Project
The story behind the stories—the vision, the craft, the journey of making this project what it is. A look at how art, history, and adventure intertwine.
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Rebooting the River
Unveiling our completely rebuilt website—a fresh digital home for river stories, oral histories, and shantyboat adventures. It’s faster, cleaner, and born from countless hours of deep work. Witness the transformation as you explore interactive interviews, videos, and maps that bring decades of river life to light. Dive in at peoplesriverhistory.org. Join us on this incredible…
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A Word About Process
A word about process. And an exploration of the dérive, the Situationist practice of an unplanned journey through an urban landscape, where wanderers abandon their preconceptions and “let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there”
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Join our Spring Fundraiser!
We are trying to raise $8000 by Saturday May 26 to collect forgotten stories along the Hudson River, and stage a major exhibition in New York City. Your support is critical.
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The Producer’s Journal: Catching up
A note about the Producer’s Journals: They make either super awesome insider geek info or the most boring blog ever, depending on your inclination. Your mileage may vary. So if you are the type of person who watches the Making Of segment after the main feature on the DVD, read on… I was getting stern…
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The Producers Journal: A Week of Amnesia and Delirium
It was a strange week of going through the motions with a strange kind of stoner consciousness. A delirium possibly due to just pure information overload.
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Secret History Shantyboat Exhibiting in November
At two art exhibits in November, the shantyboat will be on display, with the Secret History archive and library on exhibit within.
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How You Can Help
We’re scrambling to get the trip together by July, including making research connections at organizations and universities near the river. Outfitting the Shantyboat Rooted in the DIY and art worlds, by any real world standards, the Secret History project has a humble budget. However, we expect the project to require upwards of $10 thousand. Still looming are…
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Indebtedness
In no particular order, here is an ever-growing list of those who’ve helped make the project possible: Kai Dalgleish – First Mate on the Secret History Expedition for tremendous effort over two years to ready the shantyboat for the journey, for problem-solving acumen, and a can-do attitude. Dorothy and Lawrence Manzo – who generously offered…
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Time is an Enormous, Long River
Time is an enormous, long river, and I’m standing in it, just as you’re standing in it. My elders are the tributaries, and everything they thought and every struggle they went through and everything they gave their lives to, and every song they created, and every poem that they laid down flows down to me…
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A People’s River History
Secret History seeks to examine both the historical context of lost river communities and the forces that displaced them. The project looks at the economic and social situation of still-existing river communities that have been largely abandoned by their populations.
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History
There is a long forgotten history in America of people living in homemade shantyboats, a reasonable and cost-free solution for displaced people in rural areas and workers in urban areas.
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The Forgotten River
The river. The forgotten waterways that flow through most towns, often culverted, hidden behind levees, shoved underground or behind the grubbiest neighborhood.
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A Secret History of American River People
Secret History is an ongoing research effort to discover, present, and connect the lost narratives of working class river communities from the deck of a recreated shantyboat that serves as both the vehicle for this journey and the project library and archive.
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Invisible Stories
While much has been written about the immigrant experience in rural America, the first hand stories of women, native people, and people of color is much less accessible. These invisible stories, form a critical piece of our shared histories.
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The Project
Secret History is a on-gong research effort to discover and present the lost narratives of river people and river communities from the deck of a recreated shantyboat that servers a the project library and archive.
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Beginnings
In 2005, I set out on a punk rafting journey, driving cross-country to Omaha, Nebraska, building a raft out of found and scavenged materials and floating for a week, Huck Finn-style, on one of the largest fastest rivers on the continent.