Story Info
Story Info
Trebbe Johnson & Andy Gardner
Susquehanna, PA
2018
Type of Wounded Place
Story & Experience
A 12-acre plot beside the Susquehanna River was contaminated for decades by the Erie Railyards. The area is now being cleaned up by the Department of Environmental Protection, and there are plans for a park, an ice skating rink, and a ballfield. Susquehanna County is poor, rural, and conservative, and this project to make something nice for the community is important and touching. However, I felt that the land needed some recognition of all it has been forced to hold and a little boost into its transformation. We made a RadJoy Bird out of stones and gave it some golden yarn (a weave from that donated by our two spinners for this year’s GEx) to carry in its beak. The bird is building a little yellow nest on the stakes as a way of looking forward to this area welcoming play and happiness. I felt love for this plot of land that had been asked to hold so much toxicity over so many years and yet did not. And now this land is being given attention, care, and plans for play and community togetherness. Our Global Earth Exchange gave me a sense of the whole, vast, patient life of this little plot of land.
A 12-acre plot beside the Susquehanna River was contaminated for decades by the Erie Railyards. The area is now being cleaned up by the Department of Environmental Protection, and there are plans for a park, an ice skating rink, and a ballfield. Susquehanna County is poor, rural, and conservative, and this project to make something nice for the community is important and touching. However, I felt that the land needed some recognition of all it has been forced to hold and a little boost into its transformation. We made a RadJoy Bird out of stones and gave it some golden yarn (a weave from that donated by our two spinners for this year’s GEx) to carry in its beak. The bird is building a little yellow nest on the stakes as a way of looking forward to this area welcoming play and happiness. I felt love for this plot of land that had been asked to hold so much toxicity over so many years and yet did not. And now this land is being given attention, care, and plans for play and community togetherness. Our Global Earth Exchange gave me a sense of the whole, vast, patient life of this little plot of land.
Susquehanna, PA
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