Debi Irons showcases water-like dance moves, backed by AI animations edited by Nikki Millonzi. Chaia Alford/Bethel Citizen

BETHEL — On Oct. 5, BAAM brought a multimedia presentation entitled “Dreaming Water” to the Gem theater. This program featured music and performances by local artists, all inspired by water. The program as a whole was put together by Connie St. Pierre, and Tourmaline media.

The presentation began with a poem read by Julia Butterfly Hill, an activist based in California. Before the event, as a protest against logging, she spent two years living in a redwood tree. At the presentation she served as the “voice of water”, presenting the show’s opening lines. “I am water. I am made of you and you are made of me.”

Each performance spoke to the importance of water in our lives, and what it means to the earth as a whole through many forms of media. At the performance’s conclusion, there was a panel of experts hosted by C.J May. This panel included Kirk Siegel, Marcel Polak, Jeff Stern, and Hill via zoom.

A continuous theme was set through the course of the panel straight from the first question:  “What is the greatest threat” toward water, water conservation, and the environment? Hill opened with a statement that would carry the theme for the rest of the discussion: “The greatest threat is the fact that we’ve become disconnected to our relationship with — fill in the blank.”

Her sentiments were echoed by each panelist, who stated that connections were what really mattered, and humanity needed to focus on its lost connection with nature – what Hill dubbed “the disease of disconnect.” Her message included one of hope, however, saying that “the solution lies in every single person.”

This theme of connections also carried with the physical connection of waterways. Polak revealed that through an updated topographical map, he had discovered that the water which feeds into the little Androscoggin feeds not from Chapman lake, but from a wetland, fed by the Bryant pond spring. “The spring is the ultimate origin of the little Androscoggin,” He said. This spring and the wetlands around it are now part of the land being conserved by Buck’s Ledge.

Stern also provided some information on his book, Soul Like a River. He considered the theme to be “the similarity between people and rivers.” Expanding on this he said, “You might not really think of it at first, but if you examine it a bit more there are actually a lot of similarities.” He described the act of containing a river within concrete chutes or culverts like putting a human in a straitjacket, and added that “Nobody wants to be contained like that. Rivers, like people, like to be free.”

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