Pith in the Wind

Archives | RSS

  |  

Monday, January 11, 2010

Around Town / Phillips Edmondson Park: A Review

Posted by Betsy Phillips on Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 1:07 PM

In Short: Location: Along Charlotte, just east of 17th Avenue
click to enlarge Edmondson Park--Park or Wasted Space?
  • Edmondson Park--Park or Wasted Space?
Crowds: None Approximate Age of Patrons: 35 Topics of Conversation: "Why didn't I bring gloves?!" Stray Dogs Seen: None Types of Vehicles in Parking Lots: No parking lots associated with the park. Perceived Safety: Very safe, since park was totally empty Number of Gunshots Heard: None Dog Friendliness: No poop bags, but it's a nice stretch of green Number of pitbulls sighted: None Accessibility: Um...Yes, it's accessible. Why you'd go there, I'm not sure. Incorporation of Local History: Better than most parks, but not as much as I'd like Recommended patrons: People who live near it and don't have kids, connoisseurs of random fencing. Edmondson Park has to be the biggest "WTF?" of a park I've visited in Nashville, both as a part of this series and for fun. First, there's no place I could see to park your car--so unless you're hiking in, you can't really use it.
click to enlarge Another Marker in Edmondson Park
  • Another Marker in Edmondson Park
Maybe it's supposed to be just a neighborhood park. Fair enough. But who are the neighbors they envision using this? The fence doesn't go all the way around the park (which you'd want, I'd think, if you were going to let your kids run in it that close to Charlotte) and there's no playground equipment, so I don't think it's for kids. There aren't any benches, so I don't think it's for folks who want to sit out and enjoy the weather and the view. You might get a good game of football or soccer going, but you have to reckon with the traffic on Charlotte if your ball gets away from you. Maybe it'd be a good kite-flying park? Or you could lay out? Or picnic? After standing there trying to figure it out, I began to suspect that it's just there to give the illusion of green space to the people who live in the housing nearby. That seems like a waste. I wonder if they could put in a community garden or something. I don't know. But right now I have a hard time understanding who is supposed to be using this park and what they're supposed to be using it for. And that's a shame. And then, let's talk about the "incorporation of local history" aspect of the place. Edmondson Park is named after William Edmondson, the famous Nashville sculptor who was the first African American to be given a one-man show by the Museum of Modern Art. That, obviously, is very cool. But why is this his park? Did he live near what is now the park? Did the city just want to name a place after him? Who knows? You will learn very little more about Edmondson than what I have just told you if you go to the park. I find this crazy. You go to the park to see things, to be in and among things and with your neighbors. Edmondson made things you can see, that are worth your while to be in and among. And you can go to a park named after him and get almost no sense of why you should give a shit, why it should matter to you that this man lived and worked and died in our city, why it should matter to you that he was our neighbor. I really hate that. The thing about Edmondson is that, even though his sculptures are now all hidden away in places you have to pay to get in, he was a sculptor for regular Nashvillians. He made grave markers for folks who needed them. He made small statues he claimed God told him to make. Always, in his pieces, are little things that seem like deliberate bits of joy--a suggestion of a bowtie on a man, a hint of a smile on a woman's face. Nothing about how he sculpted was very realistic, but he always seemed to be able to suggest softness, like the hard rock was giving way to the overwhelming force of round and soft and touchable. You don't have to know anything about art to like Edmondson's sculptures. They're just fun to look at. (Check these out, for instance, and look at the way the reach of Eve's hand
click to enlarge I'm just saying, how cool would this be 10 feet tall?
  • I'm just saying, how cool would this be 10 feet tall?
echoes the reach of the snake.) And he made those pieces out of our garbage, bits of buildings, old curbs, whathaveyou. That you can go to the park named after him and see none of that just feels wrong to me. I'm sure the rights issues would be a bear, but I was thinking, when I was standing there, how cool it would be to have a local artist replicate a couple of Edmondson's works, but huge, and put them in the park. Let everyone who comes to the park, or who just drives by it on Charlotte, see it all the time. That would make Edmondson Park a destination, or at least a destination worthy of its name.

Tags: , ,

Comments (7)

Showing 1-7 of 7

Add a comment

I had to refresh the page 2 times to view this page for some reason, however, the information here was work the wait.

report   
Posted by earn money online on 01/11/2010 at 10:33 PM

I have enjoyed your park tours, Betsy. I myself have been on an informal tour of all the un-maintained parks in Nashville. I have found those to be the best place to break the leash law and have fun with my furry autistic two year olds.
I hate to give these away, but have you checked out Oak Hill Park(behind Baxter Middle School)? Uncut for at least the last two years and yet still a great place for a short run in the woods.
Or what about Douglas park(behind 5th and Main)? Fenced on three sides, uncut "forest" on the debris of Ellingtons construction, rabbits, homeless, small drainage creek, mostly maintained, stray dogs, HUGE, empty(except for homeless), and almost completely undiscovered by East Nashvillians?

report   
Posted by Frank on 01/12/2010 at 7:55 AM

What about that weird-ass little park on the corner of 8th and Wedgewood? Next to the U-Haul place. You know, the grass with a bench. What's the deal with that thing?

report   
Posted by Ashley Spurgeon on 01/12/2010 at 9:03 AM

Ooo, Frank, I've not yet been to those places. But I will put them on my list for a visit. It's good to know about stray dogs ahead of time in Douglas Park.
Ashley, I've wondered about that, too. I'm going to have to get a contact at Metro parks to ask some questions of, but I think I'm going to do that only after I'm done.
The tricky part is that there are Metro-sanctioned parks, which appear on Metro's website, and then there are rogue parks, like Broadway Park, which I've also reviewed and will probably show up here sooner or later.
I'd like to go to ALL the parks in town, sanctioned and unsanctioned, but I'm not sure how to find all of the unsanctioned parks. I may have to put out a cry for help on that.

report   
Posted by Aunt B. on 01/12/2010 at 9:36 AM

Just south of BMS you will see a clearing at this link.
http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&q=baxter+middle+school+nashville&fb=1&gl=us&hq=baxter+middle+school&hnear=nashville&hl=en&view=map&cid=12411315589145942312&ved=0CB0QpQY&ei=P5pMS6D4B5-EzQTk66yODg&ll=36.219557,-86.751201&spn=0.008621,0.01929&t=h&z=16&iwloc=A
You can get to Oak Hill Park from Trinity. Turn onto Oakwood Ave and follow it until it deadends. The clearing used to be an old ball field. Now it is head high weeds. It is a great place to escape the "light pollution" of downtown if you are into astronomy.

report   
Posted by Frank on 01/12/2010 at 9:54 AM

Oooo. Thanks, Frank.

report   
Posted by Aunt B. on 01/12/2010 at 12:15 PM
Subscribe to this thread:
By Email
With RSS
Showing 1-7 of 7

Add a comment

Top Topics in
Pith in the Wind

Politics (64)

Legislature (59)

Phillips (41)

Sports (16)

Media (14)

Law and Order (13)

Around Town (9)

Crazy Crap (7)

Breaking News (7)

Education (6)

Top Commenters

The SouthComm Set Nfocus | Her Nashville | The City Paper | LEO Weekly | BusinessTN | Music Row | NashvillePost.com | Medical News Papers

All contents © 1995-2012 City Press LLC, 210 12th Ave. S., Ste. 100, Nashville, TN 37203. (615) 244-7989.
All rights reserved. No part of this service may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of City Press LLC,
except that an individual may download and/or forward articles via email to a reasonable number of recipients for personal, non-commercial purposes.
Powered by Foundation