Project Flow at the Water Works: Did I love them? Oh yes, I loved them. But more on all that soon.

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Upcoming FLOW events, and a chance to win a copy of the new paperback

Yesterday the Temple University Press fall catalog arrived and Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River, now released as a paperback all these years after it first appeared in hardback form, is featured among the pages.

Later this year, on July 15th, I'll be with my dear friends at the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center, leading a river-oriented writing workshop. On September 29, I'll be joining Stephen Fried and Neal Bascomb at the Pennsylvania Library Convention, for a nonfiction panel; Flow will be part of that story. On October 14 and 16,  I'll be giving two keynote addresses in honor of the Schuylkill's place as 2014 River of the Year, at Montgomery County Community College and Trinity Urban Life Center, thanks to my friends at Schuylkill River Heritage Area. Next year, in April, I'll be traveling to Washington DC, to meet the 7th and 8th graders of St. Albans Lower School, where Flow is the required summer read, and, later, to Pentagon City, VA, to conduct a writing workshop (Flow and Handling the Truth inspired) for New Directions in Writing (more here). Other events are in the making.

In celebration of this paperback dream fulfilled, I would like to extend an invitation to you. Write, in the comment box here, a favorite memory of a river—any river, any state. Your comment doesn't have to be long. It just has to mean something. Three of you who comment here (and who live in the United States) will win a paperback copy of Flow. The contest ends June 27th.

The Temple University catalog page, in full:

Flow: 

The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River

Beth Kephart

Listen to a podcast, of Beth Kephart's keynote address at the Bank Street College of Education, 9 November 2013.

"Beth Kephart's Flow is just a sumptuous book — haunting, poetic, lit up with gems of beauty and history. We engorge ourselves on materialism. The legacy of our generation will be our consumerism. But Flow and its exquisite evocation of the Schuylkill River reminds us that nature still trumps everything. Which makes the book all the more beautiful and all the more rare."
—Buzz Bissinger, author of A Prayer for the City and Friday Night Lights

The Schuylkill River — the name in Dutch means "hidden creek" — courses many miles, turning through Philadelphia before it yields to the Delaware. "I am this wide. I am this deep. A tad voluptuous, but only in places," writes Beth Kephart, capturing the voice of this natural resource in Flow.

An award-winning author, Kephart's elegant, impressionistic story of the Schuylkill navigates the beating heart of this magnificent water source. Readers are invited to flow through time-from the colonial era and Ben Franklin's death through episodes of Yellow Fever and the Winter of 1872, when the river froze over-to the present day. Readers will feel the silt of the Schuylkill's banks, swim with its perch and catfish, and cruise-or scull-downstream, from Reading to Valley Forge to the Water Works outside center city.

Flow's lush narrative is peppered with lovely, black and white photographs and illustrations depicting the river's history, its people, and its gorgeous vistas. Written with wisdom and with awe for one of the oldest friends of all Philadelphians, Flow is a perfect book for reading while the ice melts, and for slipping in your bag for your own visit to the Schuylkill.

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Reviews

"Only a poet and writer of Beth Kephart's lyric talent could give us a voice worthy of the great Schuylkill River. We have waited eons to hear the story she (and the river is a 'she') tells us, and Flow is worth the wait: Here is a song enriched with falling leaves and ascending souls; a poem composed of time and wind, fish and flotsam; and a riveting narrative of some of America's greatest heroes as well as some of our history's worst mistakes. Flow is seductive, thrilling, irresistible, life-changing. You cannot help but be swept away."
—Sy Montgomery, author of The Journey of the Pink Dolphins and The Good, Good Pig
"Kephart...provides an intimate meditation on the Schuylkill’s story."
—Philadelphia Style
"In this autobiographical treatment, Kephart uses short lyrical essays and black-and-white photographs to let the Schuylkill River recount its life, it’s origin in creation and geography, its place in history, the famous personalities who graced its shores and crossed its water and its place in the hearts of Philadelphians who rely on it for water, recreation and solace."
—The Patriot-News
"Flow is a poetic meditation on the Schuylkill River’s place in Philadelphia’s history, transporting you back in time."
—Filmbill
"In her new book, Devon’s Beth Kephart poeticizes Philadelphia through the keen observations of its eldest resident, the Schuylkill River, which has long served as the city’s source of water, power, industry, and beauty. Flow adapts the river’s motion, winding past local events and retelling them with an imaginative and poignant voice."
—Main Line Today
"Kephart's well-researched essays provide historical nuance...a prescient contemporary account of the city's history. But it is the narrative poetry, in the taut female voice of the river, which makes this a book to descend into, slowly, with all senses at the ready....Kephart is a master not only of descriptive memory, but of constructing an existential vocabulary."
—The Philadelphia City Paper
"[I]t goes proudly on your coffee table to advertise your intelligent indie reading."
—aroundphilly.com
"I’ll see the Schuylkill differently on my ride home tonight, and maybe it’ll be a closer friend now."
—UWISHUNU
"From the first footsteps of Native Americans, to wars, progress, industrialization, and beyond, the river serves up commentary with a mix of plain-spoken facts, dramatic embellishments and historical illustrations. The result is an engrossing and unusual take on the area."
—Arrive
"An admirer transforms her glimpses of the life of the Schuylkill — once wild then pressed into human service, and now rediscovered for its remnant beauty— into spare prose that is often moving, whether or not you live in Philly."
—Orion
"In this autobiographical treatment, Kephart uses short lyrical essays and black-and-white photographs to let the Schuylkill River recount its life, its origin in creation and geography, it’s place in history, the famous personalities who graced its shores and crossed its water and its place in the hearts of Philadelphians who rely on it for water, recreation and solace."
—The Patriot-News
"I can’t imagine a more beautiful book about a river than Flow."
—University City Review
“Kephart gives the Schuylkill a voice, a memory, a melancholic sensibility. She has given us a finely-tuned and moving work of art, an exquisite book of loss and wanting. In 76 narrative poems and nearly as many short historical essays, Kephart returns the ‘hidden river’ to its place in our hearts.”
—Context
"What a gem!... I could not have asked for a more beautifully written, poetic and personal story of the Schuylkill River.... You may want to read this during the summer, when you can relax and absorb its powerful tale."
—St. Albans Lower School blog

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Paperback release/FLOW: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River

Today, Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River, a book Temple University Press first released in 2007, arrives as an affordable ($14.95) paperback.

People often ask me what my favorite book is, and I refuse to imagine an answer; each book has, in its own way, spurred me, slayed me, invigorated me, quietly pleased me. I have fought and rooted for each one, and, believe me, I still do.

But Flow is one of those books that I really fought for—this retelling of a river's voice in her own words that I submitted to various presses without a positive response until finally I struck up a conversation with Micah Kleit at Temple University Press. When I called Micah several months after my submission certain that he, too, would pass, he corrected me. "We're not precisely sure what this book is, or how we will categorize it," he said. "But we're definitely going to do it."

And Temple did. Adam Levine, a beloved city archivist, helped me locate images of the river over time. Gary Kramer, Temple publicist, made sure that the book got noticed, and soon, also with the help of Marketing Director Ann-Marie Anderson, I found the book in the pages of most area publications, found myself in standing-room-only readings at the Free Library and the Water Works (among other places), and found myself engaged in an important dialogue about Philadelphia and its past and present.

A conversation I'm still having.

Flow is a book about hope and redemption, a book in which I imagined myself as a river, which is to say a woman caught in perpetual middle age, a woman once spectacular then sullied and abused, a woman finally on the verge of hope as visionaries worked to undo many centuries worth of environmental damage, a woman at long last in love. It is a book that emerged, in part, from conversations with city lights like Jerry Sweeney, CEO of Brandywine Realty Trust, who, along with Joseph Syrnick and others, engineered the enormously successful Schuylkill Banks.

Today, all these years later, Flow is the book that (and I am so grateful) many memoirists mention when researching the possibilities of the first-person voice. It is being adopted by middle schools as part of combined literature/environmental science programs (I will, for example, be visiting St. Albans Lower School next spring, on the campus of the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, where the book is the required 7th grade read). Thanks to Karen Young, it has become integral to the programming of the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center. And thanks to Kurt Zwikl and Laura Catalano of the Schuylkill River Heritage Area, Flow will be part of two keynote talks I'll give in the fall (at Montgomery County Community College and at Trinity Urban Life Center), as the city celebrates the Schuylkill as the Pennsylvania River of the Year.

Flow begins like this:

Rising

From within the fissure I rise, old as anything.

The gravel beneath me slides. Blueback herring and eel, alewife and shad muscle into my wide blue heart, and through. The smudged face of a wolf pools on my surface, and for that one instant I go blind.......

And when it was first released, some very kind people wrote these words about it:

“Kephart’s Flow is just a sumptuous book—haunting, poetic, lit up with gems of beauty and history.”— Buzz Bissinger

“Flow is seductive, thrilling, irresistible, life-changing. You cannot help but be swept away.” — Sy Montgomery

"Kephart is a master not only of descriptive memory, but of constructing an existential vocabulary. Thus the river is born, becomes aware, is besieged, comes to terms with abuse, half-wishes to be abandoned, and nearly loses hope." —Nathaniel Popkin, City Paper 

“Most autobiographies are a shameful, voyeuristic addiction of the public (thanks Paris, Monica L. and Jenna). But when a river—yes, a free flowing watercourse—releases an autobiography, it goes proudly on your coffee table to advertise your intelligent indie reading. Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River is chock full of memories and moments from the river's lifetime. Okay, so it was penned by Beth Kephart, a regional writer whose résumé overflows with awards. But the powerful words and imaginative musings come directly from the rises of the river, with retellings from poignant events dating back to the colonial era.” — AroundPhilly.com

From the length (I apologize!) of this blog post, I'm sure you can tell: I am beyond delighted that Flow will now be available as an affordable paperback, as soon as it moves out of the warehouse into stores and online venues.

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Philadelphia in Pictures: Paine's Park, Boathouse Row, Water Works, Project Flow

I go nowhere without one of my cameras, and so, on Thursday, as I made my way to my morning of chilling with the teen writers of Project Flow, I stopped along the Schuylkill Banks and snapped a few shots. They capture the heat and color of the day.

That's Paine's Park up there, the brand-new skateboard park that sort of blew me away with its size and sweep; that's the Philadelphia Art Museum in the background. My friend Mike rides the curves of this park every weekend morning. I could have sat and watched for hours.

And then the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center and then a sneaky shot of Cira Centre. Cira is a Cesar Pelli designed/Brandywine Realty Trust building that marked the start of University City's renaissance. It is also the brain child of Jerry Sweeney, a city visionary whose leadership along the Banks and within the gridded city is largely responsible for changing the way Philadelphians and friends experience the city. I'm proud to count Jerry as a friend.

Next a broader view of the Schuylkill and Boathouse Row.

Next the back face of the museum with its fields of flowers.

Finally a few of the young people I met while talking about rivers and words.

Come to Philadelphia.

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The river runs through us: the Schuylkill in today's Inquirer

Yesterday I promised a link to my Inquirer story about the Schuylkill River, Karen Young, and the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center.  This morning I'm happy to share that link, along with three additional Water Works photographs, here.

A happy Sunday to you all.

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Loving my river (a Philadelphia Inquirer story)

I have loved the Schuylkill River ever since I was a student at Penn with a bad case of wanderlust—walking the campus, walking beyond it, leaving and returning.  Several years ago I wrote one of my favorite books, Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River (Temple University Press), as both a prayer and a poem.  I wrote it to honor the countless many who have come together in recent years to make the river more whole. 

Among the river-loving friends I have made along the way is Karen Young. The story that appears in this weekend's Philadelphia Inquirer celebrates her achievements at the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center (FWWIC) and the future of Philadelphia, a city finally going green.

I'll post the link tomorrow (today is now tomorrow; here is the link).  I share the first two paragraphs below.  Great thanks to Avery Rome, the Inquirer Features editor who invited me and others (Karen Rile, Elizabeth Mosier, Lise Funderburg, Kelly McQuain) to think out loud in the Inquirer Currents section a few months ago.  We have loved every second of working with Avery and cheer her forward as she now moves on to new realms and dreams.

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Of the two rivers that carry Philadelphia’s dreams toward the sea, it is the Schuylkill that has always snagged a good chunk of my heart.  It feels personal to me—the Schuylkill’s roving through time, her baptisms and floods, her primeval sheen, her helpless submission to toxins and sludge, her muddy regrets and redemption.  The river rises and falls.  She floats us on her back and steeps.  She comes at us from the hills and carries on beyond us.  We know her, and we need her, and she is a mystery.

            When we ruin the Schuylkill we ruin ourselves.  We become, as we once were, a city with a stench, a city that festers.  We forfeit all three faces of time—the past, the present, the future.

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the sun was just right: last evening at the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center

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Envisioning the Future: The Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center Looks Forward

Next Friday evening, I'll be taking part in an event that thrills me—the jurying of a charrette designed to help shape the future of the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center.  Some nineteen storytellers—fine artists, museum designers, theatrical performers, lighting, media, and sound experts—are gathering from across the nation to participate in a conversation about this 200-year-old gem's future.  What are the continuing possibilities for a building through which the river literally runs?  How might new space be adapted to teach the thousands of people who tour the Water Works each year about where water goes, how watersheds work, and what happens when the built environment foils Nature's plans?  Who are the constituents for a treasure like this, and how might those numbers be expanded?

I've known Karen Young, the executive director of the Water Works, ever since my story of the Schuylkill, Flow, was published by Temple University Press.  I've heard, from her, about how her unique institution has gathered momentum, reaching out to more than 2,000 school children this past summer alone, and 40,000 visitors annually.  I know how dedicated she is to the life of this city, and how much vision lives within her two very lovely eyes.  This will be, in short, a terrific event.

Among those who have been invited to the charrette are designers and thinkers who have participated in the shaping of the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Franklin Institute, the Mutter Museum, the Children's Museum of Manhattan, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian, Monticello, the University of Pennsylvania, Longwood Gardens, the Smithsonian African American Museum of History and Culture, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the Canadian Children's Museum, the Chemical Heritage Foundation, and Hidden City Philadelphia. 

I'm lucky to be joining the grand jury that will meet at the day's end.

Look for more on this event—here and elsewhere—soon.

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