Week One | Itasca to Grand Rapids: Relay of Voices revisits the first 150 miles
1pm, Thursday, July 9, 2020
Itasca, University of Minnesota Biological Field Station, Bemidji, Cass Lake, Bena, Deer River, Grand Rapids
LANDSCAPE | Beginning and End
A small meandering stream in northern Minnesota becomes a powerful turbulent river as it reaches the Gulf, yet the river begins and ends in forested and watery landscapes that share more commonalities than you would expect.
COMMUNITY | Paddlers
From afternoon excursions to full river journeys, kayakers and canoeists explore the river from headwaters to gulf.
VOICE | Mel Losh
Bead- and quillwork artist of the Ojibwe people located in Bena, Minnesota. Voice originally heard on the afternoon of July 13, 2019.
Click here for original Week One blog posts.
The first Relay Zoom Reunion went off well yesterday afternoon, the official one year anniversary of Relay’s launch at Itasca last year. We were virtually joined by good friends Brady Laudon of Bemidji, Sally Fineday of Cass Lake and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Sandy Bromenschenkel of the Deer River area, and Jonathan Schilling of the U of M Biological Field Station right there at Lake Itasca.
While things didn’t go quite as planned, we improvised and adjusted to make things work with technical glitches and the schedules of our participants. All in all, we got to share so many things and hear back so much we had been longing to hear. We remembered—after signing off—how important listening is, and how the concept of home, the place of home is so central to the folks we spoke to this July 9 and the July 9 from a year ago.
These relationships continue to teach us so much.