Watershed Forum 2021

Our very own Marita Roos is back at the Watershed Forum on November 3rd, presenting with a long-time partner, Jackie Goodall, North Brentwood town manager and a Maryland Black Mayors Inc leader.

Marita and Jackie will present Amplifying Community Voices Through Environmental Art featuring the Town of North Brentwood, one of the oldest Black communities in Maryland, and how the community has sustained devastating flooding for decades.

North Brentwood and the neighboring Town of Brentwood collaborated to conceive The Windom Road Green Street and Barrier Art project. The metal street barrier marking the towns’ boundary is being reconfigured into a public art installation by the artist team of Nehemiah Dixon III, Bob Donahue and RL Martens.

The team, selected by a public RFQ process, will design and create an installation to commemorate the environmental and racial histories that residents told the artists. Stormwater planters and green street elements accommodating pedestrians and cyclists will surround the barrier art in a context of memory, racial healing and placemaking.

Tune in and listen to see how these two small communities linked by a difficult and painful racial history are addressing their future and planning this space through a lens of environmental justice and public art while also solving a persistent flooding problem.