Temple Photojournalism
PEOPLE OF THE STREETS/
GARDNER / EMILY COURTNET
Text and Photos by MJ Moyer-Fittipaldi
Seeking Green in Philadelphia
While many Philadelphians are used to the lack of green landscapes in the city, Emily Cournet, 22, grew up in Exton, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia that has more landscape than the city. Cournet says “I felt a lack in my life. Since I came to Philadelphia and I’ve been seeking green ever since and it’s definitely hard to find but, the moments you do find it are exceptional.”
Luckily for her, at the corner of 15th and Diamond there is a garden owned by Philadelphia Urban Creators, which is a nonprofit program that is dedicated to empowering the community and building bonds through creating sustainability practices within the city. Cournet is one of the managers at the garden. Her tasks range from organizing clean up days, figuring out budgets, writing grants, planting, gardening and even composting. “I can’t get enough of it” she says “I just love being around the plants and life and things that are growing. It’s such an exciting and healing place to be so I’m here all the time.”
Even though she is a sculpture major, she believes that she can still apply her education. “We build things conceptually and physically and I think building a garden is something that I’ve been trained to do in sculpture” she says “Even just thinking
abstractly and detailed. It can be the building blocks to anything.” There are even plans for constructing a green house in the near future.
‘Defend the Future’ is scribed on the wall that the garden flourishes in front of, and for Cournet it’s more than just graffiti. “It means a lot of things, we have Duckery Elementary school right next to us so educating the youth and building up the youth in a low income area where the school system is not in good shape, Defending the future is definitely a powerful statement that says a lot about where our heart is.”
Not to be mistaken with the Temple Community garden located at the corner of Carlisle and Diamond. While, the gardens are similar Cournet says “they can’t have community members out side of Temple participate…this one is for the community so, some Temple students but, it’s a broader spectrum than that. She believes that establishing ties and creating relationships between Temple students and the local Philadelphians is “extremely important because Temple students aren’t the only ones who live here and we weren’t the first people to live here.”
