Volume LXXVII, Number 16
Arts Council’s Princeton Porchfest Coming April 29 . . . . . 5 Local Francophone Club Hosts Networking Event . . . 8 PPS Students Win Awards at Science, Engineering Fair . . . 11 Mulham Stars as PU Women’s Lax Outlasts Brown in Marathon Contest . . . . . . . . . 26 Led by Defending State Champ Gu at 1st Singles, PHS Boys’ Tennis Starts 4-0 . . 30
Novelist Haruki Murakami Shares This Week’s Book Review With the Beatles . . . 16 Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-21 Better Living . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 24 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . 37 Mailbox . . . . . . . . . . . 14 New To Us . . . . . . . . . 25 Obituaries . . . . . . . 34-36 Performing Arts . . . 17-18 Plein Air . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Real Estate . . . . . . . . 37 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Spring Into . . . . . . . . . 23 Topics of the Town . . . . 5 Town Talk . . . . . . . . . . 6
www.towntopics.com
HomeFront to Feature New York Times Writer, Winner of Two Pulitzers New York Times staff writer and twotime Pulitzer Prize-winner Andrea Elliott will be the keynote speaker at HomeFront’s annual Women’s Initiative reception at the Westin Princeton at Forrestal Village on April 27. Author of Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City, which won the 2022 Pulitzer in General Nonfiction, Elliott is the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, teaching a course this term on immersion journalism and narrative nonfiction. Joining Elliott on stage will be Chanel Sykes and her daughter Dasani, the “invisible child” whose life in New York City Elliott followed for almost a decade, reporting on the poverty, homelessness, and the girl’s extraordinary resilience in the face of devastating inequalities throughout her teenage years. “This is the first time that Dasani and her mother, Chanel, will be appearing in person before a large audience,” said Elliott. “It’s momentous. The event will center around a conversation between Chanel and me that revisits the story of the Sykes family and the struggles that Chanel and Dasani have endured. I will also be talking about the journey of reporting and writing Invisible Child.” Elliott noted that Dasani is now 21 and just completed training to become a home health aide. “She continues to live in the Bronx with Chanel, who is working to advocate for the rights of parents caught up in the child welfare system,” Elliott said. “Elliott’s book is a triumph of in-depth reporting and storytelling,” wrote Ariel Levy, author of The Rules Do Not Apply, as quoted on the book jacket of Invisible Child. “It is a visceral blow-by-blow depiction of what ‘structural racism’ has meant in the lives of generations of one family. But above all else it is a celebration of a girl an unforgettable heroine whose frustration, elation, exhaustion, and intelligence will haunt your heart.” The book tells the story of Dasani’s childhood, along with a history of her family from her ancestors in slavery to their migration north and a troubling examination of the homeless crisis in New York City. Dasani becomes a fighter to protect and help navigate her siblings through hunger, violence, drug addiction,
75¢ at newsstands
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Protesters Rally to Reinstate Chmiel More than a month since his sudden dismissal as Princeton High School (PHS) principal on March 17, Frank Chmiel and his lawyers are awaiting the delivery from Princeton Public Schools (PPS) Superintendent Carol Kelley of a statement of reasons for the decision to place Chmiel on administrative leave. New Interim Principal Kathie Foster has been installed at PHS since March 30, but neither Chmiel nor his supporters — more than 100 turned out for an April 16 rally in Hinds Plaza to “Save Princeton High School! Reinstate Principal Chmiel!” — are ready to move on. On receiving the reasons for dismissal from the superintendent, Chmiel, according to his lawyers who expect the statement to arrive on Thursday, April 20, will most likely request a hearing, which he may or may not choose to make public, in which he and his lawyers will appeal the decision. The PPS Board of Education (BOE), in accordance with state law, will not release information from Chmiel’s personnel file unless he waives his right to privacy. At the two-hour rally on Sunday, about
20 different speakers — mostly parents of PHS students, along with a few students and other community members — praised Chmiel and his contributions to PHS over the past two years. Many criticized the superintendent and the BOE, claiming lack of transparency in the decision-making process, along with an unwillingness to listen and lack of appreciation for Chmiel’s positive influence on PHS and its students. Many voiced determination to continue the fight in
support of Chmiel and in opposition to the BOE and superintendent. “I’m here because I think this is a really important fight that we need to make,” said Dave Auger, whose two daughters attend PHS. Arguing that Chmiel is a force for inclusion as opposed to the bullying that he faces from the district administration, Auger described him as “someone who welcomed all of our kids to school every day in the middle of a pandemic and made them feel special, made them Continued on Page 9
Area Writers Meet the Public At Library’s Local Author Day
In the 12 years since Princeton Public Library inaugurated Local Author Day, the event has become something of a local tradition. Writers from within a 20-mile radius of Princeton gather on the library’s first floor to greet readers, sign, and sell their books. Practical presentations focus on the details of getting a book published. Thanks to the pandemic, Local Author Day was paused in 2020, presented virtually in 2021, and as a hybrid in 2022. It returns in its original form on Saturday, April 29. Save for a Zoom presentation the
evening before, everything is in person from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with 44 authors ready to meet the public during the annual author fair. “It’s an opportunity to see just how many really talented people are publishing locally,” said Nora Walsh, the library’s adult services librarian. “There are so many different types of books this year, and some of the writers are right in town. It’s great for the authors, too, because they get to meet their peers and Continued on Page 12
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SPRING IN BLOOM: Visitors enjoy the garden at Prospect House, which formerly served as the residence for the president of Princeton University. Built in 1851, it was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1985. People share their favorite things about springtime in Princeton in this week’s Town Talk on page 6. (Photo by Charles R. Plohn)