Schuylkill Corps River Research Seminar: Been Here – Community Narratives on Nature & Displacement

Schuylkill Corps River Research Seminar

BEEN HERE: Community Narratives on Nature & Displacement

• Althea Baird, Interdisciplinary Artist, 2017 SouthWest Roots Artist in Residence
• Marie Alarcon, MultiMedia Artist, 2017 SouthWest Roots Artist in Residence
• Sophia Poe, Artist, Family & Community Advocate, Woodland Academy

In 2017, SouthWest Roots Artist Catalyst Resident Artists Marie
Alarcon, Althea Baird, Ash Richards, Darlene Devore and Jennifer
Turnbull, developed a multidisciplinary project at Bartram’s Gardens
with the help of Community Liaison Sophia Poe. The culminating event
was a multichannel video installation showcasing Bartram's Garden’s
neighbors and friends as they perform everyday acts of art and
movement, highlighting the creative power that has long existed in
communities, with a focus on the intimate and personal relationships
between place and the communities that interact within it, outside of
the involvement of institutions.

Marie Alarcón is a multimedia artist based in Philadelphia, PA.  She
has worked in community media as an educator and producer for numerous
arts and educational organizations over the past 10 years. She has a
B.A. in Documentary and Postcolonial Studies from The Evergreen State
College, Olympia, WA, and an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania,
School of Art and Design.

Althea Baird is a multidisciplinary artist working in Philadelphia.
For nine years she has facilitated community collaborations and
political education workshops through the collectives BARE TEETH and
the Spatial Liberation Project. She uses oral history, collaborative
writing and expressive movement as forms of knowledge-sharing between
people who share space and survival.

Sophia Poe is a mother, artist, advocate, liaison, organizer and
undergrad student studying Social Work at Temple University. She has
dedicated over 6 years of her professional career to providing quality
services to families and community residents in the Southwest area of
Philadelphia. Her goal is to promote self-love, empowerment, and
healing amongst women of color through the power of the arts.
 

Complimentary Lunch is Provided.

Founded in April 2016, the Schuylkill River and Urban Waters Corps is an informal collective of academic, non-profit, civic and community organizations. Based in Philadelphia, we are devoted to exploring and stewarding urban waters past and present. The Corps is currently fostering collaborations in other cities in the U.S., including Mumbai and New York, and we are building a digital archive for our members' varied work: contributing, collecting, and curating oral histories; developing a variety of tours, both on-line and in-person; measuring air and water quality; and designing and building an array of citizen science and public humanities projects to discover and document the waters--and invite considerations of how they will exist in the future.

@SchuylkillCorps