O Beautiful River: A Bicycle Pilgrimage
This project celebrates the Schuylkill River, a 135 mile-long waterway that meanders southeast from the Appalachian hills of Schuylkill County to its confluence with the Delaware River just north of Philadelphia International Airport. The Schuylkill River is a primary source of drinking water for 1.5 million people, including a large percentage of Philadelphians, and it is a major economic, cultural and ecological resource in the Delaware Valley. My connection to the river and desire to explore it in depth stems from its prominence within my experience of the city of Philadelphia. As a doctoral student, and later employee, of Temple University, I’ve crossed the lower Schuylkill River countless times while commuting via rail from my apartment in northwest Philadelphia. Since 2012, I’ve also developed an intimate sense of the river through countless bike trips along the Schuylkill River Trail from East Falls to and from center city. Over the last three years, I’ve taken a scholarly interest in the river fueled in part by dance research I conducted in and around the Wissahickon Creek, one of the Schuylkill River’s many tributaries, and following my introduction to interdisciplinary work of the Schuylkill River & Urban Water Research Corps at an ecotopian conference presented by the Penn Program for Environmental Humanities.
These experiences, coupled with my interest in place- and site-based dance research, have inspired me to examine more closely my relationship to the land and land histories of my home city of Philadelphia. The river in particular calls to me. As a movement improviser I have a special affinity with water combining the material fact of my body as mostly water with the kinesthetic and spiritual connotations water has for me. Water is life, and when I connect with this principle deeply I feel a kinship with the communities of life who, like me, are dependent on access to safe, clean water for their survival. In Philadelphia, the Schuylkill River is a source of life for vast numbers of humans and our nonhuman relatives, flowing through and nourishing our bodies just as it flows through and nourishes the land.
The project’s structure is simple. Over the summer of 2018 I am biking the entire length of the river, from its mouth near Fort Mifflin, to its source in the mountains near Pottsville, PA. I am riding along the Schuylkill River Trail, a dedicated path for bikers, joggers, hikers, etc. which, though far from complete, will eventually connect Philadelphia to Pottsville, a hundred miles away. I’m traveling in stages, documenting life along the river through photographs, video, field notes, and audio recordings, many of which appear on this site. My aim through this process is to develop and share a sense, however incomplete, of the river and its stories. This website is a curated collection of images, sounds, narrative and links to resources that offer glimpses of river life and, I hope, excite interest in building relationships among diverse communities of life linked to each other through a shared connection to the river.
