Cal State Long Beach’s “The B-Word Project: Banned, Blacklisted & Boycotted” will kick off with a lecture about the self-empowerment of building gardens during wartime on Feb. 25 in the Daniel Recital Hall.
Kenneth Helphand, professor of landscape architecture at the University of Oregon, will discuss his book “Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime.” The book features chapters about gardens in different conditions of cultural oppression, economic hardship and war, such as gardens in World War I trenches, Nazi Europe and Japanese internment camps.
“[Gardens] can reflect a very human necessity for ownership — for identity,” program assistant Tracy Gorden said. “They can be an expression of identity.”
Helphand’s research also explores the ability to endure extreme situations and how the constructed landscape can inspire people to find hope. For example, Helphand will discuss Merritt Park, a Japanese garden at the Manzanar War Relocation Center built by prisoners of war in 1943.
The B-Word Project, coordinated by the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, is a campus-wide initiative on censorship that will continue for the next two years and will feature courses in many departments including art, biology and history. It is made possible by a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
“The B-Word Project is going to be going on in a major way in order to foster collaboration between the different departments on the important theme of censorship,” Gorden said.
The lecture, with a reception following, is presented by the Friends of the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden and is free to CSULB students and friends of the Japanese Garden. Admission is $5 for the public.
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