Southwark: 30 Years and Growing

Produced by: 
Neighborhood Gardens Association, Southwark Queen’s Village Community Garden with Scribe Video Center
Year: 
2007
Duration: 
00:10:09

Individual Film Price:

Higher Education Institutions & Government Agency DVD | $49.95
K-12 & Public Libraries DVD | $49.95
Home Video DVD License – Restrictions Apply | $5.95

 

 


Precious Places Compilation Price:

This video is available for purchase as part of a Precious Places Community History Project Vol.3 compilation DVD.

Higher Education Institutions & Government Agency DVD | $139.00
K-12 & Public Libraries DVD | $79.00
Home Video DVD License – Restrictions Apply | $20.00

 

 


Scribe Video Center Program:

The Precious Places Community History Project is a community oral history project inviting members of the Philadelphia region's many neighborhoods to document the buildings, public spaces, parks, landmarks and other sites that hold the memories of our communities and define where we live. Precious Places teaches the video production process to participating groups, fostering projects authored by those who intimately know the featured neighborhoods.

 


Humanities Consultant: Margaret Jerrido

Production Facilitator: Edward Basile

 


Film Summary:

Queen Village Community Garden is one of Philadelphia’s oldest community gardens. Located on Christian Street in South Philadelphia since 1976, the garden is a vital green space set aside for the enjoyment of the ethnically diverse neighborhood. Since the garden's beginning, diversity among the membership has been consciously encouraged, and the garden quickly became a bridge between whites and blacks in the community. "Our goal was to bring together all the parts of the neighborhood," says Libby J. Goldstein, one of the garden's founders. Southwark: 30 Years and Growing is the story of the garden told through the neighbors who make it bloom. Along with producing a bounty of vegetables, fruits from the orchard, and honey from the beehives, they point out that the garden serves important ecological functions. It mitigates the "heat islands" created by large expanses of asphalt and concrete in urban areas, allows rainwater to soak into the ground instead of carrying pollution into local waterways, and dampens wind patterns. In an area otherwise devoid of greenspaces, the garden provides a much-needed respite, showing the positive social and environmental impact of gardens in the modern urban metropolis.

Neighborhood Gardens Association is a an urban land trust that works to ensure the continuity and preservation of existing community managed gardens and open spaces in Philadelphia, primarily in low and moderate income neighborhoods.

 


Film Stills: