WaterWalks: Creative Action for Community Justice is a collaboration among artists, community-based organizations, and students to elevate marginalized perspectives in Pittsburgh’s water crisis. The project is structured around participatory, place based experiences—what we’ve termed WaterWalks—that use art and other forms of creative intervention to advocate for water justice.
WaterWalks Kickoff Community Workshop (March 23, 2019): In collaboration with Pittsburgh-based community organizations and advocacy groups, the Kickoff Community Workshop invited local residents, artists, activists, and students to discuss the significance of water justice in Pittsburgh and lay groundwork for future WaterWalks events.
WaterWalk: Wahdo:Gwas Wetland (April 6, 2019): In collaboration with Echoes of the Four Directions, WaterWalk: Wahdo:Gwas Wetland centered Native American perspectives in Pittsburgh’s water justice movement. Lee Dingus shared Seneca stories and Earl Dingus performed Cherokee flute in Wahdo:Gwas wetland. The name, Wahdo:Gwas, is Seneca for Rising from the Water. The WaterWalk also included a guided wetland walk with Meg Scanlon, naturalist at the Latodami Nature Center.
WaterWalk: Negley Run Was Here! (May 4, 2019): Negley Run, like most streams in Pittsburgh, is invisible today. WaterWalk: Negley Run Was Here! was an effort to discover the traces of Negley Run and explore ongoing issues of combined sewer overflow (CSO) in the context of environmental racism. Guided by members of Living Waters of Larimer, the WaterWalk centered community-driven green infrastructure as the most just solution to chronic CSO.
WaterWalk: Mapping Pittsburgh's Watersheds (October 12, 2019): Watersheds are sites of interconnection: they link communities, supply our drinking water, and sustain ecosystems. In collaboration with artist Katy DeMent, we assessed the significance of Pittsburgh’s regional watershed system and created a handmade paper watershed map of Pittsburgh. We also engaged with a “Digital Sandbox” created by CivicMapper and 3 Rivers Wet Weather. This interactive augmented reality “sandbox” demonstrated Pittsburgh's unique topography in relation to the regional watershed ecosystem.
WaterWalk: Nine Mile Run (November 14, 2020): WaterWalk: Nine Mile Run traced the daylighted portion of Nine Mile Run stream to the Monongahela River. As we walked, our collaborators at the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association discussed their ongoing efforts to restore and protect NMR. Also during the walk, Becky Forgrave, a PhD Candidate in Geology and Environmental Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, shared her research testing the stream’s nitrogen levels and water quality. Once on the shore of the Monongahela River, artist Ginger Brooks Takahashi presented a tea ceremony for the protection of intimacy and immunity. We were also joined by Theresa Abalos, a flutist, teaching artist, and writer, who presented a flute performance in conjunction with the tea ceremony, responding to the sounds already present in Duck Hollow.
