Programming
In the exhibition I co-organized Make the River Present, contributors explored creative engagement with the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Although St. Louis is physically bordered by these rivers—the two longest in the US which come together at the confluence a few miles north of downtown—their presence is often obscured by industrialization, urban planning, and erasure of Indigenous culture.
On June 14, 2025, I organized a Black Heritage Water Trail River Excursion in partnership with the Washington University in St. Louis's Black Heritage Water Trail and Riverboats at the Gateway Arch to activate African American histories along the Mississippi riverfront. A free excursion on a traditional paddle-wheel riverboat was led by artists and historians Dail Chambers, Dr. Treasure Shields Redmond, and Geoff K. Ward along with Captain Kevin East.
This cruise engaged with complex histories of the region’s waterways, centering stories of creative resistance and repair. Contributors shared stories of Black experiences from the 18th century to today, including key stops to observe important historical sites. Topics included ecological concerns, cultural erasure, civil and human rights, and educational justice. At the conclusion of the cruise, guests processed to The Old Courthouse (the site of the Dred Scott Case) for a conversation that invited participants to more deeply connect and create communal forms of cultural memory.
About the Contributors
Dail Chambers embodies sustainable living through visual and conceptual art making. Her community art/agricultural studio space and public health support campaigns are rooted in storytelling and inspired by Harriet Tubman, Ella Baker, Ntozake Shange and many rematriating contemporary artists. Chambers uses an inquiry-based engagement model as a land steward. Her social and public art practice is focused on public health, the environment, and collective memory. She keeps an archive practice, found object exploration, and ecological/food production that is honoring migration, culture and folklore. Chambers has created preventative healthcare support for resilient urban environments. She is a fine artist, mother, caregiver, scholar, educator, and neighbor across our shared landscape, with a high emphasis on healing practice and ancestral veneration. She is also a seedkeeper, waterkeeper, and personal items appraiser.
A dual citizen of Meridian, Mississippi and East St. Louis, Illinois, Dr. Treasure Shields Redmond is a poet, novelist, educator, community arts organizer, and culture keeper. She is the author of chop: a collection of kwansabas for fannie lou hamer. Dr. Treasure is the co-founder of Fannie Lou Hamer House, a migratory artist residency, and is the founder of The Community Archive, a non profit where she teaches communities how to collect their elders’ oral histories. Dr. Treasure currently serves as a Chancellor’s postdoctoral fellow in poetry and African American Literature at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
Geoff Ward is Professor of African and African-American Studies and Director, WashU & Slavery Project at Washington University in St. Louis. His scholarship examines histories of racist violence, their legacies, and implications for repair.
The Black Heritage Water Trail of St. Louis explores and commemorates African American community stories through the rivers of greater St. Louis. Through remembrance and preservation of these connections we engage the natural and social world, including the arts, issues of migration, environmental justice, the wakes of slavery and colonialism, and stories of community resistance, resilience, place-making, and well-being. This resource is an initiative of the WashU & Slavery Project.