At Kingston’s O+ Festival on October 5-7, Emily Vail showed “Tracing the Tannery Brook” at the Ulster County Family Court parking lot (16 Lucas Avenue, Kingston). This interactive, family-friendly installation invited people to trace the stream channel on the asphalt parking lot where it used to run. The installation also celebrated the Tannery Brook’s history.
At this installation, over 60 participants literally traced the Tannery Brook by marking the stream’s path with chalk and chalk paint on the asphalt. People of all ages contributed to re-envisioning what this parking lot could look like, if a healthy stream ran through it. Seeing and hearing the Tannery Brook in its current state, and considering its past, allows us to better imagine its future.
Today, the Tannery Brook is buried in a pipe underneath the Ulster County Family Court parking lot, but it can still be seen and heard through several storm drain grates. At various points in history, this site has had orchards, pasture land, a skating pond, and massive floods.
Although it appears to have vanished without a trace, the Tannery Brook still makes its presence known across Uptown Kingston through flooding and damage to infrastructure.
The process of restoring a stream that had been buried is called “daylighting.” This allows a stream that was hidden in the shadows to see the light of day. Cultural daylighting includes marking the path and celebrating the history of a buried stream. By sharing its story, this work was a cultural daylighting of the Tannery Brook, and brought it out of the shadows – the theme for O+ 2018.
For more information about the O+ Festival, visit: https://opositivefestival.org/
