As an adult, I’ve lived in six countries on three continents. But my childhood home of Kenilworth in Washington DC is central to my writing, creativity, and understanding of cross-cultural life.
As part of a lifetime effort to tell the story of this marginalized neighborhood of color, in the mid-2000s I published a history of the Kenilworth area, which includes the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. Download a free pdf of this grant-supported booklet:
Kenilworth: A DC Neighborhood by the Anacostia River
My white, rural, Amish-Mennonite parents started a church in the Black, urban, largely low-income community of Kenilworth in the mid-sixties. Sound like a book? I’m writing a memoir about my family’s experience.
You can also read a cover story about Kimi Gray, a local hero whose revitalization of Kenilworth’s public housing complex led to national public housing leadership.