development, and private sector organizations that support the creation of economic opportunities for low and moderate-income community residents. ETC is operated by N.J. Community
Capital for the purposes of community organizing and development. As part of the award, HCDNNJ recognized Trenton’s social and economic revitalization efforts, including the redevelopment of multiple city-owned abandoned homes and mixed-use buildings, the rebuilding and reopening of Hetzel Pool, the renovation of the historic East Trenton Library, the repaving of roads, the installation of decorative crosswalks and speed humps, and the clean-up of several major brownfields sites. “This award reflects the discipline, determination, and dedication of our community and our collaboration,” said Evelyn Hawthorne, a community leader with ETC and UrbanPromise Trenton. “The City has always valued its partnership with East Trenton Collaborative in planning and implementing neighborhood redevelopment and revitalization efforts,” said Mayor Reed Gusciora. “We look forward to continued improvements to housing and other services that will better serve our residents and transform North Trenton in the coming years.” In 2015 ETC updated its “East Trenton Vision Plan,” which key stakeholders initially drafted in 2009. The plan received support from the N.J. Department of Community Affairs under the Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit Program (NRTC), which provides businesses with a 100 percent tax credit for funds provided to nonprofit entities carrying out comprehensive revitalization plans. Department of Public Works Director Wahab Onitiri accepted the award on behalf of the city. From January, 2018, to October, 2020, the Department of Public Works cleaned over 946 public and private properties, cleared 1,038 alleyways, and paved 55 streets, which make up about 15.4 miles of roads throughout the city.
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November 2020 | Trenton Downtowner5
NJ program connects students of color to green jobs and recreation By Brianna Baker
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ychael Halloway, 17, has been spending her time in quarantine on her phone. But she isn’t scrolling Instagram. Thanks to a newly launched environmental internship program, she’s photographing and identifying the plants around her home in Trenton. Halloway is one of 30 students enrolled in Building Conservation through Diversity and Teamwork, a paid high-school internship program based in Mercer County. Participants include students of Central High School in Hopewell Valley, as well as teenage members of Trenton’s Boys & Girls Club. After 10 hours of training on topics ranging from water quality to trail maintenance, interns are paired with a local participating nonprofit to conduct stewardship fieldwork. The program aims to train the next generation of environmental stewards, giving them crucial work experience and skills. But more importantly, it intends to help students of color prepare for jobs in the green sector, exposing them to the benefits of outdoor recreation in the process. “I enjoy all the activities we do. I really enjoy going out and visiting different environments,” Halloway says. “It’s really helped me learn so many plants and so many animals that I’ve seen.” And according to Lisa Wolff, co-founder of the program and executive director of sponsor organization Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space, she and fellow organizers also hope to connect young people from two communities that often don’t interact. “The greatest way to break down barriers between Black and white is to provide exposure,” Wolff says. “I can tell you, ‘You should be nice to other cultures.’ That’s not the same thing as working hand-in-hand, as peers, as equals, with people of other cultures and really learning from them and getting to know them.” Though it started earlier this year, the internship was put on pause after just three in-person training sessions, as Wolff and her colleagues worked to shift the coursework online. Now, Halloway and her fellow students are taking the remaining seven courses over Zoom and completing at-home assignments — like encouraging students to visit nearby parks and gardens and use an app, iNaturalist, to take photos of bugs, birds, and everything in between. Wolff says the program was initially intended to accommodate only 20 interns, but when staff at Central High School and the Boys & Girls Club notified students of the opportunity, demand was so high that she increased capacity to 40. Students were offered the option to be paid for their time or to receive service credits for organizations or classes. When COVID-19 hit, however, all students were promised full pay for the time they put in but were given the choice to continue with the program online or bow out. “Surprisingly, about 75 percent of the people who were in the original internship have decided to continue with us,” Wolff says. “I think that retention rate is pretty good, since we had to change the whole way that the internship was going to look and feel. So, they like it, and they’re getting a lot out of it.” The program is the first initiative of the Outdoor Equity Alliance, a group of land trusts, service organizations, and school officials dedicated to combating environmental racism; making parks and public lands more accessible to people of color; and diversifying the talent pool of conservation professionals, a predominantly white field. According to Aaron Watson, co-founder of the
6Trenton Downtowner November 2020
Outdoor Equity Alliance and executive director of the Mercer County Parks Commission, it’s not just hard to find people of color working in Mercer County’s environmental sector. He also doesn’t see many people of color enjoying the parks he manages — even though the county’s population is nearly 40 percent non-white. Combatting that gap has been a major focal point of his time in his current role. Watson, whose sister is New Jersey Congresswoman Bonnie Watson-Coleman, says that he has often visited schools in Trenton to advertise the county’s parks and programming, hoping that his presence as a Black man in a leadership position would inspire students of color. While there, he often asks Black students why they don’t visit public lands as often as their white peers. “I got the feeling they felt like they weren’t welcome out there,” Watson says. To Watson, the now infamous encounter between Amy Cooper and Christian Cooper in Central Park, in which the white woman called the police on the Black birder and lied about him threatening her life, is a clear illustration of the core problem: People of color have been historically excluded from public lands, making them feel unsafe in outdoor settings. That lack of exposure to the great outdoors has deprived many students of the numerous benefits nature can have for their mental and physical health, and even lead to many misunderstandings about local wildlife. Watson says that, after inviting students on hikes with him, many expressed they were scared of grizzly bears, mountain lions, and wolves — animals not found in the area. “It really disturbed me to see that a lot of these very same kids can walk down some of the toughest blocks in the city of Trenton and not feel one bit of fear. But take them on a hike in the woods and they’re scared to death,” Watson says.
Building Conservation through Diversity and Teamwork aims to give students of color relevant skills and knowledge, but also time to have fun in the great outdoors.
Aaron Watson, director of the Mercer County Parks Commission and co-founder of the Outdoor Equity Alliance. themselves are effective, but I really, really, really want that interaction.” However, with the Black Lives Matter movement still demanding the nation’s attention, more people are talking about the need for environmental justice. As a result, the program and its founding coalition are gaining renewed momentum. Even though the program has yet to finish its pilot run, Wolff is in talks with Princeton University and the Capital Area YMCA to see if it can be expanded and replicated elsewhere. Still, Wolff is frustrated that that interest wasn’t present from the start of the program — especially when it came to funding. Wolff says that she received a small grant from the New Jersey Conservation Foundation to support a portion of the interns’ pay, but without the support of any other grants, she ended up raising the remaining $10,000 through GoFundMe. “I’m happy right now that in the collective consciousness, people are understanding that this is an issue, but it’s been an issue for so long,” Wolff says. “It’s not like our time has come. This should have happened a long time ago.” Still, Wolff and Watson are hopeful that the tide is turning, and that the internship program will mean seeing more people of color in Mercer County’s rich network of preserved lands — and maybe, in environmental careers, movements, and recreation throughout the country. Already, Halloway has been inspired by the program to consider using her creativity and love for nature to one day start an eco-conscious art business. “Right now, we’re going through climate change and everything like that, and then some of the animals that we have might go extinct,” Halloway says. “So I think a business like that would be a good way to just show that we need to step it up, and we need to show the world that a healthy environment is what we need.” For more information visit www.fohvos.info.
And according to Watson, that unfamiliarity may also be why the conservation field is overwhelmingly white. If young people don’t spend time in nature, they won’t gain the experience they need to care for it for a living. That’s why Building Conservation through Diversity and Teamwork aims to give students of color relevant skills and knowledge, but also time to have fun in the great outdoors. In the internship’s second session, students learned about mindfulness in nature and went for a hike to Baldpate Mountain. According to Wolff, current events have posed both an obstacle and opportunity for the program. The pandemic — and all the social distancing requirements that come with it — make teamwork and relationship-building, one of the core goals of the program, difficult. Wolff is currently figuring out if the cohort, perhaps in smaller groups, can safely meet on a trail or another outdoor setting soon. “Nothing beats hanging out with somebody and This story was produced in collaboration with Civhaving something screw up and bursting out laughing together because how bad it was,” Wolff says. icStory and the New Jersey Sustainability Reporting “You don’t get that as much in Zoom. The classes project. It was originally reported by Brianna Baker for Next City. Visit www.nextcity.org.
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November 2020 | Trenton Downtowner7
Dining low on the hog at the 1911 Smokehouse By Dan Aubrey
‘S
ince the beginning we were thinking about vegetarian,” chef Reggie Hallett tells me about providing vegan dishes for his restaurant with the very non-vegan name, the 1911 Smokehouse, on Front Street in downtown Trenton. “We” include Hallett’s brother, Maurice, who founded the downtown barbecue restaurant in 2015. They are also part of a larger trend of restaurants hungry to cater to a non-carnivorous clientele — that generally includes me. Reggie Hallett says reaching the market that ranges from little to no meat was on his mind from opening day when he started offering meatfree collard greens and baked beans. He says having vegan and vegetarian items on the menu makes sense because it makes cents. To make his point, Hallett sits back in his chair at a table outside the former Tony Kall’s café — a place where politicians would chew the beef and exchanged the bull — and draws an imaginary pie with an ever-growing slice of vegan and vegetarian diners. “From my experience in the restaurant industry, salads are usually the vegetarian or vegan dish,” he says, adding that it took him a while to come
up with some more creative offerings. He then lists offerings to make it clear the Smokehouse is more than its “you can’t beat our meat” slogan. There are black bean empanadas for vegetarians, the vegan empanadas — made with a plant-based “vegan beef” — fried avocados, vegan sausage, and vegan wings — the latter being battered mushroom tossed in one of the restaurant’s spicy sauces. “I want to play around with tofu, but
At the Smokehouse having vegan and vegetarian items on the menu makes sense because it makes cents. I haven’t had a chance yet,” he says. That’s because he has assumed both chef and management duties after his brother moved out of the region and checks in remotely and during monthly visits. “I am basically running the business,” says Hallett, mentioning attempts to expand the restaurant on the family-owned property. He says his recipe for approaching vegan cooking is based on his general
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8Trenton Downtowner November 2020
approach to cooking — learning, experimenting, fine-tuning, and then taste testing. He says he always liked cooking but got serious after working as a social worker in New York City — with attention to situations at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. A 1981 graduate of Ewing High School with several years of study at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City, Hallett says one day he decided he wanted to cook and “like a construction worker I bought some tools,” chef knives in his case, and pounded New York City pavements looking to start. E.U. Restaurant executive chef Sara Ochs evidently liked his moxie and gave him his start shucking oysters and managing the salad stations. Over the next several years he worked in a variety of New York City restaurants and earned his salt as a cook. Things changed when a couple of out-of-town fans lured him to Steubenville, Ohio, to be the chef at their Froehlich Classic Corner. He was there for eight years. “I came back to my father’s funeral, and my brother asked to if I’d be a cook if he bought a restaurant,” he says about getting into Trenton’s restaurant game. Although their main focus was on ribs, wings, and brisket, Hallett says he knew the value of providing options for vegetarians. “It was unfair that all (vegetarians and vegans) could order was a salad. I wanted to do something and played around in the kitchen.” He also talked to people who practiced the no-animal-product lifestyle. “The vegan wings?” he says. “They’re called Ariana vegan wings. She was a state worker who was a vegan. She gave me the idea. So we named them after her.” Trade shows also help. “That’s where I discovered the vegan beef. That’s where ideas come as well.”
Reggie Hallett of 1911 Smokehouse. “There’s no magic,” Hallett says. “I taste it and say, ‘Okay, it needs to be on the menu.” The result is he says he is seeing more vegans and vegetarians showing up. “They are surprised that a barbecue place has vegan food, and they say now they have a place they can go, too. Some say, ‘My husband comes here; now I can come too.’”
T
o test Hallett’s claim, I decide to do a taste test of my own and order the black bean empanada, vegan empanada, and the vegan wings to go. Soon Hallett and two cooks scramble about the boxy kitchen to tackle my request and a lot of other orders — most, interestingly, non-barbecue. Soon I have mine, and in short order I am at home with the empanadas and the vegan wings lined up cafeteria-style on my kitchen counter and invite my wife and son to pig out. And voila! In moments, the spicy tastes, pleasing textures, and enticing aroma take us to hog heaven — but without the hog. 1911 Smokehouse, 11 West Front Street, Trenton. 609-695-1911 or 1911bbq.com.
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November 2020 | Trenton Downtowner9
Trenton City Museum and the courage to reopen By Dan Aubrey
T
renton Museum Society president Joan Perkes seems to offer a slight smile beneath her mask as she says the word, “Stressful.” That’s how she sums up the preparations for the society’s recent Trenton City Museum reopening and the installation of the current show “The Conversation Continues” on view through the end of November. Located in the capital city’s Cadwalader Park and operated through a partnership with the City of Trenton and the nonprofit TMS, the Trenton City Museum is just one of a small number of area museums and galleries that took advantage of Governor Phil Murphy’s guidelines allowing visual art venues to reopen. Perkes’ stress was related to concerns about the museum’s role in the community and the visitors. “We can’t be led by fear, but we need to be led by vigilance,” says Perkes, a New Hope resident who has been volunteering with the museum for eight years — including the most recent five as president of the TMS. “Our demographics and volunteers are older, so we want to protect them and ourselves as best we can,” she says. That protection — in addition to the
normal protocol of wearing a mask, we were able to come back to the muwashing hands, and standing six feet seum. The quilters never came back apart — requires visitors to visit the in. When the city allowed us in on a museum website to schedule a time very restrictive basis we arranged slot, have temperatures taken upon time to remove the quilts.” Despite a season of uncertainty, she arrival, sign in, and provide an email says the museum committee memaddress. “That’s so we can provide contract bers learned to adjust as they moved tracing, if worse comes to worse,” Per- forward. “It was pre-planned,” Perkes says. kes says. “We leave ourWhile visiselves flexibility tor requests are in case something starting to come ‘By coming here I unexpected presin — Perkes says ents itself, but upwards to 40 al- learned what Trenton is generally we’re ready registered two years out. for the weekend all about — and it isn’t “Ever ything ahead — she says the buildings,’ says Joan was timed,” she those who are says, adding that still unsure about Perkes. regionally known venturing out can artist and curator view the exhibition online, a practice fine-tuned over Madeline Shellaby “had the courage to reopen the show.” the past several months. The exhibition involves 16 active Like many New Jersey cultural centers, the TCM was forced to close in regional artists whose work has been mid-March. The closure ended the installed next to other works to enmuseum’s then current exhibition “If courage the viewer to “make connecThese Quilts Could Talk: A juried ex- tions and find similarities beyond difhibit of the Princeton Sankofa Stitch- ferences,” writes Shellaby. ers MQG and the Friendly Quilters of erkes says her involvement with Bucks County.” the museum occurred through a “When the museum was closed, the quilters left their art here,” Perkes type of osmosis. says. “It was four months later when “My background career is in the
P
art world,” says the independent gallery operator and artists representative. “One of the (TMS) trustees was a client in a different venue and then became a friend. He asked if I would co-curate a show at the museum. I curated a show myself, and was asked if I would be on the arts selection committee. Then I was asked if I would chair the committee, but I had to be on the board, and that is how I ended up on the board.” She says there were unexpected surprises. That includes realizing “how quickly I became enamored with Trenton and the people I met. By coming here I learned what Trenton is all about — and it isn’t the buildings. The volunteers love the city’s history and the park. And there isn’t a person on the board who isn’t committed to the Trenton City Museum and what a treasure it is to the city.” Another surprise was a recent revelation. “When I was working out our next show I realized that I had crossed the Atlantic and Pacific for art when I just could have crossed the Delaware River. I have found in New Jersey and the Trenton area an aesthetics I hadn’t found in Bucks County. If you’re dealing with a collector you always look for the new thing, and I think it stared in the most unlikely spot.”
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Speaking more on her background, Perkes says, “I started in the gallery business. I was hired to run a gallery in Philadelphia. There was a second gallery in New Hope. That was in the late 1960s. When the galleries moved to the Laceworks in Lambertville, I moved to Bucks County.” The formerly married director says, “After my daughter was born I decided that being in a gallery per se was to not what I wanted to do. I wanted to work with artists and took their work to art fairs and developed gallery and collector connections.” Looking at her experiences, she says, “Being involved in the arts has tentacles that move out. I do appraisals and work with corporations. I’ve taken clients to Europe to collect. My life was completely enveloped by what I did in the art world. It was both a livelihood and deep passion that made me comfortable anywhere I had been.” The South Philadelphia native of an Italian home keeper mother and Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) employee father says the initial seed for her art career was planted in grade school. “I went to Catholic school, and every other Friday we had picture study and poetry and I thought that it would be in my future. The picture was about the study of the artist’s life, and we would analyze a painting.” Then as a liberal arts student at Temple University, she took her first art history class and saw something that changed her life. “It was the cave paintings that made me think that I was going into the arts. I just had a visceral reaction. Something awakened in me. I can’t tell you what it was. I just said, ‘Oh my god. This is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I want this in my life.’” Her sophomore year in Italy, where she soaked up history and visited her mother’s hometown, convinced her that she was on the right track. “It helped me hone that sense that it was where I belong.” Turning to the topic of art education, including art history, Perkes says that the museum is looking to connect with youth to help. “The arts are important to young people. Literature and music are lifesaving experiences. I firmly believe that we need to reach children — we can’t save everybody but we can save many.”
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Joan Perkes and the Trenton City Museum are ready to welcome visitors back to the museum’s physical space. The arts’ ability to help people become critical problem solvers also seems to have given Perkes the ability to find some unexpected benefits of the pandemic. “I feel it’s a very creative moment. When we closed the museum I wrote a letter to the board members and said they should use it as a creative time and to think about where we’re going. It’s always important to look at a direction — you can modify it at any time — but you should look at where we’re going. I said it was a time to think about what we’re doing and come back renewed. When the world becomes dark, you have to reach for what makes it bright.
we may have had for a show that was in the museum will have a component online.” It also helped her focus on the ongoing challenges facing all cultural organizations. “It’s how to be relevant,” she says, “How to examine our place in the community and do it better. As times change, we need to keep a dialogue open.” She says she and the board are also “looking for fun things that engage people.” That includes the upcoming series of exhibitions, including the December 5 show tentatively called “Women Trenton Style” and an upcoming anniversary. “In 2023 the TCM will be 50 years here is also a learning curve. old, and we’re looking at how we can With people hesitant to go to public spaces, our relationship with social media and websites is important. But WE FEATURE A WASH DRY AND FOLD there is always a learning curve to that SERVICE FOR THOSE TOO BUSY TO — before this we never thought of virDO THEIR OWN WASH. RELAX, WE’VE tual exhibitions. Now every exhibition GOT IT HANDLED. WE HAVE THE we plan will have a virtual component. LARGEST FACILITIES IN THE BUCKS/ We’re doing catalogs on line. InterMERCER AREA. THEY’RE BIG, THEY’RE views are in the works — everything BEAUTIFUL AND YOU’LL LOVE THEM.
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make that a unifying thing. And we are going to be reaching out to past trustees and past experiences. It’s a big anniversary for us, and we’re looking at it now,” Perkes says. She says as they move towards that anniversary, TMS “received a threeyear capacity building grant from the PACF’s Bunbury Fund,” something that “comes at a crucial time as the Trenton Museum Society is aggressively working to embrace and meet the challenges and its position in a changing world.” Perkes shares several thoughts on the formula for her long career in the arts — one that now combines her own clients and her volunteer work at TCM. “The magical thing about being involved in the arts is that it makes you a citizen of the world. There isn’t a place you go that you don’t always feel at home. That’s something I learned early on. I don’t know if I found the arts or the arts found me.” Another is the opportunity to be creative. “Since I don’t paint and don’t write, my creative expression is how to piece things together. I look at a project as an empty canvas where something is waiting to be created. That’s how I think about everything — like my life. I never know where something will take me. I am tuned to unexpected encounters.” But the third is more direct. “I love people. I love talking to them. I love hearing their ideas. There is such a source of information that I love to reach out. I just plain love people. I don’t know how to explain it,” she says — definitely smiling through her mask. The Conversation Continues, Trenton City Museum, Cadwalader Park. On view through November, Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m., and Sundays, 1 to 4 p.m., also on view online. 609989-3632 or www.ellarslie.org.
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