Returning the River was a site-specific performance that took place in the northern-most lock on the Mississippi River, the now decommissioned Saint Anthony Falls Lock & Dam in downtown Minneapolis. For three nights, audiences were invited to the edges of lock’s fifty foot long walls, where they looked down to take in a story told from a narrator paddling in a canoe on the dark water alongside artist-made animations that appeared on the surface of the water, seeming to emerge from the depths. Two musicians played music and sang from a metal bridge that connected the two walls. Before the performance began, audiences were invited to hold a cup of water from the river in their hands and contemplate their own relationship to the river which supplies Minneapolis with its drinking water. Returning the River told the story of a daughter born into a time of walls whose life is intrinsically linked to the life of a paddlefish. By the end of the story, the daughter, her mother, the fish, and an emboldened public claimed their power to deconstruct the walls and return the river to its once wild origins. Audiences blessed their water and when the story was complete, poured their water from the high heights, creating a collective waterfall of freedom wishes.

We also included an audience engagement element to the experience where we asked people when they first arrived to write wishes for descendants onto pieces of paper that were scanned during the performance and turned into a slide show. After the performance was complete, their wishes appeared on the surface of the water.

Returning the River was presented by Northern Lights.mn, Mississippi Park Connection, and the National Park Service with support from St. Anthony Falls Heritage Board and the US Army Corps of Engineers.