美国国家公共电台 NPR Art Camp Thrives On 8 Open Lots On Hamtramck-Detroit Border

 

(SOUNDBITE OF NOCTURNAL ANIMAL NOISES)

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

This summer, we're visiting some of the more extraordinary camps around the country. Today, we head to the border of Detroit and Hamtramck, Mich., where neighborhood artists and young people built camp from scratch. Zak Rosen takes us there.

ZAK ROSEN, BYLINE¹: Hamtramck is formerly² a working-class Polish city. But in recent years, there's been a huge surge of other immigrants, many from Bangladesh and Yemen. Accompanying that surge have been lots of artists who work to put community at the center of their practice, people like Faina Lerman, who's walking me around her compound.

FAINA LERMAN: We are on the corner of St. Aubin and Carpenter, literally³ straddling the Hamtramck and Detroit border.

ROSEN: Through their nonprofit, Lerman and her husband, Graham Whyte, have three homes - one where they live and program art shows, another across the street for visiting artists and a third...

LERMAN: We're slowly renovating⁴ it into another community space/tool-lending library.

ROSEN: Then they've got eight open lots. They garden on a few of them, but that still leaves plenty of space for other stuff. And in this part of the city, there aren't any playgrounds. So this summer, Lerman and some neighborhood artists started a free, week-long day camp.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Singing) Ready? We are Camp Carpenter Kids. Building stuff is what we did.

UNIDENTIFIED CAMPERS: (Singing) Building stuff is what we did.

ROSEN: Camp Carpenter does not have a stated mission. If it did, it might be, let's just do this and see what happens. And adults are here to help, not to lead.

LERMAN: I feel like everything is just very over structured for kids. Like, they don't have even the space to make their own decisions or to let their minds expand to different ways of learning or gathering⁵ information.

ROSEN: So here, the structure is intentionally⁶ loose. But by the end of the week, there is the start of an adventure playground, built in part by the campers.

LERMAN: It doesn't have to look like an awesome⁷ playground that's polished. And, you know, it's a process. Like, kids were here, and they did stuff. They did a lot of different stuff.

(SOUNDBITE OF HAMMERING)

ROSEN: One young camper, Jimmy Engalan, is learning how to use a hammer. A less patient adult may have allowed him a few whacks⁸ of the nail and then taken over - but not teaching artist Liza Bielby.

LIZA BIELBY: Keep your body engaged.

(SOUNDBITE OF HAMMERING)

ROSEN: She watches Jimmy until he drives the nail all the way down into a wood pallet. It takes 258 knocks. I counted - 258. But he does it.

BIELBY: Yes. Well done.

ANGILENA OMOLARA-FOX: I'm Angilena Omolara-Fox, and I am 11 years old. I made a pillow. I made a dress. I helped with the little fort thing over there.

ROSEN: So would you come back to camp?

ANGILENA: Yes, because I don't really get a lot of chances to use tools and to make, like, things that I would like to make.

NIKI RICHARDSON: With all the camps she went to other than Camp Carpenter, it was a very, like, specific this is what we're going to do, these are the steps we're going to take to do it.

ROSEN: This is Angilena's mom, Niki Richardson.

RICHARDSON: And Camp Carpenter more was - we're going to build, but you need to figure out what you want to build. And we'll help you figure out how to do it.

ROSEN: Summer's nearly over. These campers will head back to school in just a few weeks. And there, pretty much every minute of their day will be mapped out with tests and assignments. Most of them don't get recess⁹ anymore. That might help explain why they thrived here at this meandering¹⁰, creative camp sitting on eight open lots on the Hamtramck-Detroit border.

For NPR News, I'm Zak Rosen.

(SOUNDBITE OF KOLOTO'S "LIFE IN CLAY")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

3 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

4 renovating   

翻新，修复，整修( renovate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The increased production was largely attained by renovating old orchards and vineyards. 通过更新老果园和葡萄园，使生产大大增加。
• Renovating that house will cost you a pretty penny. 为了整修那所房子，你得花很多钱。

5 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

6 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

7 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

8 whacks   

n.重击声( whack的名词复数 )；不正常；有毛病v.重击，使劲打( whack的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Lizzie Borden took an axe, Hit her father forty whacks. 丽兹玻顿拿起斧头，砍了爸爸四十下。 来自互联网
• Grizzly bear paw whacks camera out of position and jettisons it downstream. 大灰熊的爪子把摄像机移出了固定的位置并且把它扔到了下游。 来自互联网

9 recess   

n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处）

参考例句：

• The chairman of the meeting announced a ten-minute recess.会议主席宣布休会10分钟。
• Parliament was hastily recalled from recess.休会的议员被匆匆召回开会。

10 meandering   

蜿蜒的河流，漫步，聊天

参考例句：

• The village seemed deserted except for small boys and a meandering donkey. 整个村子的人都像是逃光了，只留下了几个小男孩和一头正在游游荡荡的小毛驴。 来自教父部分
• We often took a walk along the meandering river after supper. 晚饭后我们常沿着那条弯弯曲曲的小河散步。