Process and Progress: The Bronx River was produced in a partnership between Meta Local Collaborative & the Bronx River Alliance. It included an exhibition and a series of public programs focusing on the past, the present, and the future of the Bronx River. Meta Local installed at the Bronx River Art Center, a large timeline with a selection of images, videos, ephemera from the archives of the Bronx River Alliance. The images traced changes to the spaces along the river revisited past restoration and recreation plans, and considered the river’s present state and plans for its future.
Further, Meta Local organized a series of free public programs, panel discussions with local activists, advocates, educators, environmentalists, and architects, as well as a literature reading and a documentary screening. “Take me to the River” connected the Bronx River’s past and future histories, with conversations and presentations from Morgan Powell, Editor, Bronx River Sankofa, Anthony Thomas the Environmental Justice Coordinator from Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, Amanda Schachter and Alexander Levi, SLO Architecture. “Wade in the Water“ examined efforts to improve diverse Bronx waterfronts, with Damian Griffin the Bronx River Alliance’s Education Director, Kellie Terry-Sepulveda Executive Director of The POINT CDC, Chauncy Young, Community Organizer from the Harlem River Working Group, and Mychal Johnson from South Bronx Unite. “Underwater New York: The Bronx River,” Underwater New York (UNY) is a journal of writing, art, and music inspired by real-life objects found in the waterways of NYC, UNY invited three Bronx writers to write original fiction or poetry around surprising once-submerged Bronx River finds like a piano, a human skull, a horse trailer and more. Featuring: Allison Amend, Rich Villar, Carolyn Ferrell.
Hatuey Ramos Fermín 