I was fortunate to be asked by my wife Carol to host the last stop on the River Houses walking tour last Saturday and see Mario Reynolds break out his raining Avanyu Snake that sound like a storm or a light trickle of precip.
Carlos Herrera, Mario Reynolds and poets including Ilan Shamir and the music played made this great kick-off event for the River Run Through Us leaders Bobbe Besold, Valerie Martinez and Dominique Maseaud (click here). My dad helped me set up a small PA and my sister and mom attended too.
Carlos showed and passed around a willow basket he has made and sold. I got to play guitar, drum and sing with some amazing artists.
How do we define home, particularly in our neighborhood and open spaces like the Santa Fe River, a corridor that connects us? This is what I think the River Run Through Us artists want us to look at and I’m grateful to them for starting this annual event during the spring runoff.
See the river flow over the crossvanes and willows and cottonwoods we planted thrive is a great scene and it leads me to push for even more effort to create a restoration ecology show case at Frenchies Field park and river open space. The Acequia Madre return flow comes back to the river here and it could be daylighted from under Frenchies Field, lifted in grade (elevation) and reconnected to the orchard terrace and pond to the east of the return ditch (desague).
