Blog Makes History

We just received word: our proposal for a Jane Johnson marker has been approved by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.  Thanks to everyone who helped.

It takes at least 10 weeks to draft, manufacture, ship and install a marker - so July 18, 2008 - the very next Jane Johnson Day - we can gather at an unveiling of the marker itself, on the spot where Jane Johnson seized her freedom in 1855.

It “is such an important story,” commented the PHMC panel, “the impact of this event should not be short-changed.”  It gets even better.  The panel believes this location might be able to accommodate a “roadside marker,” which would enable the story to be told in a loquacious 70 words - thirty more than a “city marker”.

Need a refresher about the story of Jane Johnson?  Visit The Sixth Square’s “Jane Johnson Day” archive. This is the place where the idea took off with more than a dozen posts leading up to last summer’s Jane Johnson Day.

Thanks for everyone’s help and support in this great group effort.  Could this be the first historical marker generated in the blogosphere? 

Forethought vs. Afterthought

Recently, The New York Times, once a bastion of paper publishing, joined the paper vs. online encyclopedia smackdown. Start Writing the Eulogies for Print Encyclopedias, wrote reporter Noam Cohen.

The print encyclopedia - like that set of The Encyclopedia Brittanica taking up space on your bookshelves - is on its way out. EB sales peaked nearly two decades ago, before Microsoft’s first computer-based encyclopedia, Encarta, showed up. Today, sales are just 10% of what they once were. The only folks now buying encyclopedias by the truckload are schools and libraries.

The market makes sense. Why purchase 32 volumes instantly out of date when you can go online and find numerous encyclopedias, lot of current and valuable information, for free? It’s a principle bigger than the Encyclopedia of Life, bigger than Wikipedia. And its an idea older than the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which has been online since way back in 1995. Cities all over the world are similarly channeling their encyclopedic urges. The latest may be the city of Melbourne, Australia, which is in the process of creating an online version of their own encyclopedia.

We at the Sixth Square wish them all luck. And we wish ourselves luck, too. Its only a matter of time before encyclopedists in the City of Brotherly Love embrace the internet as something more than an afterthought.

The Encyclopedia Lives!

The Encyclopedia of Life is up and running. And the Sixth Square strongly encourages you to check it out.

There are more than 300,000 pages to choose from, with information on what seems like millions of species. But the EOL isn’t close to done - it’ll take up to ten years to catalogue the planet’s 1.8 billion species.

How user-friendly is EOL? It’s definitely not, as its founders hope, as easy to use as Wikipedia. The Sixth Square finds EOL a bit too clinical. But for sheer volume of scholarly information available, EOL can’t be beat. It provides reference links and information for each scholarly journal the species appears in, and you can find numerous high-resolution images of each species.

The “completed pages” (about 25 as of this writing) are what the site eventually hopes to attain for every species: extensive and detailed information written in a format that anyone, from schoolchildren to scholars can understand. Click on one of these pages (like this one, on the peregrine falcon), and you’ll find everything from habitat descriptions to a page of interesting facts about the species.

Still finding it too hard to read? Stop by the home page and tell them what you think. The EOL invites users to participate in an online survey.

An Encyclopedic Big Bang

The Encyclopedia of Life went live on February 26, which was a good thing - until it crashed under the weight of its own success.  More than 11 million hits in the first six hours, and they kept on coming.

What’s all the fuss? This ambitious project is the brainchild of scientist E. O. Wilson.  He presented the idea at the Technology, Entertainment, and Design Conference in Monterey winning the annual contest, whose prize is $100,000, a wish to change the world, and the support of every attendee of the conference in making that dream a reality. Wilson’s wish: an online encyclopedia of all the biological life on Earth.

Only eleven months later, that wish has come true. The EOL is designed to be as user-friendly as possible. Wiki-technology (the same technology utilized by the Wikipedia site) allows viewers to modify and add content, thus making each page a compilation of the expertise of as many people as possible. Contributors to the project (in the current 30,000 pages) include scientists from Harvard University, the Smithsonian Institute, the Sloan Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation and graphics design from Razorfish, Adobe, Microsoft, and Wikimedia.

There is still much left to do - and, by the very nature of the project, there always will be. Consolidating all the known information of the 1.8 billion species on Earth is unprecedented, and it is expected to take ten years to gather approach anything like completeness. 

What does this mean for a Philadelphia Encyclopedia?  That information projects are possible thanks to the web.  That the book form is important for some kinds of publications, but definitely not others.  That we’d better think long and hard before we begin. 

But not too long.

Hercules’ Greatest Feat

The craft (or art?) of becoming Presidential was invented Philadelphia. But who actually set the tone in the first President’s House? That would be Philadelphia’s most prominent enslaved African, George and Martha’s Hercules.

One of nine enslaved Africans owned by George and Martha Washington, Hercules headed up the kitchen at the Presidential Mansion at 6th and Market – located, ironically, steps from today’s Liberty Bell Center.

Because of his immense talent at the culinary arts and his skills in managing eight assistants, Hercules was allowed to sell the leftovers from the Washingtons’ table and earned enough to augment his wardrobe. Hercules cut quite a figure on the red-brick sidewalks.

Hercules was important, but he was not free. And although Pennsylvania’s Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery assured he could become free, he remained enslaved. As the law’s six month deadline approached, the Washingtons’ worked the loophole by taking their slaves out of state before the deadline passed. This earned everyone another six months of legalized servitude - even in the City of Brotherly Love.

So, for all the feasts Hercules pulled out of the fire, no doubt the greatest was his own first taste of freedom. In March 1797, on the eve of the Washington’s departure for Mount Vernon, Hercules departed his basement kitchen for the last time. This time, Hercules was a free man.

More than 210 years later, we’re slowly learning a thing or two about Hercules. Today, days before Washington’s birthday, the Kitchen Sisters included his story in a feature on National Public Radio.

Doing Right by Charity?

On March 1, 1780, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed the Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery. Of particular importance here was the infamous “six months” rule, which established that any slave “retained” in Pennsylvania for a period of time longer than six months must be granted their freedom.  This Act would have far-reaching consequences for a slave named Charity Castle.

In 1814, Castle was caught in the middle of a messy marital dispute within the Chew family of Philadelphia.  Author and scholar Philip R. Seitz, who is curator of history at Cliveden, the Chew family home, has been working in the family papers, now at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.  Tomorrow (Saturday February 16) Seitz presents “Tales of enslavement: New research from Cliveden and the Chew Family Papers.”  This event, held at the Germantown Historical Society, 5501 Germantown Avenue, starts at 2PM.  For more information, call 215-844-0514. 

What story is Seitz likely to share?  We suspect it is the story of Charity Castle, the subject of his recent submission to The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography.

Harriet Chew Carroll, daughter of Pennsylvania Chief Justice Benjamin Chew, was mired in an abusive marriage with the son of a prominent Baltimore landowner, Charles Carroll Jr.  In May 1814, Harriet, with children and slaves, fled Maryland for her family home in Germantown.  

On the night of October 25, just a few days before the slaves would have been returned to Maryland or eligible for their freedom, Castle fell while searching for firewood.  With injuries to her chest and head, and unable to travel, Castle remained in Germantown after the deadline had passed. 

According to one Philadelphia lawyer, William Lewis, Charity Castle should be granted her freedom.  Harriet Chew Carroll felt that she should not lose a slave simply because of an “accident.”  ”Accident made her a slave,” wrote Lewis, “accident has made her free, and it seems right she should avail herself of it.” 

The family sought a second opinion.  Philadelphia lawyer William Rawle supplied one, suggesting that Castle should not be free, citing the very language of the Gradual Abolition of Slavery Act itself.  Freedom would be provided to slaves “not alienated nor retained in this state longer than six months.”  Retention, Rawle interpreted, would be the choice of the slaveowner.  Since Harriet did not intend to keep Castle in Germantown, she had been not “retained.”  Rawle argued that Castle should remain enslaved.

Read more in Seitz’s article “Tales from the Chew Family Papers: The Charity Castle Story,” in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography.

Where’s the Money?

As anyone who’s ever produced (or wanted to produce) a documentary knows its about creativity. But first it’s about money.

That where Morrie Warshawski comes in. On Wednesday, February 13^th, Warshawski shares tricks of the trade. At 7PM, he’ll lead a discussion at Drexel University’s Stein Auditorium. With 30+ years experience in fundraising for independent films, Warshawski has all kinds of valuable advice to filmmakers.

This event is free, and open to the public. Go to Drexel’s Stein Auditorium (111 Nesbitt Hall, 3215 Market Street).

For more information, call 215-895-2629, or visit Drexel’s website.

Will Pennsylvania’s Tuesday Be Super?

Not sick of the primaries yet? Good thing, we haven’t even gotten to Pennsylvania’s primary. Keystone Staters have to wait until April 22nd to cast votes in the Democratic and Republican primaries. And because we have 185 delegates to bestow, you can bet the candidates are going to be bending over backwards taking our votes seriously.Elections may be taken seriously, but politics has a long history of being lampooned. Especially in Philadelphia. This place is the birthplace of political satire. (With Benjamin Franklin, of course.) Join or Die, of 1754, is the first political cartoon. For the last quarter of a millennium, Philadelphia has been home to many cartoonists: William Charles, David Claypool Johnson, and Edward Williams Clay. His “Life in Philadelphia” series made this city a joke in London in the 1830s.

Traditions this good don’t die. They get passed along. Signe Wilkinson, cartoonist for the Daily News has been doing her part living up to the examples set by Clay, Johnson, and Franklin – although Hillary Clinton may not appreciate the results.

Oprah’s Roots

Talk show queen. Powerful political presence. One of the world’s richest women.  

February 5^th@ 9 pm, PBS presents (and WHYY airs) Oprah’s Roots,  an “African American Lives” presentation.  As it turns out, Oprah isn’t Zulu (as she long believed).  Henry Louis Gates Jr. reveals that Oprah’s ancestors were from Liberia. That fact came out in the 2006 “African American Lives.”  In discussions with professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., Oprah uncovers additional secrets.Want to make like Oprah and discover your own ancestors? Gates has published a new book and DVD set called Finding Oprah’s Roots: Finding Your Own.  It’s a straightforward guide to the inner workings of genealogy.

Back to where I started

I’m back at my weathervane for activity, the Clockwork Café where I am the only one sitting at a table. It is obvious that the festival is winding down, even though there are four more days of film screenings and panel discussions. The stars have flown back to LA along with all the scantily clad tarts hoping to meet them. Those that remain, it seems, either have to be here or have come out from under the covers now that the hordes are gone.

Now that I have some time and there is the space to sit and write, I’d like to talk about some of the things that might actually be useful to know if you are considering coming here next year.

1) you don’t need a pass. I’ve seen five films at Sundance without one and it is usually quite easy to get into Slamdance screenings. Save your money for the overpriced, crappy food.

2) Eating here is expensive and, over the first couple of days, a hell of a chore. Our attempt to get into the ironically titled bar/restaurant the Hungry Moose on Friday night got me thinking about a few Sundance inspired names for some of these places- the Famished Writer, the Denied Non-Celebrity. There is very little take out food in the main festival area, making my budget of $50 a day a little tough to stick to. More problematic is finding the time to eat. With everything being on a schedule and with it taking so long to get from venue to venue, there isn’t much time to sit down at a crowded place and wait for food. If you are adventurous, the shuttle buses to more distant venues drop you close to some less harangued eating establishments. While waiting to get into see a film yesterday, I perused a local dining and entertainment mag, “Mountain Express”, where I got a better sense of where the locals probably don’t go. Most intriguing, not to mention upsetting, was the ad for the Saturday Night Western BBQ, where reservations are required and you are encouraged to “circle the wagons and round up your posse”—because Cormac McCarthy is the guest chef tonight at this gorge-yourself-buffet for the whole family. Adults, $47. Infants, free.

3) The locals really hate Sundance. Well, maybe the local bartenders like it. But, as my earlier posts have indicated, there is serious animosity toward this monster festival. It’s easy to understand why. The Main Street area is a lot like Olde City, with the bratty girls with flat ironed hair and their deal-making boyfriends treating everyone around them like props. I found out the hard way that the town of Park City aborts it’s down town for one week a year, having very little to do with the craziness of its non-stop, invite-only partying. Likewise, most Sundance employees are imports and can’t tell you anything that isn’t already in the program guide.

4) The bus, as much as it has been the bane of my time here, is a great place to meet people, even directors and actors. Everyone has to get to the movies somehow and it is entirely impractical to have a car. Public transit it free. But, if you don’t like waiting around, there are plenty of cabs.

5) If you lose something like, say, your wallet, the local radio station (there is only one in town) will announce it at your request. Give them some info on what to do with it if someone finds it and you’re good to go.

6) Not sure if the text messaging service ChaCha, free at Sundance, which is supposed to answer any question you may have- and I mean any- will be here next year. But, if it is, I encourage you to harass them with useless questions because they have disappointed most festival-goers with their answers to real questions (myself included). My housemate Kevin asked them what the crude epithet “choad” means. Lo and behold, they came back with an accurate answer, which is not suitable for Public Radio. Suffice to say that it is an area of the male body.

7) Even if you are here just to watch movies, check out some of the free panels and presentations. It might help you understand why there are so many guys with ponytails here.

Well, that’s it for me here at Sundance. Please follow my regular blog (www.unsolicitedsubmissions.blogspot.com) to see what happens with my screenplay. Thanks for reading.