Meet Alexander Khost
Pop-Up’s friend Alexander Khost is a parent, educator, painter, and web developer living in Brooklyn, NY with his two children, James and Oliver, and his partner, Amanda. Alex has been active in mutual respect, child-led learning environments in various ways, including founding a democratic free school. His newfound love of child-led play has him enthusiastically studying to be a playworker in anticipation of a Brooklyn-based adventure playground soon to come.
Early Steps in Brooklyn
I biked down the bitter cold streets of Red Hook, Brooklyn one December morning with a trailer hitch filled with massive sheets of cardboard. An elementary school music teacher had answered my Freecycle request and gave me great advice: “Go to [a large furniture warehouse]; people discard big sheets of cardboard there all of the time.” Obtaining these oversized sheets of cardboard was the crucial first step in holding our first Pop-Up Adventure Play Day the following weekend.
Building an adventure playground
A few months earlier, my friend and project counterpart, artist and interventionist Eve Mosher, and I met at a local Brooklyn cafe and declared our intention to do the impossible: open an adventure playground in Brooklyn. This was the start of the play:ground project.
Unlike conventional playgrounds, adventure playgrounds give children the freedom to control their own play spaces. As Dr. Fraser Brown, Professor of Playwork at Leeds Metropolitan University, puts it, they allow children to make decisions about their activities and take meaningful risks—an essential part of development that is often missing in modern childrearing.
Support from Pop-Up Adventure Play
Along the way, Eve and I met Suzanna Law and Morgan Leichter-Saxby, the minds behind Pop-Up Adventure Play. They have been invaluable, providing contacts in New York’s children’s rights community and sharing their experience with Pop-Up Adventure Play Days.
Introducing child-led play
Pop-Up Play Days allow communities to experience the joys of child-led play using “loose parts.” These are materials children can move, redesign, or carry, such as cardboard, string, fabric, dirt, and sticks. For us, the Pop-Up Play Day also introduced the concept to the Brooklyn community, helping open a dialogue and making neighbourhood participation a key part of our project from the start.
The first pop-up adventure play day
About twenty children joined our first Pop-Up Adventure Play Day in Brower Park. Despite the cold December weather, they immediately immersed themselves in play. Over four hours, roughly a dozen structures were built, including slides, forts, huts, sword fights, a firehouse, murals, and even a piece inspired by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Adults only assisted with tasks like putting up walls or carrying large boxes.
Children’s creativity and joy
The children, diverse in background and age, quickly collaborated on their creations. Shouts of “Come on, quickly, get in the fire truck!” and “I’m a dragon, but don’t worry, I won’t eat you!” filled the air. Watching them, I realised how simple it is to provide children this opportunity and how genuinely happy they are when fully immersed in child-led play. My own children never complained or asked to leave. In fact, I had to ask my eight-year-old to leave his cardboard “house” at cleanup time!
Even beyond research highlighting the benefits of this form of play, the sheer joy it brings children is undeniable. It’s enough to make me eagerly anticipate our next Pop-Up Adventure Play Day.
Learn more and get involved
To find out more about Alex and his Adventure Playground plans, visit their Facebook Page. To host your own Pop-Up Adventure Playground, get in touch with us!
By Alexander Khost
