HRI facilitates re-birth of infamous Gowanus Canal

 

By Kathy Urffer

 

At the end of May, Hackensack Riverkeeper was privileged to take part in a celebration of Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal in a unique presentation created by Brooklyn-based Red Dive, an award-winning artist’s collective.  The production was called “Peripheral City: Rediscovering the Gowanus Canal,” and involved local video, sound and performance artists who created an episodic, multi-sensory, public art event to bring attention to the history and possibilities of the forlorn Canal.

Performances were staged at the end of dead-end streets; soulful songs arose from a lone trumpeter; dancers created works on bridges and on industrial properties adjacent to the canal—and all of which were viewed from Hackensack Riverkeeper’s 27-foot pontoon boat Edward Abbey, which functioned as an audience platform and alternate universe for approximately 320 brave explorers.  Each sequence of performances lasted about 45 minutes and included a sound-scape of interviews with neighbors commenting on their feelings, memories and perceptions of the canal.  All of the performances took place over the course of two very rainy weekends, which in the end seemed most appropriate for the Canal’s plight.

Performance artists use sight, sound and dance to project the life of the Canal onto the audience. Above, Rafael Sanchez is Miss Gowanus.

Jill Seligman's interpretive gangster dance on a fence

Our involvement with this project started more than two years ago when members of Red Dive came on an Eco-Cruise in the Meadowlands.  The story of the Hackensack River’s rebirth convinced them that they would have no one other than Captain Bill for their captain.  The Riverkeeper and I were included in the performance event. Capt. Bill had an integral part to play during the performance, both as boat captain and as narrator of stories to the audience as to the possibilities of revitalization of this long forgotten and abused waterway.  I had to reach into my dark performance past to resurrect that aspect of my person when assisting passengers into and out of their personal flotation devices as part of the experience of the canal.

The Gowanus Canal is at the beginning of a long period of revitalization. The Army Corps of Engineers is in the process of studying the environmental damage and assessing the process of cleanup for the canal. Various groups have sprung up in the past few years to monitor the water quality and plan canoe and kayak excursions and more and more city residents are paddling the canal. Daily we found repeated violations of the Clean Water Act with blatant dumping of waste and run-off from industrial properties, that at this point, is no longer tolerated in the Hackensack. The surrounding community is beginning to see the vision of what the Gowanus Canal could become—a viable, clean, healthy waterway that functions as a recreational respite and open space in the middle of a densely populated city.

Artists are often the germination of the best we have in life. It was a pleasure to work with these visionaries from Brooklyn who are inspired enough to see what may be possible, and are willing to do the work to get the ball rolling in the right direction.

To visit the Gowanus Canal for yourself, contact the Gowanus Dredgers at www.waterfrontmuseum.org/dredgers/ or at 718-243-0849.