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Watershed
Environmental Poetry Festival What does it
take to restore a watershed? A
community with imagination and
commitment to a vision. For seven
years the Watershed Environmental
Poetry Festival has inspired us
to work toward a healthier
planet. Since 1998, this unique
gathering of poets, nature
writers and environmental
activists has challenged us to
pay attention to Strawberry
Creek, which is tunneled beneath
most of Berkeley. On September
7, 2002, the event started with a
trek through downtown via the
future route of a daylighted
Strawberry Creek. Lead by Janet
Byron (Friends of Strawberry
Creek), the morning began on the
UC campus where the stream flows
open. Malcolm Margolin (Heyday
Books and Bay Nature)
provided a perspective on the
natural history of the creek.
Interpretive dancer Patricia
Bulitt offered a meditative
performance on listening to
nature. Robert Hass, the founder
of Watershed, talked about the
daylighting the creek as a way to
reconnect to the earth. Further
along, down Center Street at Bank
of America Plaza, Sylvia
McLaughlin (Eco City Builders)
spoke on the Heart of the City
Project, Sarah Tamblyn (Wolfe
Mason Associates) discussed the
next steps of the downtown
daylighting project, and Kirk
Lumpkin (Ecology Center) read
Denise Levertov's moving poem on
daylighting, "Salvation." The
walk then took a detour through
the Addison Street Arts District
to the Berkeley Rep, where Robert
Hass and Adam David Miller
(Berkeley Arts Commission) read
poems that will soon be placed in
the Berkeley Poetry Walk (a
component of the Addison Street
Sidewalk Art). This "river of
words" will display a variety of
poems that celebrate the natural
history and multicultural setting
of the Bay Area and the City of
Berkeley. Finally, the procession
of over one hundred celebrants
reached Civic Center Park where
speeches in support of the
daylighting the Creek were given
by Mayor Shirley Dean and former
State Assembly Member Tom
Bates. At noon, the
festival began with an invocation
by poet David Shaddock, who
compared the symbolism of Rosh
Hashanah to Watershed, tied
together by the softly amplified
sound of Strawberry Creek running
under the park. Throughout the
afternoon poets and musicians
celebrated nature and
environmental activists provided
keen insights on issues that
effect us both locally and
globally. Eco City Builders
presented Sylvia McLaughlin,
Janet Byron, Neal Fishman
(Coastal Conservancy) and Ann
Riley (San Francisco Regional
Water Quality Control Board). The
Ecology Center presented Drew
Dellinger (Poets for Global
Justice) and Joy Moore (Farm
Fresh Choice). Guest speaker
Jarid Manos (Great Plains
Restoration Council) spoke on the
Buffalo Commons Project on the
Great Plains. The poetic
contribution was truly inspired.
Chis Olander hosted a series of
group poetry readings entitled,
"Stewards of the Earth."
Contributors included Maria
Melendez, Duane Big Eagle, Kirk
Lumpkin, Jean Stewart, Theka
Clemons, Susan Wooldridge, Arthur
Dawson, and Russell Gonzaga.
Besides Robert Hass, the program
featured Mexico's most important
living poet and environmental
activist Homero Aridjis, poet and
Native American writer Linda
Hogan, novelist and naturalist
Brenda Peterson, poet Michael
McClure with flutist Larry
Kassin, poets Jerome Rothenberg,
Patti Trimble with guitarist Bill
Horvitz. The program concluded
with Homero Aridjis reading in
Spanish his poem "The Poet in
Danger of Extinction/El poeta en
peligro de extinción" with
Robert Hass, Michael McClure, and
Jerome Rothenberg providing the
English translation---Watershed's
four tenors. The festival
also included River Village, an
exhibit area for grass-roots
environmental and arts
organizations. The Ecology Center
Bookstore sold books by the
presenters and provided a table
for author signings. To engage
the community, interactive
activities were set up. They
included "Down to Earth: The
Texture of Words" poetry rubbing
panels by Poetry Flash and
"Daylight the Creek!" creek
simulation of recycled and
natural materials by Carolyn Nohr
of the Ecology Center. The Watershed
project is the inspiration of
former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert
Hass, who along with Poetry
Flash magazine started this
annual celebration in 1996.
Currently, Eco City Builders and
the Ecology Center/Berkeley
Farmers' Market provide
additional organizational support
for the project. The goal of
Watershed is to reestablish our
connection to place by teaching
us to pay attention to the
natural world through art and
poetry, giving us the Eyes to
See Otherwise/Ojos de otro
mira, as in the title Homero
Aridjis gave his most recent
poetry collection. Saturday,
September 7, 2002
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Noon to 5:00 pm
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Free featuring River Totem
Readings
with Student
Poets
from We Are
Nature Open Poetry Reading
Strawberry
Creek Walk and Environmental
Updates River
Village Book Signing
by Featured Readers All presented
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