Mid- River Field School: Crossings

What would it mean to rethink the St. Louis region not as a set of static places but as a set of crossings? - - As a bundle of historical, contemporary, real, imagined, and projected crossings that allows us to reframe the region through spatial practices of emancipation, displacement, erasure, silence, death, freedom, settlement, presence, voice, and life. How can the idea of “crossings” draw-out the many meanings of this place to reimagine the future? And how might this act of reframing provide new insights among those who forge ahead in protecting and uplifting the many meanings of this place? The Mid River Field School: Crossings is part of a regional, multi-nodal initiative called Mississippi River Open School for Kinship and Social Exchange. The project engages artists, designers, activists, and culture bearers who are connected to the Mississippi River valley. The community-designed process supports cultural institutions and their work “in the field.” The three-year process is led by Lynn Peemoeller (PI) and Jennifer Colten. It encompasses five community centered projects on either side of the Mississippi River in an emergent process that will materialize through gatherings, enactments and material offerings. A public forum is being organized in October 2023 on the topic of Crossings in which we will invite conversation with Academic Colleagues, those with lived experience and engage a creative response from those participating. Funded by the Mellon Foundation Humanities for all Times Initiative .