Posted by Bud on June 21, 2011 at 15:20:08:
by Allison Schrader | Monday, Jun. 20, 2011
Something very cool took place recently in Madison. Some may call it a block party, others may call it a public disturbance; I call it awesome.
Union Corners, the 15-acre construction graveyard in Madison, has been an eyesore since 2007. What better to do with ugly, wasted space than gather around a few hundred local people with music, dancing, hula hooping, grilling out and mural painting? That’s exactly what the people of Madison did on Sunday, June 5. Those who attended the party synchronized old school, battery-powered boomboxes and tuned in to local radio station WORT-FM while DJs played music over the airwaves and people danced in the streets.
Wendy Schneider, a local music producer and musician, thought a neighborhood festival would be a good way to boost people’s sour feelings toward Union Corners and its severe lack of development. Hence, Boombox the Wasteland was born.
People in Madison assembled to make light of a pretty bleak situation, to turn a wasteland into a joyful, community gathering. I can’t help but wonder how many other people have similar dreams of beautifying some of the less aesthetic parts of the places they call home, like some have suggested over on the Shout page. It got my gears turning, anyway.
The cats in Madison got creative with their solution to the Union Corners wasteland problem. It’s amazing what a little singin’ and dancin’ can do for community morale, the uplifiting of which might be step one on the road to recovery.