By Shannah Cumberbatch Our very own Shannah Cumberbatch was invited to speak on a panel at the Women’s Environmental Leadership Summit alongside other professionals in the field! This is the first time the summit was held in person since 2019. The Anacostia Community Museum’s Center for Environmental Justice organizes this summit to “engage a multigenerational...
By Joe Lapp Thanks to Helen Fowler’s advocacy and constant care from the National Park Service, the ponds that make up the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens have remained relatively untouched for the last century. But the adjacent neighborhood has seen radical change. Check out these two photos: The 1926 print above shows residents of the Kenilworth...
By Shannah Cumberbatch The Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens are known for their variety of pink lotus and water lilies. However, if you’ve visited in recent months then you may have seen something else pink. This park is the site of the first ever bioblitz held in 1996. What’s a bioblitz you ask? It’s a survey of...
By Shannah Cumberbatch In July, I was invited to meet with the Environmental Justice Academy of the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum on two separate occasions.At the start of the second week of the program, I greeted the academy students at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens where we engaged in hands-on activities. The group was split in...
By Shannah Cumberbatch In June, FoKAG welcomed our Junior Ranger Adventure Squad back to the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens for another week-long outdoor camp led by Urban Adventure Squad (UAS). We engaged 21 school-aged kids from Wards 7 & 8 in activities that ranged from birding to pond-dipping to geology and rock formation. During the pond-dipping...
By Joe Lapp For much of my life, my father was the pastor of an Amish-Mennonite church on Douglas Street, in the neighborhood just outside the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. Feeling called to spread the love of the Christian god, my parents and other white volunteers from Pennsylvania and the Midwest moved to this Black community...
By Sheena Foster Hello Friends of Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, As a National Park Service alumna, nothing gives me greater joy and pleasure than escaping the hustle and bustle of the city and entering into the urban oasis of the natural and built environment at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. The biodiversity of the water lilies, lotuses, birds, frogs...
By Shannah Cumberbatch Many park visitors come to the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens for birding, hiking, and photography. However, the vast majority of visitors stop by the Gardens during the summer months to witness the floral spectacular of the lotus and water lilies in peak bloom. Let’s learn about some of the lotus and water lily...
By Megan Singleton I began at Friends of Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in January 2020, fresh out of college and eager to learn as an AmeriCorps VISTA. Little did I know, things would change drastically for the world in a matter of two short months. When the world shut down in March, so too did my...
By Megan Singleton Every year the ponds at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens flood with fragrant blooms of towering lotus and delicate water lilies in the summer and every year we see a pilgrimage of Asian and Asian American friends at the park to enjoy the flowers so sacred in their cultures. The lotus has many symbolic...
