The Path from Poverty to Prosperity

The Nurture Form Community Bench will be unveiled for the first time to the public at the D:center’s Design Conversations #19 Wednesday May 5th at 6:30 at The Windup Space, 12 West North Avenue in Baltimore.

The long-anticipated Bench That Gives is the signature product of the emerging Community Wealth Generation Initiative. It is fitting that Architect Fred Scharmen, Curator of the Streets/Art Part 1 conversation, reached out and asked me to share what’s under the bench at this particular session. The Community Bench is all about merging “The Streets” and Art to create a new impulse and an avenue for folk in our urban neighborhoods to apply their genius, skills and hands at legitimate enterprise, while at the same time bringing the message of true community to our communities. The Challenge of this time is to offer compelling and real alternatives to the call of the streets.

Where does design come from?

We replicate the imprints we take into our souls. After the bench received her first “pedicure” in Bengal Red, I realized just how calligraphic her lines are. They remind me of the stylized lines of graffiti characters that have always excited me, and that have served as a vehicle for expression for urban artists for decades. As we search for evolving the Nurture Form design sense, these lines will certainly be a source for continued inspiration.

I was walking through a grocery store the other day and saw a gentleman clad in a gray tee, with the orange “Ibis” logo across his chest. In that second, I realized another source of the Community Bench design. Ibis is a bike manufacturer, known for painstakingly engineered, light weight frames. I spent a couple months in Telluride, Colorado while my son was a day camp there. As a mountain bike rider I could not resist exploring the luscious and technical trails that encircled this little town in the mountains. I convinced a local bike shop to rent me an Ibis Bow-Ti to navigate the unforgiving trails of those mountains for the time I was there. Most dual suspension bikes rely on a complex system of joints, couplings, and springs to activate the “rear triangle” providing travel to the back wheel to eat the bumps and save the rider. The Bow Ti actually uses the natural flexing properties of it’s titanium frame material to eliminate the need for joints. There is no question that my brief but deep love affair with this incredible frame provided the inspirational imprint that led to the use of only the frame material of the bench to provide the suspension for the seat and back.

To hear more about the what is behind the physical and social engineering of the Nurture Form Community Bench, come to the Design Conversation at the Windup Space. We will have the Bench at the Windup Space for you to see, touch and try out. We hope to see you at the launch.