Tributaria: An Evening with Richard Hague, Sherry Cook Stanforth & Michael Thompson

The contributions of poetry, prose, visual art, and photography in this collection form a creative tribute (using one meaning of the word) to one of the largest river systems in North America. The Ohio River Basin’s scenic and historic tributaries—rivers, streams, creeks, and rills—are flowing through nearly 204,000 square miles of territory, impacting more than 25 million people living in areas of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, New York, Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and North Carolina. Nearly five million people drink water from the Ohio River itself, and millions more depend on the commerce, recreation, and transportation provided by its connected watersheds. The lovely living gift of the ohi:yó sustains us, body and soul.

And yet this precious lifeline, this vast and beautiful ecosystem, is being sickened by pollution, rewritten in the specialized, expressive language of dioxins, furans, PCBs, mercury, VOCs, phthalates, POPs, phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, HAB dead zones, E. coli contamination, on and on and on. In 2023, the American Rivers conservation group listed the Ohio River as the second most endangered waterway in the country. This diagnosis came well ahead of the February 3, 2024, Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that dumped at least five different toxic chemicals into a cradle holding people, flora and fauna, forests, fields, farms, parklands, yards—and of course, ever-moving water sources. And so Tributaria sings an elegy for irrevocable damage to the living world, even as it celebrates its sacred beauty.

Former US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo witnesses for us all the practice of intentional connection, of learning to claim (and reclaim) what exists beyond our immediate senses: “When I began to listen to poetry, it’s when I began to listen to the stones, and I began to hear what the clouds had to say, and I began to listen to others.” May these words and images invite that accountable, curious tuning. Tributaria offers only a glimpse into the complex heart of Ohio River country’s flowing waters, riparian margins, diverse life forms, geological features, and industrial properties. The living energy of nature and culture cannot be contained by simple designs and functions. Our stories of water will move throughout time, while we remain bound to the unfolding plots and diverse settings that shape our essential well-being within all of creation.

6 pm reception/6:30 pm program
Free & open to the public. Registration required.

Light Refreshments Provided

Copies of Tributaria will be available for sale & signing

About Richard Hague

Richard Hague is editor or author of 23 volumes, most recently the prose collection Earnest Occupations: Teaching, Writing, Gardening, & Other Local Work (Bottom Dog Press, 2018) and the poetry collection Continued Cases (Dos Madres Press, 2023). During The Recent Extinctions: New & Selected Poems 1984-2012 was winner of the 2012 Weatherford Award in Poetry. Alive in Hard Country won the 2003 Appalachian Writers Association’s Poetry Book of the Year, and Milltown Natural: Essays & Stories from a Life, was a National Book Award nominee. He is 2025-27 Poet Laureate of Cincinnati & the Mercantile Library.

About Sherry Cook Stanforth

Sherry Cook Stanforth serves as artist-in-residence for the Carnegie Center of Columbia Tusculum and managing editor of Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel. She founded Originary Arts Initiative to provide diverse communities with creative opportunities and place-based inspiration. She publishes in various creative genres—her poetry collection Drone String (Bottom Dog Press, 2015) reflects the storytelling and music traditions of her Appalachian heritage. She plays in the band Tangled Roots, studies native plants, and works very hard to keep bees alive.

About Michael Thompson

Michael Thompson is an artist, writer, and speaker based in Cincinnati, Ohio. His work focuses on ecology and space, connecting the human spirit to their environment. Working across painting, installation, and text, he blends the surreal with the familiar, utilizing interdisciplinary storytelling to create immersive spaces. His practice is largely built around social and public works, collaborating with museums, universities, and non-profits on exhibitions, residencies, and educational programming. His artistic and community work has been recognized by Forbes, the Urban League, & the Ohio Arts Council amongst others.