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Editorial
We have what we need
Last weekend villagers celebrated two new expressions of local collaboration
and creativity.
Friday evening kicked off Summer in the Springs, a summer-long effort
to bring more people downtown. The lovely June evening proved rich in
music, art, friendship and play. People seemed to have a wonderful time
as they wandered from art gallery to concert to chalk drawing and back
again, stopping to chat with friends and neighbors along the way.
More people downtown is good for business, of course, and for this reason
alone Summer in the Springs deserves our support. But this effort also
strengthens our community, offering villagers one more opportunity to
play, laugh and just hang out together. Thanks to the folks at the Chamber
of Commerce, YSKP and the Yellow Springs Arts Council for bringing us
Summer in the Springs.
Creativity and collaboration also took center stage at the Antioch College
alumni reunion Friday and Saturday, as Nonstop faculty members presented
their vision. These Nonstop folks, faced with the end of their college,
simply refused to give up. Rather, they went deeply into themselves and
their relationships, emerging with new classes, new enthusiasms, new collaborations
and new ways — without a campus, of course — of teaching and
learning.
While Nonstop grew from faculty members’ connections with each other,
they hope to collaborate with the village as well. They need villagers
as students, teachers, landlords, cooks, donors, performers — the
opportunities are many. If Antioch College reopens as an independent liberal
arts institution, the Nonstop efforts will comprise the new curriculum.
But whether or not the college survives, villagers can take part right
now in an ambitious, creative and heartfelt effort that could transform
higher education and our village.
While the Nonstop and Summer in the Springs efforts are new, they are
by no means the only examples of local collaboration and creativity. Consider
the proposed Agraria green housing project, the planning for a new arts
center, and the recently-suggested Yellow Springs Promise. There’s
also the group engaged in creating a visioning process, folks building
straw bale homes, and women knitting sweaters for trees, to name just
a few.
It’s clear that Yellow Springs faces critical challenges, and some
people are frightened. We would do well to remember that villagers prevailed
over past challenges by working creatively together. These recent examples
of creativity and collaboration indicate that, to prevail once again,
we have what we need.
—Diane Chiddister
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