The Keene State College Sidore Lecture Series brought Jay Walljasper to campus to embrace the use of commons. Walljasper headlined a lecture in the Mabel Brown Room and spoke with community members, faculty and students on how to build and grow public and common spaces.
Walljasper, who is the editor of onthecommons.org, spoke on April 15 in front of an audience of 60 about ways to build and enhance common spaces in communities. His strategies included, “Ten Ways to Create a Common.” Walljasper stated the keys to create a successful common include, “Give people a place to hang out, walk, bike and sit,” among others.
“The commons can be challenging to people. I think it’s a little bit outside of the mainstream of how we think about things in our society,” Walljasper said in his lecture.
Brian Cantore / Photo Editor:
Jay Walljasper spoke in the Mabel Brown Room on April 15. His strategies included, “Ten Ways to Create a Common.”
Walljasper explained it is important to start small and let the commons grow. He highlighted an example of a man in a suburban area that takes down his front fence and installs a park bench.
“Something as simple as a bench in your front yard can become a place for people to meet, have a conversation or just hang out,” Walljasper added.
KSC sophomore Madeleine Nossiff said she found Walljasper’s lecture to be a great addition to this year’s symposium.
“It was great to hear new aspects about the commons,” Nossiff said. Nossiff added that commons are important in that they can, “unite communities lost in society.”
Sidore Lecture Series is funded by the Saul O Sidore Memorial Foundation and exists to, “Endow lecture series at New Hampshire Universities. For Keene State, the objective of the series is to bring cutting edge and sometimes controversial speakers to campus to cover the issues of today,” Mark Gempler, Sidore lecture committee member and associate director of the student center explained.
Gempler selected Walljasper to speak after reading an article of Walljasper’s while visiting the student center at Northwestern University about five years ago. “Every additional thing I looked at made me think, ‘He would be a great guy to bring to campus,’” Gempler explained.
“We wanted to extend the symposium beyond those four days in November. The added benefit to having Jay [Walljasper] here is that he edits a website called On The Commons. He also wrote A Field Guide to the Commons. This closes the loop for us, that we were able to bring in someone with so much experience with the topic.”
Walljasper featured examples of successful commons from around the world, including New York, N.Y., Sweden and his home city of Minneapolis, Minn.
When discussing his impressions of Keene’s commons Walljasper said, “This is my first time in New Hampshire. All I really knew about it was ‘Live Free or Die.’ I was impressed with Main Street. There is an energy in this town and many people are enjoying the downtown area.”
Walljasper continued, “I also like the bike paths in town. People here seem to understand the importance of biking and walking.”
Walljasper added, “The college blends well into town. The campus is not ‘ghettoized’ and separated from the town. Appian Way was cooking earlier; you can really judge campus vitality by its street life.” While visiting Keene, Walljasper spoke to a group of journalism students where he answered questions about his work. After a lunch with journalism students, Walljasper also spoke to the advanced social psychology class.
Walljasper is the current editor of onthecommons.org, whose website states, “On the Commons is a commons movement strategy center founded in 2001. Through our efforts we help build and bring visibility to the commons movement, indicated and catalyze commons work, and develop and encourage commons leadership.”
Walljasper has also authored three books; All That We Share: A Field Guide to the Commons, The Great Neighborhood Book and Visionaries: People and Ideas to Change Your Life. He has also been the travel editor for Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, and his articles can be found in publications internationally.
David Walsh can be contacted at dwalsh@keene-equinox.com