Jacob Camacho and Trinity Norwood discuss the creation of their story for the Kensington & Tacony Trail that imagines conversations with the Indigenous Lenni-Lenape people of the past, present, and future. This launch event will also include a performance by Ty Dancing Wolf Ellis whose music is present throughout this story. Moderated by FringeArts Artistic Producer Katy Dammers. 

Born and raised in Guåhan, Islan Marianas, Jacob is a Chamoru writer, educator, and activist. He received his Creative Writing MFA from Rutgers University, Camden. He is an alumni of The University of Guam and UCLA’s Extension Writers Program. Currently, he’s a Lead Teacher at All Things Are Possible Foundation in Willingboro, NJ and Lead Educator for the Move Mountains Project in San Luis, CO. He’s a former English Teacher at Philadelphia’s alternative high school, CADI, and NJ’s YMCA of Burlington & Camden Counties’ Academic Coach. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Stockton University, teaching Intro to Creative Writing and Spoken Word. His short story, “Proclamation,” appears in University of Guam’s Storyboard 18. “Half-Moon” is featured in Philadelphia’s MadHouse Magazine Volume 4. His poem, “Kao siña hao fumino’ Chamoru?,” is in University of Hawai’i Press’ Indigenous Literatures from Micronesia.

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donia salem harhoor and Kinan Abou-afach weave together poetry and music for an evening inspired by the Perkiomen Trail that considers care-giving, memory, grief, life in the SWANA (South West Asia & North Africa) diaspora, and roots of every kind. After the performance there will be a conversation between the artists.

donia salem harhoor (she/her) is an Egyptian-American bibliophile. Executive Director of The Outlet Dance Project, founder of the Duniya Collective, she is a principal dancer and choreographer with Sakshi Productions. In 2019, harhoor became Grounds For Sculpture’s inaugural Performing Artist in Residence. An alumna of Community of Writers, Open Mouth Poetry Retreat, Urban Bush Women’s Summer Leadership Institute, and Swim Pony’s Cross Pollination residency, she is a member of the Brown Girl in the Ring Collective. Her poetry has appeared in Anomaly, Ballet Review, and Sukoon magazines, the Written Here Poetry Review, and is forthcoming in an anthology of Arab love poems. An ardent believer in game nights, donia has an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Goddard College. donia can be found at doniasalemharhoor.com.

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afaq joins Justin Dennis from the New Jersey Conservation Foundation to talk about the development process for her story situated on the Cooper River Trail and the history of the site and surrounding area. Moderated by Swim Pony Founder and Artistic Director Adrienne Mackey.

afaq is a Philly-based daughter, with grandmother tendencies. Assembled in Yemen (from Sudanese parts) afaq considers herself a global citizen of her own country. This international award-winning poet, museum exhibiting photographer, activist, and educator seeks to love the world until it loves her back. She has collaborated with Netflix, PEN America, Beautycon Media, Poetry Out Loud, the Barnes Foundation, and several universities including NYU, Columbia, and UPenn. Continuously targeted and previously arrested for her activism, afaq uses her art, experiences, and the violence she has witnessed to combat injustice while spreading messages of empathy and change.

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Li Sumpter is joined by cast members Jaylene Clark Owens and Ursula Rucker in conversation about the making of Sumpter’s story Chronicles of Asylum for the Schuylkill River: Bartram’s Mile. Moderated by Len Webb, of The Micheaux Mission, this discussion will center Black stories, myths of apocalypse and Afrofuturism. 

Li Sumpter is a mythologist and multidisciplinary artist based in Philly. She employs strategies of world-building, D.I.Y. media, Afrofuturism and gameplay to cultivate eco-awareness and community action around the “art of survival.” Li’s artistic practice and collaborative design initiatives address existential threats to mind, body and spirit through speculative tools and sustainability projects that illuminate symbols and patterns of change. She was the 2017 Artist-in-Residence for Haverford College’s Urban Ecology Arts Exchange and the 2018-2019 Leeway x NextFab Art and Technology Artist-in-Residence. Li strongly believes hope and the power of myth are catalysts of personal and collective transformation.

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Erin T. McMillon joins sound designer Michael Kiley and voice actor Danielle Leneé to talk about the creation process and audio design for her urban horror story set along the Delaware Canal Towpath. Moderated by FringeArts Artistic Producer Katy Dammers.

Erin T. McMillon is an urban horror and suspense author, blogger and artist from Trenton, NJ. Her work has been viewed and purchased by readers and curators from around the world. She is the author of several books (What’s Hiding in the Dark?: 10 Tales of Urban Lore, They Eat: An Episodic Zombie Thriller, and The Abducted), with a forthcoming book, Simone. Erin can be found on Facebook and Instagram @TheLadyWrites82 and www.amazon.com/author/erinmcmillon.

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Carmen Maria Machado reads from her body of work and speaks about its considerations of folklore with Pennsylvania Environmental Council Program Manager Lizzie Hessek. 

Carmen Maria Machado’s debut short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize. Her essays, fiction, and criticism have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Granta, Harper’s Bazaar, Tin House, Vogue, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and The Millay Colony for the Arts. She is the Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania and lives in Philadelphia with her wife.

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A memorial video will be released to commemorate the late author Denise Valentine’s story crafted for the Tacony Creek Trail. 

Denise Valentine was a Master Storyteller, historical performer, consultant and the founder of the Philadelphia Middle Passage Ceremony & Port Marker Project. Denise was a storyteller of lost and found histories of the African Diaspora. Her signature Historytelling integrated archival research, folk heritage and oral history for performance and exhibition and demonstrated the role of expressive cultural arts in sustaining community. Denise presented worldwide for audiences of all ages at schools, libraries and museums. She worked as an educator for the Museum of the American Revolution. She also served as advisor to the curatorial team of the new Early American Art Galleries of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Eppchez! speaks with Bob Skiba (Curator of the John J. Wilcox Jr. Archives at the William Way LGBT Community Center) about queer history in Philadelphia, taking up some of the themes of Eppchez!’s story situated on the Delaware River Trail South. Moderated by FringeArts Artistic Producer Zach Blackwood. 

ari walks the Chester Valley Trail and via video narrates the process of crafting their immersive story that draws from their own queer Latinx experience and childhood spent near the trailsite. Pennsylvania Environmental Council Program Manager Lizzie Hessek will be in conversation with ari and provide additional context for viewers. 

ari is a spoken word poet and educator based in North Philly who began their career writing erotic fan fiction and large scale games of Dungeons and Dragons. Their work focuses on the intersectionality of queer identity, trauma, and the Latin experience as an outsider. ari is a member of the deadname collective and an alum of Babel collective. They have been featured in Bedfellows and Paperback and on the Philly poetry show, Drop The Mic. ari is currently looking to adopt a large cat whom they can name King Bastard.

Jacob Winterstein speaks about the Eastwick neighborhood of Philadelphia, known as “The Meadows.” The site of his story, this area was one of Philadelphia’s only harmoniously integrated neighborhoods before its destruction through government-directed development and “urban renewal.” Moderated by Swim Pony Founder and Artistic Director Adrienne Mackey. 

Jacob Winterstein is an artist, event producer and educator from Philadelphia. Through performance art, poetry and events, Jacob’s work explores how we have been separated from and how we can joyfully connect with each other and our environments. Jacob is the co-founder of The Philly Pigeon collective which organizes poetry slams, multi-media productions, workshops and artists retreats. Jacob is currently attempting a pilgrimage, bicycling down every block in Philadelphia.  Follow along on Instagram @everyblockinphilly.