“The closing of Washington Park came out of the blue. It was a Friday afternoon, January 10, 2006. Ellen Schwartz, an accountant, was at the Washington Park branch as a volunteer after-school home- work tutor. Ellen told us that suddenly, someone came in and said, “There is a leak in the roof. This place isn’t safe, and we can’t afford to keep it open.” All of a sudden, the branch was closed. It was closed not just for repairs but was permanently shuttered. There were over forty kids in the library at the time of the closure, and now they and the rest of the Washington Park community were without a library. At the insistence of Councilman Aponte, PPL, a few months later, did rent space in a closed Benny’s appliance store up the street to hold an after-school program from two to six on weekdays. But it was a sorry excuse for a library branch! It had two shelves of children’s books.
Adults were not allowed into the space to use the four computers or to pick up reserved books. And it,
too, leaked.“
Linda J. Kushner
Kushner came to Rhode Island in 1964 with her husband, Harold J. Kushner, a mathematician who took a position as a professor at Brown University. While raising her young children, Kushner became concerned with a number of community problems and social issues. She joined the League of Women Voters and then went on to form a number of new organizations including the Women’s Political Caucus. Ultimately she decided that the best way to address community issues was as an elected representative. In 1982 she ran for and was elected to the Rhode Island General Assembly. She served for 6 terms, from 1982-1994 as a Representative of the East Side of Providence.
After retiring from politics she joined the Friends of Rochambeau, a support group for the Rochambeau branch of the Providence Public Library. In 2004 she became its President. At that time, she learned that the Providence Public Library, hostile to public input, was reducing library services and threatening to close its branches in the most vulnerable neighborhoods of the city. Trained as an attorney, Kushner in 2004 joined with a small group of reformers, and using her legal and political skills, they launched a five year battle to reform the library. The fight garnered the support of thousands of Rhode Islanders. It ended in 2009 with the creation of a new community library system, which preserved all nine of Providence’s neighborhood libraries.
Dates of Upcoming Book Talks
| Oct. 17, 2024 at 5:30pm | Wanskuck Library* 233 Veazie St. Providence |
*open to the public
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