An ambitious new public art event, Island City Waterways, will debut in May and will celebrate the past and present of Alameda through music, dance, theater, storytelling and the visual arts.
Photo by Andy Mogg
By BC Staff
Published: May, 2016
An ambitious new public art event, Island City Waterways, will debut in May and will celebrate the past and present of Alameda through music, dance, theater, storytelling and the visual arts. Spanning the water’s edge between the Fruitvale and Park Street bridges, this admission-free event will take audiences on a journey into the city’s rich maritime past and the origins of its great diversity.
Island City Waterways takes place Saturday and Sunday, May 21 and 22, with three 90-minute tours each day at 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. The show covers a half-mile path organized around four focal points along the city’s historic Waterfront Trail. More than two dozen performing and visual artists and nearly three dozen volunteers will guide audiences on an interactive journey taking inspiration from the natural and manmade landscape.
Conceived and directed by Rhythmix Cultural Works Founder and Artistic Director Janet Koike, Island City Waterways traces the many waves of immigrants who settled in Alameda from the time of the Ohlone people to the completion in 1902 of the Tidal Canal, an event which made Alameda into the “island city” it is today. Koike invited award-winning dance maker and producer of site-specific performance Kim Epifano to contribute original choreography for the event, and she invited veteran actor and director Ed Holmes to serve as the event’s lead storyteller in the figure of an “old mariner.”
Other collaborators include painter and chalk artist Mark Wagner, video installation artist Alessandro Moruzzi, environmental artist Ginny Parsons, Rhythmix executive director Tina Blaine and the members of Maze Daiko, a taiko-based percussion ensemble. Local East Bay historians Eric Kos and Dennis Evanosky serve as lead outside consultants.
“Our goal is to offer audiences an art experience that transports them back in time in their own backyard,” said Koike. “‘How did we get here?’ is the central question Island City Waterways asks.”
The walking tour begins near the foot of the Fruitvale Bridge at Blanding Avenue. People are encouraged to arrive 30 minutes in advance to park and register. Participation on each tour will be limited to about 100 people, with 50 spots per tour available for advance reservation at islandcitywaterways.org.
Along the way, audiences will be invited to participate in a variety of activities, including weaving grasses into abstract forms similar to those that the Ohlone people made, contributing to a large-scale chalk mural depicting the estuary waterways, sharing stories about how one’s family came to the Bay Area, and joining the performers in song inspired by the folk traditions of the immigrants who worked in Alameda’s maritime trades.
After the tour, participants may return to Rhythmix Cultural Works to record brief video histories about their family roots. The recording booth, in the form of a boat’s hull, will be open to the public in the Rhythmix gallery from early May through the end of July. In August, Koike and her partners will then present the collected oral histories to the Alameda Library for preservation. “Island City Waterways is an event that I envision producing on a biennial basis,” said Koike. “In future years I’d be interested to explore other locations along the island’s waterfront to tell tales of the Navy, Neptune Beach or the China Clipper.”
“Island City Waterways is a much-needed celebration that should complement the city’s current revitalization,” said Donna Layburn, president of the Downtown Alameda Business Association. “It has the potential to become a signature event for Alameda.”
On May 6 at 6 p.m., the K Gallery at Rhythmix will host an opening reception for Island City Waterways that will also feature an exhibition, Waves of Inspiration, including new works by Alameda-based artists Parsons, Pons Maar and Marc Ribaud. The exhibition, which runs through June 30, investigates the industrial landscape along the water’s edge. Admission is free.
For additional information about Island City Waterways, including reservations and a route map, visit islandcitywaterways.org. The show is supported in part by generous grants from the James Irvine Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Zellerbach Family Foundation. Major sponsors include Alameda Marina.
Veteran actor Ed Holmes will serve as the event’s lead storyteller in the figure of an “old mariner.” Photo by Andy Mogg
Island City Waterways takes place Saturday and Sunday, May 21 and 22 on the water’s edge in Alameda between the Fruitvale and Park Street bridges. Photo by Andy Mogg
