After Water

Chicago poet, playwright and educator Kristiana Colon is an ensemble member of Teatro Luna, the all-Latina theater company in Chicago. Show Me the Well is her radio play for After Water, a fusion of science, art and journalism that asks writers to imagine a world 100 years in the future, when clean water is a dominant social issue. This play is right in line with Colon’s vision of art as a tool to ‘reinvigorate the learning experience, build social awareness and provoke critical analysis of the world in which we live.”

Roxane Gay lives and writes in the Midwest. She is the author of “Ayiti,” “An Untamed State,” and “Bad Feminist,” a New York Times bestseller. “The Way of the River” is Gay’s contribution to After Water, a WBEZ Chicago flash fiction project that invites writers to examine the impact of climate change on future generations around the Great Lakes. In this story, a wife and mother pushes against despair and thirst to keep her humanity, and her family together.

"Water Men" by Tim Akimoff is the story of a political struggle over water in the Great Lakes region. A father tells his child about how the Great Lakes have shaped their family for generations before the world they know is changed forever.

Hear author Tim Akimoff talk about how he thinks fiction can be a tool for understanding the news and why a Great Lakes secession movement might not be as crazy as it sounds.

(Photo courtesy of Tim Akimoff)

What happens 100 years from now when, if climate change has brought us to a point where water has become one of our scarcest resources, and more precious than oil or gold? We've asked fiction writers to imagine the Great Lakes region a century or more on, and help us paint an audio portrait of that world.

"Water Men" by Tim Akimoff is the story of a political struggle over water in the Great Lakes region. A father tells his child of the generations that have come before them before the world they know is changed forever.

In "Straws," the Great Lakes are being siphoned away by greedy private interests. A group of eco-terrorists hatch a plan to return the water to the places slowly dying of thirst.

Author Rebecca Adams Wright tells us about the current legal battles over Great Lakes water that served as inspiration for her story and how she balances fantastic and realistic futures in her science fiction.

(Photo courtesy of Rebecca Adams Wright)

What happens 100 years from now when, if climate change has brought us to a point where water has become one of our scarcest resources, and more precious than oil or gold? We've asked fiction writers to imagine the Great Lakes region a century or more on, and help us paint an audio portrait of that world.

In Rebecca Adams Wright's short story, "Straws," we find a Great Lakes slowly being siphoned away by private interests. A group of eco-terrorists hatch a plot to bring the water back to the towns and ecosystems slowly dying of thirst.

(Flickr/kenmainr)

In his story "The Last Cribkeeper," Peter Orner introduces us to Harry Osgood--the last man to work on Chicago's water cribs. Harry spends his days walking along the shores of Lake Michigan, peering out at the water that has shaped the city's identity and his own.

Author Peter Orner sat down with WBEZ's Shannon Heffernan to talk about his lifelong obsession with those tiny houses off Chicago's shores and his homesickness for the blue of Lake Michigan.

(Flickr/Steve Rhodes)

What happens 100 years from now when, if climate change has brought us to a point where water has become one of our scarcest resources, and more precious than oil or gold? We've asked fiction writers to imagine the Great Lakes region a century or more on, and help us paint an audio portrait of that world.

In "The Last Cribkeeper" by Peter Orner, we meet Harry Osgood as he walks along the shores of Lake Michigan. For years, he served as the guard for one of the water intake cribs miles from Chicago's shores. Now an old man, Harry looks out over the lake and reflects on how it has shaped the city's identity and his own.

(Flickr/josh s jackson)

In "The Floating City of New Chicago," we see a Chicago divided by class...and water. The wealthy have fled the city for a secret island on Lake Michigan. The "wet-collar" workers have been left behind to do the city's dirtiest jobs.

Author Tricia Bobeda drew on a combination of scientific research and pop culture to craft her story about a future Chicago. Hear her talk about the inspirations for her story, including real life invisibility cloaks and an episode of "30 Rock."

You can listen to Tricia's story "The Floating City of New Chicago" on our Soundcloud, at our website wbez.org, and at afterwater.tumblr.com.

(Photo courtesy of Tricia Bobeda)

What happens 100 years from now when, if climate change has brought us to a point where water has become one of our scarcest resources, and more precious than oil or gold? We've asked fiction writers to imagine the Great Lakes region a century or more on, and help us paint an audio portrait of that world.

In her story, "The Floating City of New Chicago," Tricia Bobeda takes us to a Chicago divided by class...and water. Wealthy people have fled the city for a secret island in Lake Michigan, while "wet-collar" workers are forced to stay behind to do the city's dirtiest jobs.

(Photo by Tricia Bobeda)