Neat Stuff at Prospect Park Next Week

There are a couple of events at Prospect Park next week that we think are worth checking out. First up, on Wednesday, August 4, there's a free screening of The Olmsted Legacy: America’s Urban Parks at the Celebrate Brooklyn Bandshell (enter the Park at 9th Street and Prospect Park West), at 8 pm.

This one hour documentary, which features Prospect Park, examines the formation of America’s first great city parks and the visionary role of Frederick Law Olmsted, the urban planner and landscape architect responsible for so much of the great work done in the late 19th century.

Then, on Sunday, August 8, Elizabeth Mitchell is performing at 4 pm, also at the bandshell. Mitchell bears the distinction of being the only artist performing children's music whose records I have bought more than once. She plays mostly traditional folk songs, with a few rock and other modern ditties thrown in for good measure, but even the new stuff has a classic, no-frills Smithsonian Folkways kind-of-sound. (You can hear samples of my favorite LP here from Amazon.)

We played her records over and over for my son when he was an infant and he responded by calming down even when his tuneless mother sang them.

Comments

[Karkade]

Thank you very much for sharing the info on the screening of the documentary on Olmsted. It was really amazing! Now I understand more the beauty of Prospect Park and the visionary man (together with Vaux) that was behind it.