Week Eight | St. Charles, MO to Chester, IL: the next 130 miles
1pm, Thursday, September 3, 2019
St. Charles, St. Louis, East St. Louis, Prairie du Rocher, Ste. Genevieve, Chester
LANDSCAPE | Home
The river is home to many people, but depending your latitude and longitude, that home may look and feel very different. From the Northwoods of Minnesota to the marshland of Louisiana to on the water itself, home is inextricably tied to the landscape of the river.
COMMUNITY | Neighborhoods
Home is sometimes a house, but oftentimes it’s a neighborhood—a network of people and places that become a family, an identity, a place to come home to.
VOICE | Eugene Redmond
Poet Laureate for East St. Louis and behind the scenes tour guide. Voice gathered on the afternoon and into the late night of September 2, 2019 in East St. Louis, IL.
VOICE | Jerry Melliere
Local woodworker and village-advocate. Voice encountered on the evening of September 12, 2019 over drinks at Lisa’s Grill in Prairie du Rocher, IL.
VOICE | Viv Zobel
Parks Commission member, mother of two, and avid fisherman. Voice gathered throughout the day and all over town on Saturday, September 7, 2019 in Chester, IL.
Click here to read original WEEK EIGHT blog posts.
What a diverse coming together this week—from Reginald Petty and Edna Patterson-Petty in East St. Lous down to Toby Carrig in Ste. Genevieve… This week represented the mid-point of the Relay journey down the Mississippi and captures a unique cross section of our country. As we worked our way through concepts of Home and Neighborhood, the voices gathered came together in realization that our diversity is not only an imperative but also an asset. If we listen to each other we can find connectivity despite and because of difference. We can learn from each other’s lives and the variations and extremes held there.
I do apologize that the recording posted below is a bit truncated, as I reached my upload limit on Vimeo and had to cut a bit at the beginning and at the end. I think the thrust of things is intact, however. And take a minute to view the three voices from this rich segment of the river this week—very much each their own, and even inviting in a bit of humor to the project! I am beginning to find, as I sift through these recordings, so many samples of a voice that I want to perform. It is hard to choose just one. However, for the archive to proceed, I must start somewhere. I hope I have chosen well. Let us know what you think, and enjoy.