January 17, 2008 Issue
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Classified Chestnut Hill Local Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or Winner of Two |
Local LifeSpringside alum’s film about her slave-trading family picked for Sundance Festival
Springside School alumna Katrina Browne’s documentary, Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, has been selected as one of 16 documentaries to be shown at the Sundance Film Festival this year! Its world premiere will be on Monday, Jan. 21 (Martin Luther King Day), at the Festival. She worked on the film for nine years, during which time she was honored by Springside as “Distinguished Young Alumna.” Katrina, who graduated from Springside in 1985, is working on arranging a Philadelphia screening of the film for the spring. This personal documentary tells the story of first-time filmmaker Katrina Browne’s Rhode Island ancestors, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. At Browne’s invitation, nine fellow descendants agree to journey with her to retrace the steps of the Triangle Trade. They soon learn that slavery was business for more than just the DeWolfs (Katrina’s family); it was a cornerstone of Northern commercial life. The family travels from Bristol, Rhode Island, where the family “business” was based, to slave forts in Ghana, where they meet with African-Americans on their own homecoming pilgrimages, to the ruins of a family-owned sugar plantation in Cuba. At each stop, the family grapples with the contemporary legacy of slavery, not only for black Americans, but also for themselves as white Americans. The film is being released in 2008 for the bicentennial of the U.S. abolition of the slave trade. The fact that the trade was abolished in 1808 is not widely known, mainly because the history of the North’s role in slavery is not widely known. The bulk of the U.S. slave trade was conducted on Northern ships, with Northern trade goods, and Northern financial backing. For more information, visit www.tracesofthetrade.org/bicentennial.html.Dogged determination helped her stitch together major success story
Chestnut Hill’s Barbara Russell is world-renowned in the needlepointing field, but there is so much more to this nearly 70-year-old entrepreneur who has been in business for 37years. In addition to running an internationally renowned business, she holds the titles of mother, dog lover, teacher, artist, mentor, organizer and social activist. The New Jersey native came to Chestnut Hill from Woodbury as a bride in the 1960s. While majoring in Literature and History at Vassar College, she wrote a paper on two towns with parallel histories, profiling Haddonfield and Woodbury, New Jersey. She says she “saw her hometown (Woodbury) destroyed” because of the lack of appropriate zoning, while Haddonfield thrived because the town leaders properly planned for preservation and growth.
‘Rock Stars’ at area gallery may have healing properties
A year and a half after discovering Manayunk’s Rock Star Gallery, 26-year-old Kate McKiernan has taken over the business and moved the gallery to Mt. Airy, opening last August at 20 E. Mt. Airy Ave. McKiernan was drawn to crystals as a college student. She would make jewelry with her friends at night in their dorm rooms at Moravian College in Bethlehem. McKiernan was a comparative religion major at the liberal arts college, where she and her friends first began working with crystals. After college, McKiernan, 26, who is originally from Pottstown, moved to Manayunk where she came across the Rock Star Gallery. “I fell in love instantly,” McKiernan said of the crystal gallery. “I could walk from my apartment.”
Grounds for satisfaction at Hill Coffee Company
“Hi, Missy! Hi, Dick!” Tom Ewing, the friendly server behind the counter at Chestut Hill Coffee Company, 8620 Germantown Ave., never fails to give us this sunny greeting. “What’s new?” is next on his agenda. It results in brilliant ripostes such as “It’s cold!” “Well,” Tom replies, “it’s winter!” Our question to Tom: “Do you try to know everybody?” Answer: “When I started, I immediately had a tremendous feeling of welcome on the part of customers. I’m consistently impressed with the sense of community I have with everyone here; it’s an extension of my family.” Tom, Kate, Jason, John and Jorge, and newer staffers Dawn, Brian, Nicole, Ben and Kat, among others, make the Coffee Company a welcome destination. It’s ideal for the weary, the work-hooked (laptops decorate many tables), but above all, it’s the place for the Company’s magical coffee, made all the better for on-site roasting, a feature since early 2007. The coffee is so strong, so rich, so flavorful that, though you may not dance on the ceiling a la Fred Astaire, you feel you can conquer anything. For instance, why not get that new outfit today? Why not bag housework and take a nice drive?
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