Braiding Water

Braiding Water is a multi-location art and cultural festival that weaves together ceremony, joy and care for our environment.

Join us August 19 - October 21, 2023 across San Luis Obispo County, California for events that center BIPOC voices from the Central Coast.

  • Lifeguard Station Art Reveal
    Saturday, August 19, 6-8pm
    Commissioned artist: Charlie Rugg
    On view 8a - 3p Wednesday to Saturday until the end of October at The Bunker SLO


    Braiding Water Opening Ceremony
    Saturday, September 9, 6-8p, SLO Swim Center RSVP + more info

    Film Program with SLO Film Festival:
    Wade in the Water: A Journey into Black Surfing and Aquatic Culture
    Monday, September 18
    5:30 - 6:30 Pre-party at Baby Dudes
    7 - 9p Film at Bay Theater, Morro Bay, CA RSVP + more info

    Beach Cleanup and Funday with EcoSLO and Central Coast Aquarium
    Saturday, September 23, 9a - 2p Avila Beach, CA More info

    4th Annual Stories Matter, in collaboration with The Reboot Storytelling ReImagined: Live Storytelling Showcase
    Saturday, Oct 7, 7-9pm, at Bang The Drum Brewery , San Luis Obispo, CA More info

    Talking Water: A Conversation with Diversity Coalition
    Saturday, October 21, 6-8pm at the SeaCrest Oceanfront Hotel, Pismo Beach, CA. More Info

Land Acknowledgement

Braiding Water is a program born of love and appreciation for the waters and the lands on which we stand, on which we rely, and which in turn nourish us. We recognize that these waters and lands that we have come to identify as the Central Coast are the unceded ancestral homelands of our Indigenous People, yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribe, whose relationship to this region reaches back over 10,000 years, and whose stewardship has helped to sustain it for hundreds of generations. It is a relationship disrupted by conquest and colonization, without consent or compensation, the effects of which continue to be born out today. We convene the Braiding Water program with this history in our awareness, and with a sense of responsibility to address its ongoing harms in our present. We commit ourselves not simply to expressing, but also practicing our respect for Indigenous connections to the land, honoring the sovereignty of Indigenous People, and supporting the sustainability of the land on which we gather and upon which we are guests.

Welcome!

This resource page is an exploration, a celebration, a collective re-imagination of our relationships with water, ourselves, each other, and the planet. It is also an invitation to ongoing inquiry and meaningful action. 

This curated list offers a multitude of lines of access into water as a site of crisis, connection, and activation, along with a sampling of possible pathways for envisioning and building a just and sustainable water future.

Contextualizing the Crisis

To appreciate the depth and diversity of our relationships with water, we must consider the context within which those relationships have taken shape. On the one hand, it is well known that water insecurity, climate change, and the multitude of environmental, social, and economic problems associated with them disproportionately impact communities of color. These same communities often have little representation in arenas working to address the very environmental issues that impact them the most. The following resources shed light on the geographic, historical, social, economic, and political dimensions of our prevailing water and climate crises, in the spirit of equipping us to navigate the present and to envision an alternative water future.

Culture & Care

One of the core aims of the Braiding Water program is to honor the varied and multifaceted relationships that communities across the Central Coast have with water, and to nurture a sense of the interconnections and interdependence that link us all.  The following resources foreground aquatic connections that have been fostered and sustained by communities who are all-too-often marginalized from public discussions about water and climate, while at the same time enduring some of the water and climate crises’ harshest effects.

Creative & Hopeful Action

Building a just and sustainable water future requires us to move our conversations about water and climate change beyond a preoccupation with crisis and catastrophe, toward horizons of hope, futurity, and political possibility.  What do we mean when we talk about sustainability? What might a just and livable future with water look like? As marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson has put it, “What if we get this right?” The resources listed below present a variety of models for activation and engagement while inviting us to move beyond conceptualization toward meaningful action.

This page was curated by Darcie Shugart, Kirsten Lockart-Hayt, Dr. Elizabeth Sine, PhD, and April Banks, 2023.

The Braiding Water project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit www.calhum.org

Project Sponsors

Project Partners

Project Team

  • Courtney Haile

    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CO-FOUNDER

  • April Banks

    VISITING & LEAD ARTIST FOR BRAIDING WATER

  • Nalah Loman

    PROJECT COORDINATOR

  • Stephanie Allen

    MARKETING ADVISOR

  • Dr. Elizabeth Sine

    HUMANITIES ADVISOR

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