"Religion & Ecology" was a blast today. Tuesday's ten students swelled to thirteen, a group from a nice spread of backgrounds and educational trajectories. So engaged were our discussions of "Journey of the Universe" (which we saw Tuesday), David Abram's "The Commonwealth of Breath" and the first chapters of Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass that - no surprise really - there wasn't time for the walk along Minetta Creek the syllabus promised. We managed, using this interactive map to see that a creek used to run under the block where The New School sits, 11th & 12th Streets, Fifth & Sixth Avenues. 
Turns out a branch also ran beneath the block where we are holding our class, 15th & 16th Streets, University Place & Fifth Avenue! We walk along its flow unawares all the time, shuttling between New School buildings. Indeed, Minetta Creek might well be flowing still. Though it's been paved over for well over a century, water sources don't just disappear. And a journalist who happens also to be an alumna claims to have heard it flowing along the course described in this map as recently as 2015 - in the basement recording studio Jimi Hendrix set up along 8th Street! I'll ask students if they felt its flow when we gather next week.
Turns out a branch also ran beneath the block where we are holding our class, 15th & 16th Streets, University Place & Fifth Avenue! We walk along its flow unawares all the time, shuttling between New School buildings. Indeed, Minetta Creek might well be flowing still. Though it's been paved over for well over a century, water sources don't just disappear. And a journalist who happens also to be an alumna claims to have heard it flowing along the course described in this map as recently as 2015 - in the basement recording studio Jimi Hendrix set up along 8th Street! I'll ask students if they felt its flow when we gather next week.