“All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.” --- Toni Morrison
The ancient waters never left us. This most precious resource has through time continued to move and cycle above, below, around and inside us, and all life. Yet today, water and our relationship with it are imperiled on multiple levels.
Join us November 5-6, 2021 as we investigate the water crises that are impacting municipal systems, industry, and agriculture, all intensified by a changing climate. We will explore water at local, regional, and national levels and the social and environmental justice issues that have arisen. We will hear stories directly from Indigenous peoples, artists, activists, and researchers working to protect water. Most importantly, we will present solutions that are springing up across the planet to restore our memory of and relationship with water.
Featured Speakers:
Keynote & Arthur Morgan Awardee: Dr. Kelsey Leonard, Indigenous water scientist, legal scholar, policy expert, writer, and enrolled citizen of the Shinnecock Nation – Indigenous Water Justice and its Climatic, Territorial, and Governance Underpinnings for our Shared Sustainable Future
Keynote: Isabel Friend, international water advocate, activist and educator – Understanding the True Nature of Water Can Unlock a Reciprocal Stewardship
Finian Makepeace, co-founder of Kiss the Ground – Soil as a Water Solution
Klie Kliebert, Executive Director and Co-founder, Imagine Waterworks and Miriam Belbidia, Director of Research and Advocacy Co-Founder
Minni Jain, Director of Operations at The Flow Partnership – Regenerating Rivers and Transforming Landscapes
Dr. Laura Sullivan, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Kettering University – The Flint Water Crisis - Parallels To Third World Resource Exploitation and Disregard For Public Health
Dr. Sarah Hippensteel Hall, Manager of Watershed Partnerships, Miami Conservancy District – Stewardship of the Great Miami River Watershed
Mike Ekberg, Manager Water Monitoring, Miami Conservancy District – Thoughts on the Risk Posed by PFAS to Groundwater Quality in the Miami Valley
Kim Nace, co-founder and CEO of Rich Earth Institute – Wastewater Systems
Deborah Leonard, Communications Manager, Greater Cincinnati Metropolitan Sewer District – The Lick Run Greenway: Tales from the Past, Challenges of the Present, and Hopes for the Future
Jim Schenk and Deborah Jordan from Citizens for Rights of the Ohio River Watershed (CROW) – Rights of Nature, Rights of Community
Basia Irland, ecological activist, sculptor, installation artist and author – Each Of Us Is A River
The Sister Tour: Amber Hasan and Shea Cobb Flint, Michigan artists, writers, musicians and community activists – Tugging Water
Jake Stockwell, environmental Activist and Line 3 co-defendant – Running into the Swamps: Experiences from the Field of an Accomplice and Building Solidarity with Indigenous Resistance Movements
And MORE!
