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Krista Schlyer: River of Redemption

  • Solid State Books 600 H Street Northeast Washington, DC, 20002 United States (map)

Join us in welcoming Krista Schlyer discussing her book River of Redemption: Almanac of Life on the Anacostia

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Blending stunning photography with informative and poignant text, River of Redemption offers the opportunity to reinvent our role in urban ecology and to redeem our relationship with this national river and watersheds nationwide.

This amazing title is the culmination of seven years of photography and research. Krista Schlyer portrays life along the Anacostia River, a Washington, DC, waterway rich in history and biodiversity that has nonetheless lingered for years in obscurity and neglect in our nation’s capital.

River of Redemption offers an experience of the river that reveals its eons of natural history, centuries of destruction, and decades of restoration efforts. The story of the Anacostia echoes the story of rivers across America.

Inspired by Aldo Leopold’s classic book, A Sand County Almanac, Krista Schlyer evokes a consciousness of time and place, taking readers through the seasons in the watershed as well as through the river’s complex history and ecology.

As with rivers nationwide, the ways we’ve changed the Anacostia affect the people and wildlife that inhabit its shores, from the headwaters in Maryland, past its confluence with the Potomac River, and ultimately to the Chesapeake Bay. Centuries of abuse at the hands of people who have altered the landscape and mistreated the waterway have transformed it into a polluted, toxic soup unfit for swimming or fishing.

The forgotten river is both a reminder of the worst humanity can do to the natural landscape and a wellspring of memory that offers a roadmap back to health and well-being for watershed residents, human and non-human alike.

This event is free and open for all to attend! Please RSVP on our EventBrite page here

Earlier Event: October 17
Elizabeth Hand: Curious Toys
Later Event: October 19
Sci Fi Book Club: Lovecraft Country