Latest news with #Groundwork
BBC News
14-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
The Green Patch in Kettering helps to support mental wellbeing
A community garden is being praised by users for providing headspace support through outdoor activities and inclusive engagement Green Patch in Kettering, Northamptonshire, uses its 2.5-acre site to support young people, adults and families through gardening, therapy sessions, and mental health and wellbeing activities, all at no cost to group was founded in 2007 and is regularly used by schools and community Oakley, children and young people's manager at The Green Patch, said: "There are limited opportunities for young people to be outside. [This] allows them to be outside on their terms to support mental wellbeing." The project is part of the national charity Groundwork and has previously won awards including a Green Flag from the Keep Britain Tidy group, Marcus, 25, has attended the Green Patch since 2016 and now regularly helps care for the garden and its chickens."It's helped with my wellbeing, my mentality. I was very shy, quiet, didn't talk a lot," he said. "Now I'm a bit more open, friendly with people. I've got used to it now and I've accepted this new life that I'm doing now."Kate Buckby, a volunteer who helps supervise woodworking sessions, said: "There's a lot of young people with learning difficulties and elderly people. I get them as a group, supervise them and jolly them along."There's a real mix of people - some just want to sit and enjoy the space. It just helps their headspace to be down here."BBC Radio Northampton is supporting Headfest, an annual festival focused on mental health wellbeing with an emphasis on schools this year. Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Los Angeles Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Mara Brock Akil
Mara Brock Akil has a love story with Los Angeles that runs deep. She was born in Compton, raised in such neighborhoods as Baldwin Hills, Windsor Hills and Ladera Heights, and now resides in Hancock Park. So when she set out on her latest creative project, a TV adaptation of Judy Blume's 1975 novel 'Forever...,' she knew she had to set it the City of Angels. shar'We kept saying we're telling a love story within a love letter to Los Angeles,' said the screenwriter and executive producer best known for the series 'Girlfriends' and 'Being Mary Jane.' Akil's new series, which premiered on Netflix on Thursday, centers on the love story between Justin Edwards and Keisha Clark, Black high school seniors in 2018 Los Angeles. 'We're a very diverse city, but we are still separated within our neighborhoods,' she said. 'I want people to get used to seeing Justins and Keishas in L.A. and make room for them as they try to discover each other.' The showrunner said her 'muse' was her eldest son, Yasin Akil, 21, and her relationship with him. 'My impetus to write this, [which] I think [was] the same as Judy,' Akil said, 'is I want to make space for my children to have a normal rite of passage to understand who they are, how they make that leap from familial love to their first decision around romantic love and friendship love, and before they move into the next realm of their lives.' When Akil isn't on set, her ideal Sunday takes her from her home in Hancock Park to art studios downtown and local bookshops in Ladera Heights. As her work on 'Forever' has taught her, 'You can stay in your bubble or you can sort of venture out. And if you venture out, I think you'll be a better Angeleno.' This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. 7 a.m.: Hot girl walk On my dream Sunday, I'm waking up at 7 a.m. when the city is quiet. There are going to be dog walkers, but there's something so luscious about the stillness of L.A. that early on a Sunday. I do have a walking and writing creative practice, and so sometimes I like to write in New York as a result of it, because I can just go out the door and walk. But Hancock Park allows me to walk to one of my favorite streets in L.A., which is Larchmont. There's something to do where you don't have to overspend, but you can feel a part of something. You can just enjoy walking up and down. You can stop by the magazine stand. You can look in all the stores. You might buy a croissant — there's 1,000 bakeries. You can just go look at the adopted pets. Matcha is my thing. Groundwork has a matcha, Le Pain Quotidien has a matcha and Cookbook has a matcha. And then one of my favorite places, too, is Larchmont Village Wine, Spirits & Cheese. The line is out the door for their sandwiches; I typically get the turkey or the tuna. I get my Sunday fixings [at the Larchmont Farmers Market], so I make a Sunday chicken. I don't cook a lot of things, but what I do well, I do very well. I have a family recipe, and it's a Sunday chicken, and so I get the herbs or the potatoes and the carrots and the things like that. It feels great to walk out of your door after driving in your car all week, to talk to people, bump into friends. 9 a.m.: Neighborly tennis lesson Hancock Park is a really lovely neighborhood. I know my neighbors, and thankfully one of them has a tennis court. I have this amazing trainer named Wkwesi Williams. Wkwesi will meet me over at my neighbor's house, and he'll give us a lesson, and then if we're feeling strong enough, we'll hit afterwards. 11 a.m.: Hit the batting cages Then I'm home, and I can be mom. My 16-year-old son, Nasir, is an aspiring baseball player. Typically, if he's not in a game, which would wipe out my whole Sunday, I just have to get him to the batting cages. My son doesn't drive yet, so he still needs his mom, thank God. He bats at BaseballGenerations with Ron Miller, another amazing coach. It's so funny. It's the flyest — all the young ballers are in there. Sometimes they'll have professional guys hitting in the batting cage. It's like the secret to the secret. 12:30 p.m.: See the art Then, since we're downtown, I would go visit Jessica Taylor Bellamy's studio. Thelma Golden, the director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, who's a good friend of mine, always gave me this great advice: Art should be a daily practice. If you just have 30 minutes and you can pop into a gallery or a museum, just go see the art, see what it does. What I love about Bellamy's work is that she really understands Los Angeles. When I saw her paintings — and she had a palm tree and a pine tree, sometimes she has bright skies, sometimes she has cloudy skies — I was like, 'Who is this? She gets it. She's from here. She knows L.A.' She was also a muse for 'Forever.' When I saw her paintings, I called Michael 'Cambio' Fernandez, who is our cinematographer. We talked about her palette, her understanding of the sunny side and the rainy side and the cloudy side of L.A. That tableau was really important. 2 p.m.: Visit childhood home Because I love driving, [my son and I] take the long way home. I would go by Reparations Club to pick up a book for me. Then we would go to this new comic book store called the Comic Den on Slauson for my son. Then we would go to Simply Wholesome for us. Simply Wholesome is one of our big heartbeat centers of love, joy, wellness and community. We typically get the Sunshine Shake with the egg, and we get some Jamaican patties for my mom, which we will take literally around the corner. My mother lives in my childhood home, and we would go see grandma, so grandma can see how tall Nasir has grown. It always anchors me to walk into a place that you remember yourself. Being in that neighborhood reminds me of how safe and loved and enough I am. I love being in the place where I was a child and also making sure my child stays connected to his grandmother. My own grandmother recently passed in that home, so just honoring that. We always play a little Jhené Aiko or Nipsey Hussle to honor being back over there. 5 p.m.: Sunday fixings I'll get back home around 5 o'clock, so I can cook the Sunday chicken. I have a big life, but I'm always a writer and I'm always in practice. And one of my favorite things is music. Our house is always filled with music, so I cook. I slow down. I engage with that family history as well as my own creativity, and in that active meditation, oftentimes I will catch a lot of great ideas. So I always have my journal nearby, maybe a little Champagne because it's Sunday, and I'm using all of those little fixings I got from the farmers market. And the cool thing is that it takes a minute for the chicken to cook, so I can have a little swim or a little sauna and shower before family dinner. 7 p.m.: Family dinner Right now, it's just the three of us. Sometimes we FaceTime the older one [who is away at college] and be like, 'You're missing Sunday chicken!' But we sit down, and we just talk about the day, talk about whatever. Sometimes it gets very philosophical. To be in our homes and enjoy them is also a treat, and I don't ever want to forget that as I'm out and about around the city. We linger at least an hour before we set a new week ahead of us. 9 p.m.: Have a laugh over drinks But then, I'm also a Gemini, so I like to stay out in them streets. So it might just be calling my girlfriend Alice and being like, 'Let's go have a drink at Damn, I Miss Paris.' Friends of mine, Jason and Adair, just opened that spot up here on West Adams. How long I stay depends on who's there. Maybe just stay for an hour, have a drink, have a laugh. 11 p.m.: Poetry before bed I'm a shower girl, but sometimes I also just like to take a bath. So I would just sort of wind down with a bath, and the other thing is reading poetry. Right now I'm reading Nikki Giovanni, Mary Oliver and my mother. My mother just wrote a book of poetry, which blew my mind because my mom has been my mom. And she's allowed the writer in her to come out. I've been reading those three women in conversation with me as I try to write my life poetically. And by the way, poetry is not a whole chapter. Let me get real deep real quick before I go into this REM sleep.
The Spinoff
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
Blind seeing and beyond: how we approached Groundwork
Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson reveal how they pieced together the life of remarkable early botanical artist, Emily Cumming Harris, for their book Groundwork. Groundwork: The Art and Writing of Emily Cumming Harris (who was born in England in 1837 and who died in Nelson in 1925) by Michele Leggott (poet) and Catherine Field-Dodgson (researcher), published by Te Papa Press, is about an early botanical artist almost lost from Aotearoa's history of art. It is an impressive book over 10 years in the making: Leggott and Field-Dodgson, assisted by a team of researchers, revive Cumming Harris's life and work through her letters and diaries, and have reproduced 200 of her vibrant, delicate images which make the book an extraordinary object to have and to hold. In the following conversation, Leggott and Field-Dodgson let us in on how they approached their work and the process by which Leggott, who is blind, 'saw' the art. Michele Leggott: It begins with a conversation: back and forth, question and answer, building a picture of the picture. How big is it? Can I touch its edges (if we are in the room with the work)? Where is the eye drawn and what does the artist want us to see first? And after that? And then? With some basics in place we move on to colour, texture, foreground and background detail, compositional niceties and placement of signature and date (if they are there). The picture of the picture becomes richer, more and more detailed, as the questions take on a rhythm of their own. This is close looking and close listening: comparable to the close reading that enhances appreciation of any kind of text, verbal or visual. The questions start in one place and take us somewhere else, with a better understanding of the work and with another question on the tips of our tongues. It's also a lot of fun. The person who can't see is composing a version of the work, the person who can see is working hard to keep up with the questions and begins to ask questions of her own. Have we seen other works by the artist in the same vein? Watercolour or oil? Sketch or finished work? Where does the work in front of us fit into the wider picture of this artist's oeuvre? Catherine goes away and drafts a description of what we have been looking at. She is the person with eyes and an extensive knowledge of Emily Harris's work over the more than 50 years of its practice. I'm the one who can't see and is curious about the artist who was also a poet, sensitive to symmetries of all kinds, an archivist who cared deeply about the preservation of her artistic and family records. Catherine Field-Dodgson: I look at each painting carefully and think about what Emily is trying to convey. There is plenty of common ground between us for getting to know Emily's work in fascinating detail. What will the next conversation disclose that we haven't noticed before? Where will the questions take us this time? We decide on a tour of three works: a medium-sized watercolour, a very large watercolour and a small oil. All three appear in Groundwork. ML: Our caption gives me a basic sense of the content and size of Emily's watercolour, but there's more going on in the painting than her title suggests, which is why we have added a note identifying the akeake. In November 2022 you spent an afternoon looking at Emily's paintings with Oliver Stead, Curator of Drawings, Paintings and Prints at the Turnbull Library. There's a photo of him measuring up this painting during your visit to the library. Did you and Oliver talk about it? CFD: We were captivated by so many of Emily's paintings that afternoon! For this one, we were interested in getting the exact dimensions, which were not then online. But I do remember being struck by the vibrant orange of the taupata berries and wondering why Emily hadn't mentioned the beautiful akeake seed capsules in her title. The dimensions ended up being really important, as well as the play of colour and implied movement in the painting. These elements helped connect the watercolour to three others that we know went to Sydney in 1879 for the International Exhibition. ML: Is Emily painting an arrangement of specimens or are the plants depicted growing together? What kinds of orange, what kinds of green? Why put taupata and akeake together in this way? White or coloured paper? Natural surroundings or plain ground? CFD: It is a busy arrangement of branches, presenting an Autumnal scene of shiny berries and papery seed capsules. My eyes are first drawn to the golden-orange taupata berries dotted across the surface of the watercolour, and then to the single branch of white-winged akeake seeds, which present a lovely contrast to the bright berries. The painting almost shimmers with movement, as the branches stretch upward, interspersed with striped-green leaves. There's something interesting happening with the background of this painting too. Emily paints a pale blue watercolour wash around the edges of the plants – it is not blue-coloured paper. The blue sometimes washes over the berries, leaves and white flowers. This helps give the work a real painterly quality. It obviously caught the eye of designer Kate Barraclough as well, because she selected this painting to be the cover image for Groundwork. ML: And we were delighted with the choice when we were shown early versions of the cover design. As best we know, the painting has been reproduced only once or twice before. With the publication of Groundwork it has a new profile altogether. Eye-catching displays at Unity books in Wellington and Auckland, Page and Blackmore's in Nelson and in the Te Papa gift shop have duplicated its appeal on a wonderful scale. ML: This (the image below) is one of Emily's exhibition-size watercolours, made after her visit to botanist Thomas Kirk in Wellington in October 1890. We know from Emily's diary that Kirk showed her pressed specimens and possibly living plants brought back from his voyage to the Subantarctic islands in January that year. She records sketching in Kirk's study and in his garden and she brought away with her detailed drawings that would become paintings of eight species of the islands' famous mega-flora. Aralia lyallii is one of the most impressive of the huge plants and Emily pictures it in landscape format, giving the plant and its flower spikes maximum impact. But does it sprawl or move gracefully across the picture surface? CFD: Multiple leaves and flower heads spread gracefully across the surface of the painting. The foliage looks like giant geranium leaves. There is a plain white background, but the plant is not being presented as a static botanical illustration. Emily delicately layers watercolour wash over a pencil sketch and makes a really beautiful painting, creating depth by using a grey watercolour wash to denote areas of shadow. There are a handful of these plant specimens collected on 9 January 1890 at the Snares by Thomas Kirk. They are now in the herbarium at Te Papa and they show the large size of the plant – several have their huge leaves folded in half to fit on the page. Emily would have seen these specimens and the landscape orientation of her big painting really helps capture the scale of the leaves. ML: All good. But there is a problem with the colouring of the flowers. Emily's flowers are red-purple, which means the plant must be a Mainland variety because Kirk and his fellow-voyager Fredrick Chapman are adamant that the Subantarctic variety has pale flowers. But even Kirk and Chapman can't agree about the exact colouring of the flowers they saw: 'invariably of a dull pale-yellow hue, never lurid,' says Kirk; 'whitish-green masses of flowers,' says Chapman. Who is correct? CFD: That's when we approached Botany Curator Heidi Meudt at Te Papa. She recently visited the Subantarctic islands and is incredibly knowledgeable about their mega-flora. Heidi essentially confirmed Kirk and Chapman's assessment of the flower colour, meaning that Emily's painting is in error. Her red-purple flowers mean they cannot be a Snares plant. It could be that Emily was shown a Mainland or Stewart Island specimen that had been incorrectly labelled, or perhaps she never saw a living plant in flower? ML: Imagine how cross Emily would be about this. She was a stickler for botanical accuracy and would have hated the thought of her big painting showing a mistake. Worse, she repeated the colour error in an even larger oil panel of 1906 that depicts the Aralia and two other species in the diptych she entitled Flowers from the Antarctic Islands. CFD: Perhaps Emily's celestial works will also make a leap into public consciousness now that they can be seen in Groundwork. One of my favourite Emily paintings isn't botanical in theme at all, it's a small oil painting of a double-tailed comet. ML: What is it about the painting that grabs you? CFD: It's blanketed in deep velvety darkness, depicting a shining double-tailed comet and a sky sprinkled with stars. I can picture Emily perched on a hillside sketching the night scene, which is rich with blue, grey, indigo and black tones. It is beautifully balanced, and the white comet blazes in the west just above the distant mountain range beyond Tasman Bay. ML: Poet and retired librarian Iain Sharp says it's the view from his lounge window at Wakapuaka, northeast of Nelson, and therefore his favourite Emily Harris painting. Is there anything else going on? CFD: Creeping along the top of the mountain range is a sliver of golden light. It doesn't detract from the brilliance of the comet and adds real warmth to the landscape. Emily must have painted the scene just after sunset. I also recognise stars from Tautoru Orion's Belt to the right of the comet. ML: And so we went to the astronomers to find out more. CFD: That was an amazing research moment! Astronomers Wayne Orchiston and Ian Cooper from the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand confirmed that the 1901 double-tailed comet was named Viscara. Then Ian Cooper calculated that Emily recorded the comet between 7–12 May 1901. Ian matched her stars from Tautoru Orion's Belt with scientific diagrams that showed the comet's appearance in the Southern Hemisphere sky at 7pm on those dates. Emily's observations of the natural world are accurate, as well as beautiful. ML: Talking paintings is nothing new. One of the pleasures of Kim Hill's Saturday morning radio show was regular conversations with art historian and curator Mary Kisler. Fifteen minutes with one painting and two sets of eyes could put the work convincingly in front of listeners without the need for visual back-up, though that came later with the advent of website images. Writing paintings can also produce trans-disciplinary magic. Martin Edmond's recreation of a painting by Anne and Colin McCahon that hung on the wall of his childhood bedroom opens his 2011 book Dark Night: Walking with McCahon. The book is an investigation of the artist's fugue experience in Sydney in 1984. In its opening pages historical and contemporary lenses collapse into one another to form an exquisite immersion in the worlds of wondering child and wandering adult. Perhaps we need both words and images to arrive at the heart of the matter, any matter. And perhaps this is what the great Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges had in mind when he wrote of his blindness: 'I made a decision. I said to myself: since I have lost the beloved world of appearances, I must create something else.'
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Study shows racism a major issue impacting Ohio's maternal and infant mortality rate
Getty Images. A new study shows Ohio's struggle to improve infant and maternal mortality has roots in systemic issues like health care access, poverty and, above all, racism. Using the stories of thousands of Ohioans and a specific focus in an area with some of the highest infant mortality rates, advocacy group Groundwork Ohio and Dayton-based non-profit health care company CareSource put together an analysis of the causes of infant and maternal mortality rates in the state, efforts that have been made to stem the problem, and future solutions. 'Reducing infant mortality requires more than data — it demands that we listen to the voices of pregnant women, understand their challenges and act with urgency to remove barriers to care,' Deirdra Yocum, interim president of CareSource's Ohio market, said in a statement announcing the study. A 2024 March of Dimes report card showed Ohio's infant mortality rate at 7.1 deaths for every 10,000 births, ranking Ohio 43rd in the country. Maternal mortality was reported as 24.5 deaths per 100,000 births in the state, a statistic that has worsened in the last year, according to the report card. 'We stand at a pivotal moment where incremental progress is no longer enough,' according to the Groundwork/CareSource study. 'Tackling infant mortality demands bold, unified action.' Groundwork has been continually monitoring mortality rates as part of its early childhood advocacy work. A previous study by the group looked at the rates compared to 10 years ago, when Ohio was one of the worst in the country for infant mortality. That study showed progress in the last decade, but still found areas of 'inadequate' progress. The research the group did with CareSource acknowledged a 'notable improvement' in overall infant mortality rates up to 2022, but it also found the disparities in outcomes between Black and white babies have grown. 'Black infants in Ohio continue to die at more than twice the rate of their white counterparts, a devastating disparity that underscores inequities in health care access and outcomes,' researchers wrote. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Dayton and Montgomery County were recognized as having some of the highest rates of mortality in the study. Public Health – Dayton & Montgomery County data from 2023 showed an infant mortality rate of 9.8 deaths per 1,000 live births in that area, compared to the overall state rate of 7.1 per 1,000 births. 'For decades, Black women in Dayton have faced higher barriers to prenatal care, increasing the risk of adverse outcomes for both mothers and infants,' the study stated. 'These barriers are compounded by implicit bias within the health care system, leading to delays in care and lower-quality treatment.' Racism came up as a main issue for reducing maternal and infant mortality in the state, with ties to everything from health care to education and socio-economic status. Economic stability is one of the 'most significant barriers' in vulnerable communities, according to the study, with transportation, housing and food insecurity creating 'cascading issues.' 'By addressing root causes like racism, economic instability and fragmented systems, we can reimagine a future where every baby celebrates their first birthday and every family has the resources to thrive,' said Lynanne Gutierrez, president and CEO of Groundwork Ohio. Included in the infant and maternal mortality report was data from Groundwork's Ohio Family Voices Project, in partnership with the Stanford Center on Early Childhood. The project surveyed current mothers and pregnant individuals on everything from pre-natal medical care to child care, and looked at factors that had a 'negative influence' on the quality of care. Top factors that had a negative influence for participants in the study were income, health insurance coverage, the participant's own health and their race or ethnicity. 'Health disparities rooted in entrenched inequities within health care, governmental, education and economic systems demand bold reimagining and restructuring,' researchers stated. 'Significant policy shifts, better resource allocation and inclusive decision-making are necessary to create meaningful, sustainable change.' Creating that change involves listening to the lived experiences of those having children and the providers who help them, along with breaking down 'political and bureaucratic barriers.' The groups recommended a host of different changes for the future of the state, including expansions to comprehensive health care access, strengthening of assistance programs, expanding diversity in the health care workforce, improving child care accessibility and supporting trauma-informed systems of care. 'Both small-scale organizational politics and broader systemic challenges impede progress, creating unnecessary friction,' the study said. 'Overcoming these obstacles requires trust, open communication and a shared commitment to achieving common goals that prioritize the well-being of mothers and babies.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
