Explore what it looks like to fragment a forest, to drain a river, and to make a city unsafe for the humans that live there. Travel from the Black River to the West Duwamish Greenbelt, from Rainier Beach to Judkins Park, and ask, what would it take to press reset? Instead of a continued legacy of deforestation, displacement, and police brutality, what if Seattle tried something completely new?
Hear how the Duwamish River became a waterway and how the Black River became a stream. Learn from food sovereignty strategist Valerie Segrest about the role of the Duwamish River in the Muckleshoot creation story and how a Supreme Court decision renewed Tribal access to ancestral fishing sites, pressing reset on their economy.
Travel to the West Duwamish Greenbelt, where 500 acres were logged, mined for gravel, nearly turned into a highway, and finally restored to the largest contiguous forest in Seattle. Hear from Lylianna Allala, Climate Justice Director with the city of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment and Nancy Whitlock from the Nature Consortium about what it took to press reset, and to begin restoring a biodiverse forest.
March with 60,000 people from Judkins Park to Jefferson Park to declare police brutality a greater public health crisis than coronavirus. Hear from Jace ECAJ and Colleen Echohawk on what a resilient forest can teach us about keeping each other safe, and how we might press reset in this moment.
Listen to the premiere of Affliction, the new single from Glass Heart String Choir which was inspired by the West Duwamish Greenbelt and written for the Growing Old series.
