Tag: art meets water

A conversation with the Mad Angler, Michael Delp

Published on September 10th, 2024 by - Blog Posts

To find a cranky, resolute, dry-witted champion for Michigan’s water, you need look no farther than Michael Delp. In his prose and poetry – especially as his alter ego, the Mad Angler, he has written lyrically of trout and forcefully condemned polluters. Mike is just out with a collection, The Mad Angler: Poems, that deepens the Mad Angler’s story.

On Friday, September 20 at The Alluvion on Traverse City, the Mad Angler will join the Mad Cellist, Crispin Campbell, as the two perform from their 2019 recording: “The River Under The River – The Mad Angler Meets The Mad Cellist.” Campbell’s cello will echo Delp’s rendering of the sounds of the river, the raucous calls of the crows, and the down and dirty earthiness of the blues.

Mike saves his words for his poetry. Asked to provide a biography, he said:  “Michael Delp lives and writes in Northern Michigan.”  But the world knows him as much more: an accomplished writer and a legendary former instructor of creative writing at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, and a profoundly decent man.

We thought it was a good time to check in with Mike and ask a few questions.

Who is the Mad Angler, what does he stand for,  and what troubles him these days?

The Mad Angler has undergone many transformations over time but his pledge to himself is to one day know what is like to be an actual river…how it would feel to lie down in the grass and suddenly feel yourself undulating away from what you thought you were.

The mad Angler is mad crazy and mad about most every river in America being under siege either from overkill in plastic boats or any number of ways runoff finds its way into streams. We are living in dark times when it comes to those who would steal our water. We need to put up some kind of monitoring system to keep Lake Michigan from being used to water lawns in Arizona.
The mad Angler stands for what he stands in. A river.

Where does your poetic sensibility come from?

Poetic sensitivity: first felt it in the 5th grade in Mrs. Wycoff’s class when she read Huck Finn to us. My DNA hopefully has some Whitman in it, and maybe one tiny speck of that wildly free, Jim Harrison. Mary Oliver wanders around in me as best I can tell.

Do you have any advice for would-be poets?

Advice for would-be poets: learn to weld and play a guitar. Ignore advice about writing. Fish and fall asleep next to a river whenever possible. Figure out how to approach being a sorcerer, knowing that you can’t figure it out.

Any other words of wisdom today?

Poets might be able to save us if we could actually read them without interference from English Teachers.

You can’t have too many fly rods.

The Mad Angler takes solace from the fact that his cabin is at the very end of a dead end road.

Most writers want to be read but too many want to be noticed.

From Mike’s poem, the “Mad Angler Ghazals”:

New Book Explores the Heart of the Two Hearted River

Published on July 17th, 2024 by - Blog Posts

What do former FLOW board member Bob Otwell and Ernest Hemingway have in common?

They’ve both written about the Two Hearted River.

In a story published exactly one century ago, The Big Two-Hearted River, Hemingway brought to a wide audience for the first time an unmatched writing style, in this case focusing on the healing journey of a man fishing in the Two Hearted.

In The Real Two Hearted: Life, Love and Lore Along Michigan’s Most Iconic River, Bob Otwell writes of discovering and then making his family at home in a rustic cabin on the banks of the Two Hearted. The word “real” in the title refers to the fact that while Hemingway used the name “Two-Hearted” in the title of his story, he was actually describing the Fox River.

Bob’s book explores the history and the mystery of the actual Two Hearted, which occupies a virtually unblemished watershed in the Upper Peninsula.

In addition to serving on FLOW’s board, Bob founded engineering firm Otwell Mawby P.C., and was executive director of TART Trails, Inc., from 2001-2010 where he was responsible for daily administration, board development, fundraising, strategic planning, and public relations for the not-for-profit bike and pedestrian advocacy organization.

We asked Bob a couple of questions about his book, whose official publishing date is July 18, 2024.

Tell us what the book is about. Is it a recreational read, or a serious environmental policy discussion?

I would say this is a recreational read. The reader may enjoy our family adventures, spending time in a remote camp with no electricity, running water, and no cell service. Hopefully, the reader will appreciate how we spent much of our time just doing the “Boggy’s thing,” which is just putzing around the camp, and being unconnected to the modern world. The reader should also learn something about a variety of topics including the physics of flowing rivers, how this watershed has been protected, and the unique flora and fauna.

What did you find out about the Two Hearted as you went along?

I really enjoyed doing the research for the book. I learned so much about life in the U.P. over the past 100 years. We have enjoyed the old growth white pines surrounding Boggy’s, and I enjoyed reading several books that taught me a little about the value of trees beyond fire wood and lumber. It was hard to know how far to go with some of this research, because there is always more to learn and write about. I enjoyed going back through the three volumes and 30 plus years of our Boggy’s Camp Journals, remembering family adventures, and which friends and family have visited the camp. I appreciate very much that I had these journals to refer to.

If the Two Hearted was a person, what would she be like?

Most of all she would be steady. Whenever we visit, she is flowing steadily, water coming around the bend upstream of Boggy’s Camp and disappearing around the next one downstream. Her mood changes based on weather and flora. She is normally shallow and dark, her color and reflections varying with the sun and time of day. She is flanked by color depending on the location and season: tan from exposed sand banks; green from many evergreens, along with maples, dogwood and alders in the summer; red, orange and yellow maple leaves in autumn and red dogwood branches that pop out when the leaves are absent. She is often flanked by snow from November to May. Sometimes she is completely hidden under snow and ice, falsely presenting herself as a wide, safe white trail through the forest. But then as one travels around a bend, a visible dark shadow in the ice will be seen and you are reminded to be aware; she is there, flowing steady.

ART MEETS WATER: A conversation with author, FLOW founder Jim Olson

Published on June 27th, 2024 by - Blog Posts

Watch the webinar

 

With a formal launch 7 p.m. June 26th at The Alluvion in Commongrounds, 414 E. Eighth in Traverse City, People of the Dune is about to stir the debate and express Jim’s own deep commitment to protecting the natural world and honoring indigenous knowledge.

The book can be found at local bookstores, or ordered direct from Amazon, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, Ingram Sparks. Two children’s books created by the Olson family, The Thunderstorm Party and The Reindeer and the Easter Bunny, are also available at bookstores and online.

Book Description: What matters more, a dune or development, “progress” or protection? Michigan’s first and foremost environmental attorney, Jim Olson, explores these and other issues in his new novel, People of the Dune. It’s a whimsical yet profoundly thought provoking look at the limits of the law in a time of environmental degradation. Join Jim and Mike Delp, the poet and webinar moderator, for a conversation and readings from the novel by Jim.

Register here!

A Q&A with author Jim Olson

How does this story fit in with your years of experience as an environmental champion in the courts?

Well, I think in mostly representing citizens, their (our) need and connection to place and community collides with the relentless blade of civilization’s desire for wealth. In our country, and around the world, we are taught that we thrive, even depend on, progress defined by the economic equation that labor plus natural resources plus money equals Gross National Product–now Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. In other words, progress means growth, and growth has to come from one of the inputs, meaning that by definition, these inputs must satisfy the paramount demands of the economy—we and the environment are subservient to the “Great God Progress,” as Justice William O. Douglas once characterized it.

As I asked at the beginning of The Mound People and once more in People of the Dune: “What will it be, ‘Mind’ or ‘Mound?’ Desire or reality?

I realized that when it comes to our natural world or the commons on which we all depend, the burden of proof was upside down, the law in effect contrary to reality.

Over time I came to understand that the concept of private property was a thing of the mind, maybe starting with Descartes “I think, therefore I am,” separating mind from nature. In effect cutting off the mind from reality. So, I eventually realized that when it comes to our natural world or the commons on which we all depend, the burden of proof was upside down, the law in effect contrary to reality. To conform to reality, the burden of proof must be on those who desire to extract or exploit to show that what they have done or propose to do will not impair the fundamental value and connection between nature and life.

Read the rest of the interview!

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A Fresh New Story from the Old: Jim Olson’s “People of the Dune”

Published on June 20th, 2024 by - Blog Posts

Watch the webinar
FLOW’s founder, legendary environmental attorney Jim Olson, writes more than winning legal briefs. He writes books, too, including the first book on Michigan environmental law and several novels. One of those, The Mound People, published in the 1980s, has now given birth to a fresh novel, People of the Dune. Both versions of the story wrestle with values that the law does not fully address – the intangible but towering inherent values of land and water in the face of expectations of property rights. With a formal launch 7 p.m. June 26 at The Alluvion in Commongrounds, 414 E. Eighth in Traverse City, People of the Dune is about to stir the debate and express Jim’s own deep commitment to protecting the natural world and honoring indigenous knowledge. The book can be found at local bookstores, or ordered direct from Amazon, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, Ingram Sparks. Two children’s books created by the Olson family, The Thunderstorm Party and The Reindeer and the Easter Bunny, are also available at bookstores and online. We asked Jim to answer some questions about the story behind the book.

Our first question is very basic – – what’s the book about?

The book is an allegory that spans 2000 years. At the center is the fate of a sacred mound buried by the shifting sands of a coastal dune. Whether it will be developed or protected is a question that ends up in the lap of a rural circuit judge, who must decide the fate of the dune and the sacred mound.

This is a fresh version, really a sequel, of The Mound People. Why did you decide to return to the story?

Two years ago, to procrastinate on the final revisions for another writing project, I picked up and started leafing through The Mound People and stopped at the chapter “The Trial.” I reread the unnamed judge’s short decision denying the injunction against the removal of the sand mound. Something between the lines seemed to be troubling the judge when he said in his decision. “You see, until a law is passed that says land or natural resources have a value beyond mere use… I have no choice but to rule in favor of the defendants.” His words pulled me back into the story. Who is this judge? Why did he seem to be apologizing for the law or himself? What did he really think, feel, experience? I gave him a name–Odom Holmes, after Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who wrote in a 1908 decision that stopped New York from diverting a New Jersey river, “There are benefits of a river that might escape a lawyer’s view.”
Why doesn’t the law embrace natural values or the beingness of nature “beyond mere use” or private rights?
Then I started rewriting what happened in the trial, his remarks, and Judge Holmes seemed to have more to say. He started asking more questions: Why doesn’t the law embrace natural values or the beingness of nature “beyond mere use” or private rights? What about the commons of the place where we live, places untouched remnants of the world where plants and animals live, the unique features of the earth itself? If life depends on these commons, are they not as much a part of reality and human experience that shape the law as private property that limits individual exploitation of these commons as private property? Judge Odom – I started thinking of him as “Odie” – took on a life of his own. So, as I let Judge Odie start writing, I realized that a new book was emerging, so, not knowing where it would lead, I let Judge Odie take over.

How does this story fit in with your years of experience as an environmental champion in the courts?

Well, I think in mostly representing citizens, their (our) need and connection to place and community collides with the relentless blade of civilization’s desire for wealth. In our country, and around the world, we are taught that we thrive, even depend on, progress defined by the economic equation that labor plus natural resources plus money equals Gross National Product–now Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. In other words, progress means growth, and growth has to come from one of the inputs, meaning that by definition, these inputs must satisfy the paramount demands of the economy—we and the environment are subservient to the “Great God Progress,” as Justice William O. Douglas once characterized it. As I asked at the beginning of The Mound People and once more in People of the Dune: “What will it be, ‘Mind’ or ‘Mound?’ Desire or reality?
I realized that when it comes to our natural world or the commons on which we all depend, the burden of proof was upside down, the law in effect contrary to reality.
Over time I came to understand that the concept of private property was a thing of the mind, maybe starting with Descartes “I think, therefore I am,” separating mind from nature. In effect cutting off the mind from reality. So, I eventually realized that when it comes to our natural world or the commons on which we all depend, the burden of proof was upside down, the law in effect contrary to reality. To conform to reality, the burden of proof must be on those who desire to extract or exploit to show that what they have done or propose to do will not impair the fundamental value and connection between nature and life.

How do indigenous concerns and communities play a role in your book?

Indigenous people have lived in relationship to the reality of nature–hunting, gathering, settling and growing food in conformity with nature, seasons, weather, always dynamic, and changing. There was no personal concept, no cultural concept, of private property or even property for that matter. And while Native American sovereign tribes today must interact with the world of property and commerce, at the same time their view of themselves as in relationship with nature and the world around them, sometimes as spirit, continues fundamental to their culture. Some fear this is akin to something pagan. But this fails to understand that the notion of relationship to trees, lakes, rivers, animals or others is a recognition of the divine in and behind all things– call this divine grace God, Great Spirit, or whatever, that lies beyond or behind all things, seen and unseen. Too, it’s important to remember that all of us come from people who lived and saw reality and nature in the same way, and it is there somewhere buried in our consciousness, genes, or heart. The mound buried under the dune and the dune itself become sacred in the book, maybe to remind us of this lost connection to nature and divine spirit. I think the expectations of property and economic gain have simply gone too far, meaning beyond the inherent limitation imposed by the reality of nature. Native cultures remind us that we all have this heritage, that springs from nature and reality of earth itself. It must be renewed, balanced, harmonized–like the “spirit mounds” of the Hopewell, Woodland Indians of 800 to 1000 or more years ago harmonized the earth and sky worlds as one.

Do you have more books or writing in the pipeline?

I hope to submit the novel Waterspout to a publisher this year. If possible, I’d like to revisit an unpublished novel, The White Deer, written with a Council of Arts award in the late 1980s. Beyond that, who knows. I’m almost 80. Possibly a book about the people and lawsuits I worked on over the years since the early 1970s, asking how might those help us meet the challenges we face today. Like anyone my age, I hope to continue to do what I can for as long as I can, but time with Judy and our family means a lot.  

Author Jerry Dennis Looks Back and Ahead as “The Living Great Lakes” Turns 20

Published on May 30th, 2024 by - Blog Posts

The Great Lakes are one of the world’s natural wonders, and Jerry Dennis is one of the literary wonders of the Great Lakes region. His books explore and celebrate many features of the Lakes, and none more so than his classic The Living Great Lakes, published in 2004. The combination of inland sea adventure, environmental chronicle and poetic, personal musing has made the book a perennial favorite of readers. The 20th anniversary edition, which includes a new introduction by the author, is now available. We asked Jerry to answer a few questions about the milestone.

What’s the significance of the 20th anniversary of the book? Why the new edition?

My publisher has been pleased with the book’s performance, reprinting it once or twice every year since 2003, and wanted to honor the 20-year mark. I’d been thinking about it too, especially as changes caused by the warming climate have become increasingly obvious. Also, when I wrote the book I was unaware of Enbridge’s Line 5 and its potential for catastrophe. As with many people, that and other petroleum pipelines didn’t come to my attention until the Talmadge Creek/Kalamazoo River spill in 2010. Plus so many readers have asked about the Malabar and her crew that I felt I owed them an update.

“I’m hopeful, however, because I’ve met so many dedicated and capable people who are working every day on important issues and am confident that the majority of the residents of the Great Lakes region want the lakes to remain healthy.”

Did the book reach audiences well beyond the Great Lakes region? What kind of feedback did you get from such readers?

One of the pleasant surprises for me was the many people from outside the Great Lakes region who have reached out to me. I’ve received emails and letters from New York to California and from several countries outside the U.S. and Canada, including Korea, where a translated edition is in progress. Many of the messages were remembrances of childhood visits to the lakes or nostalgia for years lived near them, but more than a few were from readers who had never seen the lakes and wanted to tell me how surprised they were to learn how interesting—and big—they are. The majority of correspondents from everywhere expressed concern for the lakes and determination to help protect them.

Are you more or less hopeful about the health of the Great Lakes than when you wrote the book? Why?

Am I hopeful about the future of the Great Lakes? I like the distinction Jane Elder made between hope and optimism. Twenty years ago I might have said I’m optimistic, but I’m older and more battle-scarred now (as you might have noticed) and shy away from the word. I’m hopeful, however, because I’ve met so many dedicated and capable people who are working every day on important issues and am confident that the majority of the residents of the Great Lakes region want the lakes to remain healthy. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are aware of that, as well, and at least lean toward supporting legislation that is good for the lakes. One of the pleasant surprises in my writing career was on Earth Day a few years ago when a paragraph of The Living Great Lakes was read aloud on the floor of the U.S. Senate by a Republican senator from Ohio. That made me hopeful.

ART MEETS WATER: “Wilderness, Water & Rust: A Journey Toward Great Lakes Resilience” by Jane Elder book talk

Published on May 14th, 2024 by - Blog Posts

Watch the Webinar here!

Wilderness, Water, and Rust: A Journey toward Great Lakes Resilience asks us to consider what we value about life in the Great Lakes region and how caring for its remarkable ecosystems might help us imagine new, whole futures. Weaving together memories from her life in the upper Midwest with nearly fifty years of environmental policy advocacy work, Jane Elder provides a uniquely moving insider’s perspective into the quest to protect the Great Lakes and surrounding public lands, from past battles to protect Michigan wilderness and shape early management strategies for the national lakeshores to present fights against toxic pollution and climate change. She argues that endless cycles of resource exploitation and boom and bust created a ‘rust belt’ legacy that still threatens our capacity for resilience. The author lays out the challenges that lie ahead and invites us to imagine bold new strategies through which we might thrive.

Are we keeping the Great Lakes great? Few are in a better position to tell us than Jane Elder, a veteran of more than 40 years of public advocacy for the Great Lakes. In her new book, “Wilderness, Water and Rust,” she tells vivid stories of being in the front lines of the fight to clean up and restore the Lakes and offers insights on saving the Lakes for generations to come. “While not overlooking setbacks and defeats, Jane, in exquisite prose, provides hope for the Great Lakes, the planet, and ourselves.”
— FLOW senior advisor and author Dave Dempsey

Watch the Webinar!

—

A Conversation with Author Jane Elder:

 

Tell us what the book is about.

The book is part memoir of environmental issues I have worked on in the Great Lakes region over the course of my career, with a focus on public lands, including wilderness areas, and Great Lakes water quality and ecological health.

It is also a critique of policy—what has worked, what hasn’t, and the challenges we face with advancing positive public policy to protect the environment and public health in these times. A theme that runs through the book is that the region’s boom and bust economic cycles (thus the “rust” part of the title) have hurt both human communities and left behind a legacy of environmental damage, and that we need to break out of that pattern for people and the rest of nature to thrive.

Read the interview here!

Virtual book talk with environmental novelist Maryann Lesert

Published on February 1st, 2024 by - Blog Posts

On February 15, FLOW presented an “Art Meets Water” virtual event with Maryann Lesert, novelist and author of the book, Land Marks. FLOW senior policy advisor Dave Dempsey hosted the talk via Zoom, which is now available to watch on YouTube.

And, when you pre-order Land Marks from Bookshop.org in February, the proceeds will benefit FLOW!

From Maryann Lesert, author of Land Marks:

When fracking came to Michigan’s state forests in the early to mid-2010s, I set out to learn as much as I could about drilling and fracking, the science behind the risks, and what it was like to live next to a frack well site. I learned a novel’s worth during my two years of “boots-on-well-sites” research, and I was deeply inspired by the people and groups who came together to protect water, land, and air—each bringing their own gifts. 

FLOW was one of the “first responders.” Jim Olson and Liz Kirkwood showed up often to advocate for the Great Lakes and our right to protect water based on the doctrine of public trust. 

To honor FLOW’s work, all proceeds from Bookshop.org pre-orders of Land Marks during the month of February will benefit FLOW. 

To pre-order Land Marks, use this Bookshop.org link: Buy on Bookshop

This “Buy on Bookshop” link will take you to Bookshop.org, where you can pre-order (purchase) Land Marks. When you check out, make sure you see “Maryann Lesert” in the upper left-hand corner of your screen to ensure that proceeds go to FLOW.

Note: pre-orders from other online book sellers are not set up to benefit FLOW.

 

About Bookshop.org:
Bookshop.org donates 10% of its proceeds to local, independent bookstores.
By purchasing from Bookshop, you will support local bookstores and FLOW.

FLOW Celebrates 10 Years, Honors Jim Olson and Dave Dempsey

Published on September 17th, 2021 by - Blog Posts, News, Reports & Media Releases

Traverse City, Mich.—FLOW is celebrating our 10th anniversary of keeping the Great Lakes public and protected and kickstarting the next 10 years.

Founded in 2011 by Jim Olson and directed since 2012 by Liz Kirkwood, both environmental attorneys, FLOW is a nonprofit law and policy center based in Traverse City dedicated to protecting the Great Lakes, groundwater, and drinking water for all. Independent and nonpartisan, FLOW works with the public and decision-makers to hold the government accountable in protecting and providing access to public waters.

Notable highlights of our 10th anniversary year and celebration include:

  • Tuesday, September 21, from 7:00-8:00 pm EDT—“Confluence”—FLOW’s marquee 10th anniversary event, live-streamed and emceed by dynamic Traverse City talent Ben Whiting. Free and open to the public, the online event will include a special honor for FLOW luminaries Jim Olson and Dave Dempsey, and promises a fun and fast-paced frolic through FLOW’s history and heroes, with special guests, and prize-drawings for Patagonia gear! Register here.
  • The addition of FLOW’s first-ever full-time legal director, an achievement many years in the making. Environmental attorney Zach Welcker joined FLOW in July, after more than a decade representing Indian tribes in the Pacific Northwest on water, fisheries, and other natural resource issues. Zach now carries the legal torch borne since 2011 on a part-time and volunteer basis by Jim Olson.
  • Video reflections by FLOW supporters, staff, and collaborators who have been instrumental to our work and shared successes over the past decade—meant to inspire everyone to join us in protecting freshwater for all. See the video series here.
  • Illustrated timeline of FLOW’s progress through the years in partnership with the public. See FLOW’s 10-year timeline here.
  • Webinars with FLOW staff and partners on Line 5, Great Lakes high water levels, groundwater threats, and artistic efforts to inspire the protection of freshwater. See the collection of recorded webinars here.
  • Release of a penetrating groundwater-protection report—Deep Threats to Our Sixth Great Lake: Spotlighting and Solving Michigan’s Groundwater Emergency—and fact sheet authored by Dave Dempsey and conveyed via webinar. See FLOW’s groundwater program page for more.

The Story of “When Water Moves”

Published on September 7th, 2021 by - Blog Posts, News

Editor’s note: This article served as a preview for FLOW’s live-streamed premier of the film “When Water Moves” on Sunday, September 12, at 5:00 p.m. EDT. Photo by Tyler Franz.

By Anne-Marie Oomen

Ari Mokdad (left) and Anne-Marie Oomen (right) read from Seiche Ways aboard the Nauti-Cat in 2018.

It begins for me with the question that haunts my days: How can I use my art, my words, my one small gift which brings me joy, to make a difference in those causes I consider most critical to supporting eco-vigor? In recent years, that attempt to “make a difference” has been focused on water. Thank goodness for FLOW, because through their Art Meets Water program, that impulse found a home. Their program seeks to connect their mission with artistic resources to “develop this natural creative synergy into an intentional and inspiring outreach platform that motivates action and change.” In other words, they welcome and support interaction with artists who are thinking about water.

In 2018, FLOW had graciously supported the book launch of The Lake Michigan Mermaid: A Tale in Poems (written with Linda Nemec Foster, illustrated by Meridith Ridl). Then too through the publication (with Ari Mokdad) of a pocket anthology, Seiche Ways, a gentle fundraiser in which Ari and I collected water poems from our regional poets as a gratitude gift for FLOW donors. Ari is a poet, dancer and choreographer. She also happens to be married to the captain of the Nauti-Cat, and though her roots are in Detroit, she had also enthusiastically fallen in love with these more northern waters. I enjoyed our interaction immensely, and in August of 2019, one of her beautifully choreographed dances, “Water Studies” was accepted in the Detroit Dance City Festival, incorporating my poem “Water Gratitude” into the work. Inspired by the pleasure of those collaborations, we looked at each other and asked, “What’s next?”

With FLOW, we began to build a program for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, in March 2020, to address the ongoing water crisis in the state. We hoped to celebrate and heighten the water spirit permeating the work of water activists, including the water protectors of the tribal communities. We planned a multi-dimensional project that would include dance, poetry, community, and water. All was canceled due to COVID-19. For a while we floundered, but then like so many artists, we became inspired by the “creative synergy” of the challenge and  refocused the grant on video presentation—motivated by a more precise question: How could we communicate both the aesthetic and spiritual narrative of our beloved lakes, and simultaneously heighten the sense of urgency for water issues?

We extended the original concept of “When Water Moves,” to a dance/text/image/performance video centered on an original water parable that incorporates water issues. In the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs (MCACA) grant application, we wrote: “As Michigan-born artists with deep ties to water culturally, our work coalesces around both the movement of water, represented through traditional Anishinaabe dance and new contemporary choreography, and through text (poetry and storytelling) that uses water themes. We believe that water activism can successfully build from arts-based collaborations centered on the Great Lakes and current water issues.” We also hoped that this water-art collaboration might initiate deeper thinking about how we belong to the lakes instead of the other way around. We hoped that the aesthetics of story, of poetry and dance, and the imagery of video might move viewers to think about a more comprehensive and heartfelt water protection and preservation ethic.  

“When Water Moves” evolved as a video performance poem about a water woman who becomes a lake being, embodying in spirit the love of water and assuring its longevity. The story also describes how a water woman faces what happens when we fail to respect this ultimately life-giving resource. I had the pleasure of writing and narrating the poem, but the real pleasures were the contributing voices from the Northern Michigan and greater community. The story is inspired by both Sierra Clark’s Anishinaabe stories and tales from Ari Mokdad’s Lebanese heritage. Joe VanderMeulen stepped in to bring it all together—videotaping Ari’s lovely choreography, incorporating the voices of water protectors and the Anishinaabe jingle dress dance for healing.

Thanks to Joe’s skilled work, friends who view the short film will have the pleasure of watching a narration that holds both threads: aesthetically beautiful rendering of the concept and reflections on water work. The video offers hope for healing the relationships of humans to water. And also, just perhaps, offers a model for how artistic collaboration can build water consciousness, both for the artists and for the audiences who participate in open follow-up discussions. 

In addition, Ari and I are grateful that MCAC and the Northwest Michigan Arts and Culture Network were comfortable awarding support for this project to a grant-seeker (FLOW) that is not categorized as an arts organization. FLOW’s history of meaningful relationships with artists gave the project a solid track-record to stand on. To that end, Ari and I wrote the following with heartfelt conviction, “As artists we strive to foster conversations… and shift our perspective towards a culture that values, honors, and celebrates water and water equity. This conversation and development of art provides a starting point to create a healthier water culture and a more joyful participation in water consciousness and preservation. That said, we do this work because we share an ethos with FLOW as artists to preserve our greatest resource in Michigan and continue to advocate for sustainable changes for water equity and justice. This work is integral to our beings as water is a part of what makes our culture and very psyches whole.”