Same places, different scenes

Harry Adler travels every morning as dark yields to dawn. He’s always on foot, running through Pawtuxet Village (straddling Cranston and Warwick, R.I.), where he lives. Along the way, he photographs that day’s magnificence.

Deep blue cove water melding into powder-blue sky. Snow frosting feathered reeds. Geese with orange feet waddling up a boat ramp. Trees mirror-imaged in the silvery Pawtuxet River. Historic houses in silhouette.

Adler began posting his village photos on Facebook and Instagram three years ago, and more so since the COVID pandemic erupted. Legions of admirers  recognize his talent.

“The eye of the morning is winking at you,” writes one Facebook friend of a sunrise photo. “Your eye sees things that most don’t,” writes another. Many thank Adler for brightening their mornings and sparing them from waking up when he does – at 4:13 a.m. (in time to feed the five cats and run three to five miles).

Adler’s photographs will be displayed at “Traveling in Place,” an exhibit at the Aspray Boat House, 2 East View St., Warwick, R.I., in partnership with The Edgewood Village. Friends, including artist Bert Crenca, suggested  that Adler exhibit his work: Adler agreed so long as part of the proceeds go to The Village Common of Rhode Island.

The exhibit’s title stems from Adler’s observation: “When I started running in the Pawtuxet Village area, I was noticing that every day was dramatically different. And that became the thought behind ‘Traveling in Place.’ I’m still in the same place, but feel like I’m traveling because I’m not seeing the same things all the time. Each day is brand new.’’

Adler, co-owner of Adler’s Design Center & Hardware, on Wickenden Street in Providence, is familiar to many Rhode Islanders. Customers know him as the pleasant font-of-knowledge guy behind the paint counter.

Adler sets out just after 6 a.m. from the 1857 Greek Revival house he owns with his partner, Suzy Box. He runs while searching the skies and scoping out the light. If the light is right, he clicks the shutter on his IPhone 12 Pro.

He shoots his images from the same spots at the Pawtuxet Cove Marina, Stillhouse Cove and the  Rhode Island Yacht Club -- same locales but ever-changing beauty.

Opening reception and “Meet the Artist” on Saturday, Sept. 17, at 5 to 8 p.m. Show continues Sunday, Sept. 18,  at 12-3 p.m.   Refreshments, live music and free parking. For more information, please contact Sorrel Devine at eirehead1@gmail.com

Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung: Broaden outreach to reach more in the urban core in the pandemic

Broad Street in Central Falls

While medical professionals stare down Round #2 of our COVID-19 nightmare, the arrival of a vaccine in Rhode Island is like the bright stars on top of our trees this holiday season.  Indeed, it is a beacon of hope for so many whose loved ones have been afflicted by the disease and  for those who have cared for those patients for the past 10 months.  

So it is imperative that we learn from the bumps in the road in testing rollouts earlier this year.  When negative national headlines surrounded such communities as Central Falls, where the consequences of socio-economic disparities created a horrific storm of disease transmission, government was on its heels when trying to right the ship to create buy-in for the vaccine's  distribution and use in our very diverse communities. 

This is particularly a challenge in urban-core neighborhoods, where there is a large non-native English-speaking population and where many use languages that do not use Latin-based alphabets. Very few and far between are the official government communications in Khmer script for our Cambodian residents, or Chinese pictographs, or Arabic for our neighbors from the Middle East.  My own mother-in-law's native language is Cantonese, and I can remember her not quite understanding the full scope of COVID as it hit Rhode Island.  But once my husband, Allan Fung, who had to deal with some of these issues as Cranston’s mayor, laid it out in her native language, she became the biggest promoter of guidance from our public-health leaders.  To have better outcomes, we need to go the extra mile in different languages via digital video communications, mailers and multilingual media entities to reach those we didn't  reach the last time around.  

And effective communications also include having the right messenger.  That, in some cultures, may not be a government official.  Indeed, the cultural aspects of medicine are often overlooked in the midst of a pandemic when time is of the essence.  Yet revered religious leaders or well-known community organizers might be the best people to connect with marginalized communities and work through cultural hesitations towards medical treatments. 

As we look toward mass vaccination,  let’s start now in connecting with these influencers in our faith communities and social organizations to create a more cohesive and effective community response.  Government officials need to engage with, and empower, other community leaders here, and  not act as if they alone had the right answers.  

We all can agree that 2020 was a year of challenges, including many that will stick around in 2021.  As we enter the new year, we should vow to be smarter and more inclusive in our approach to beating the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure that we lift everyone, in communities from rich to poor, up and across the finish line.  

Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung (MSPT) is a physical therapist, whose expertise includes the cultural aspects of medicine. She is also a Republican state representative-elect from Cranston.

Some COVID-19 symptoms