Backward River Festival Supported by UIC Presidential Initiative grant

The UIC Freshwater Lab is planning The Backward River Festival, a two day outdoor event where the Sanitary and Ship Canal meets Bubbly Creek at the Eleanor Street Boathouse on October 16–17th.
 
The Backward River Festival celebrates the efforts and achievements of environmental justice advocates and artists who live and/or work around the South Branch and Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. Primarily, it looks to foster joy and a sense of community following the challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic at a site dominated by industry for over one hundred and fifty years. Secondary goals include exchanging information and resources with community members and hearing from them about opportunities and challenges in neighborhoods along this body of water.

This event is supported by the UIC Presidential Initiative grant for "American Plumbing: The Canals, Rivers, and Communities that Bridge North and South – Illinois Rivers Project" for which Prof. Beate Geissler and Prof. Omur Harmansah are Principal Investigators.