NEW YORK (UPI) -- Anthropologist Margaret Mead obviously was enjoying herself.
"So far, for my first 75 years, I've been having a wonderful time," she said. "I'm optimistic if we pull ourselves together we are going to make it. There is, at least, hope. And this project is an oasis of hope for the children."
Dr. Mead, the author of some 50 books, stopped to sip a glass of red wine.
In a few minutes the apartment overlooking Lincoln Center was filled with poets and writers and she would greet them all.
The artists gathered Sunday night at the home of poet Ned O'Gorman, director of the Children's Storefront Nursery School, a project in Harlem for underprivileged children.
Before the evening was out, they would march over to Lincoln Center to read poetry and prose, listen to music and raise money for the children.
O'Gorman, who founded the school 11 years ago, calls it a "liberation camp."
"It's free, it's for the poor, for the deprived," O'Gorman said. "The youngest at the school is a year and a half (old), the oldest is four and a half.
"It's a warm place in an environment that can be tough and brutal."
The school provides two meals along with medical and psychological care.
Dr. Mead is an honorary board member of the Children's Storefront.
The doorbell rang. More visitors were arriving, including poets Allen Ginsberg and Richard Eberhart and former presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy, a leader of the anti-Vietnam war movement.
"The reason I've run for president," quipped McCarthy, "was to get my poems published. Of course, I wanted to open up the political process.
"What am I doing these days?" he said, echoing to a reporter's question. "Writing a bit of poetry, lecturing. I try to stay involved." McCarthy has published several works of poetry and prose, including "Other Things and the Aardvark" and "The Year of the People."
Presently it was time to walk over to Lincoln Center.
"Yes, I'm optimistic," Dr. Mead said as she walked through in the crisp, cold New York air. "There is hope. Hope for the children. If only we adults could learn not to destroy ourselves."
