RIVERBOUND, 2022

A Community Papermaking Event

Riverfront Park, Newark, NJ

RIVERBOUND is a project co-led by artists Milcah Bassel and Amanda Thackray, culminating in a community event on August 6, 2022. It approaches the site of the Lower Passaic River through papermaking and creative collaboration, sourcing materials such as plant fiber and water directly from the Newark landscape. 

Through this project, we seek to reclaim a more direct connection with our environment - its past, present, and future - and to be a catalyst for continued care and stewardship of the Passaic River.

The event took place on Lenapehoking, a colonized and unceded territory of the Lenape people, also known as Newark and the Lower Passaic River. We wish to recognize and honor the Lenape people and other indigenous communities in their long history of stewardship of Land and Water. 

This video documents the day of the big event, followed by images and information detailing our research process and preparations, interspersed with gratitude and credits for all contributors.

“We are all bodies of water.” - Astrida Neimanis

This piece is dedicated to 

The Passaic River 

and to the people of Newark

Riverbound is funded by a Newark Artist Accelerator Project-Based Grant through Project For Empty Space.