Project-Related News
The Story Lab draws inspiration from a variety of initiatives all over the country that share overlapping values and concerns. We offer here a sampling of recent stories that have caught our eye.
- Adams Administration Breaks Ground on New York Harbor School Expansion on Governors Island
The planned expansion of Harbor School will prepare young New Yorkers for good-paying green jobs in the city’s “Harbor of the Future.” The expansion plan will double the size of the campus and add new facilities to enhance maritime and environmental education, including additional classroom space, a full-sized pool, and specialized lab facilities. - $1.28 Million Committed to Launch the Great Lakes Local News Initiative
Wallace House Center for Journalists at the University of Michigan is pleased to announce an innovation-driven $1.28 million gift from the Song Foundation and the Joyce Foundation. This funding will launch the Great Lakes Local News Initiative and bolster the Knight-Wallace Fellowships, providing targeted support for journalists dedicated to revitalizing local news across the midwestern Great Lakes states. The initiative will grant specialized fellowships within the Knight-Wallace program, offering entrepreneurship training from experts… Read more: $1.28 Million Committed to Launch the Great Lakes Local News Initiative - DNR Summer Youth Program opens up new worlds
Under a powder-blue sky dotted with cotton-like clouds, the four wader-clad students walked near the lake’s edge, slowly gliding their nets attached to tall wooden poles back and forth beneath the water’s surface and through a smattering of green and yellow lily pads. On this steamy, late July afternoon, these environmental stewardship interns were searching for what they’d recently learned were “macroinvertebrates.” - Can Detroit students see themselves in their course work? District wants them to weigh in
In August, students in the state’s biggest school district will form a group to weigh in on the district’s social studies curriculum as part of a process to ensure course materials are equitable and representative of the majority-Black student body. The new Social Studies Student Think Tank will serve as the main outlet for Detroit Public Schools Community District students to give suggestions and formulate initiatives to shape their own educational journey, said… Read more: Can Detroit students see themselves in their course work? District wants them to weigh in - Bronx program teaches students how to build and sail boats
“Rocking the Boat” is an organization in the Bronx that teaches high school kids how to build and sail wooden boats, while also helping to restore the Bronx River. - Iconic Clearwater nonprofit faces financial ‘disaster’ that could pull it under
Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, started by Pete Seeger in the 1960s, is fighting to keep its emblematic ship and education program afloat - Place-based education event connects Wind River youth to land, elders, and community
On a bright Wednesday morning, forty or so sleepy-eyed high school students from Wyoming Indian High School sit at folding plastic tables. They’ve got journals and pens in front of them, but they’re not in your typical classroom. Instead, they’re in an open field of sagebrush that’s currently home to the Eastern Shoshone bison herd. “We want you to prepare yourselves in a good way for the future,” said Wes Martel, an Eastern… Read more: Place-based education event connects Wind River youth to land, elders, and community - Creating a green oasis in southwest Detroit
Southwest Detroit has long been known for its heavy industry. In recent years, the Boynton and Oakwood Heights neighborhoods have teamed up with Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s Detroit refinery to strengthen and revitalize these communities, including a plan to create some much-needed green space. - Learning the Ropes
U-M undergraduate Meghan Wysocki describes her summer internship experience with Inland Seas and the school ship learning station she developed for DRSL’s place-based learning programs on the Detroit River. - Installations by Theaster Gates and James Little reinvigorate riverfront park in Memphis
The public space on the banks of the Mississippi, which honors a Black skiff boat operator who saved 32 people from drowning, features work by Theaster Gates and James Little. - The Statue Wars Turn to Cyberspace
The Kinfolk Foundation tests the rollout of its new, more diverse city “monuments”—which are only viewable digitally, like a game of Pokémon Go, but woke. - ArcPrep: Detroit high school students survey the expansiveness of architecture
DETROIT—Joshua Powell, a recent University of Michigan dual master’s graduate in architecture and urban planning who took part in the first ArcPrep course seven years ago, plans to start a firm with his twin brother someday. But first, he joined the Quinn Evans architecture firm in Detroit this summer. “ArcPrep played a big part in establishing that dream and helping it come to fruition,” Powell said. “It’s pivotal for opening doors for students… Read more: ArcPrep: Detroit high school students survey the expansiveness of architecture - New guiding principles urgently needed for Great Lakes stewardship, U-M researchers say
The tools and policies that worked to significantly reduce threats to the Great Lakes over the past century are ill-equipped to handle today’s complex and interrelated challenges. A new set of stewardship principles is needed to work holistically and systematically on long-term social, economic, environmental, and racial-equity and resiliency concerns that have too often been sidelined in a rush for immediate results. - Let Them Swim
The mesmerizing scene along the banks of Munich’s lime-green Isar River on a recent summer afternoon made me, an out-of-towner, quiver with envy. Clusters of students, off-duty office workers, families and nude sunbathers were sprawled out on blankets with bottled beer and light meals. Every so often, a swimmer or tuber passed by, carried by the swift current. - The Climate Crisis Gives Sailing Ships a Second Wind
Cargo vessels are some of the dirtiest vehicles in existence. Can a centuries-old technology help to clean them up? - Michigan maritime: Ports set to grow economy throughout the state
A new law that gives the state’s 32 ports tools to expand and grow the maritime economy started out as a community project for a handful of University of Michigan students. U-M students first worked with the Port of Monroe in 2012 and over the next decade would make the case for investing in ports around the state to increase container and industrial shipments, which is expected to lead to job creation. - New Tall Ship Will Be Coming to Grand Traverse Bay to Sail the Great Lakes
There will be a new tall ship sailing the Great Lakes this year, and it will soon be heading to its new home in Northern Michigan. The Inland Seas Education Association made the big announcement to its supporters, they’ve acquired a new vessel. The schooner “Alliance” will be joining the fleet on West Grand Traverse Bay. “It’s a perfect fit for an addition to our fleet, and it’s going to allow us to reach… Read more: New Tall Ship Will Be Coming to Grand Traverse Bay to Sail the Great Lakes - A New Age of Sail
“A New Age of Sail: The History and Future of Sail Freight on the Hudson River” examines the long history of sailing cargo vessels on the Hudson River, from the 17th century until their decline in the mid-20th century, and how the lessons of that era might help us combat the challenges of climate change in the 21st century. Tracking challenges to and opportunities of sail freight throughout the decades, the exhibit includes… Read more: A New Age of Sail - Detroit’s Path to Inclusive Recovery
Working toward a fairer future requires untangling legacies of displacement, segregation, and inequity in Detroit. Eight Mile Road marks the border between the city of Detroit and the suburbs of Oakland County. But this multilane thoroughfare, which carries traffic past sprawling shopping plazas and neighborhoods of modest single-family homes built during the prosperous years after World War II, represents more than a geographic boundary. It’s also a stark line between a Black city and its… Read more: Detroit’s Path to Inclusive Recovery - New York City’s Public School on an Island
A maritime high school draws students from every borough and every background. The school’s career-themed curriculum is as novel as its location, with an emphasis on the marine sciences. - Flow Tales
Flow Tales are untold stories of water, rivers, seas, lakes, located in an era of disturbed flows around the globe. This collaborative initiative seeks to explore the relationship between landscape and community on a local and global scale as an inspiration for artistic production. An inaugural project on the Asi River draws on books, articles, travelers’ notes, myths, drawings, gravures, maps and photographs to produce a multimedia snapshot of the life of this… Read more: Flow Tales - Remaking the River that Made L.A.
FEBRUARY 1938 WAS a wet month in Los Angeles. The ground, where it hadn’t been paved over, was saturated, which meant rain had nowhere to go except into the streets, canals and washes. On the 27th, a storm arrived. During the following days, the city received its second-highest 24-hour rainfall in history. Reservoirs overflowed, dams topped out and floodwaters careered down Pacoima Wash and Tujunga Wash toward the Los Angeles River. By the… Read more: Remaking the River that Made L.A. - ‘We are outsiders’: the female boatbuilders of Instagram
Belinda Joslin has owned, raced, maintained and repaired boats all her life. So when she was looking for work after her children started school, she approached her local boatyard in Ipswich. They offered her a job as a finisher and her life was quickly taken over by sanding, painting and varnishing. “I turned up at the school gate absolutely filthy,” says Joslin, 48. Keen to find other women who shared her passion, she… Read more: ‘We are outsiders’: the female boatbuilders of Instagram - How Detroit’s Black-led organizations are cultivating access to nature as acts of liberation
Detroiter Ian Solomon began building a deep relationship with the outdoors while attending college in Arizona for broadcast journalism. He’d never been in a place with such access to mountains and nature before, and he quickly fell in love. But during his forays into the wilderness, he often felt like he was entering predominantly white spaces. He soon began to see the outdoors as a privilege to which other Black and brown people… Read more: How Detroit’s Black-led organizations are cultivating access to nature as acts of liberation - Schools of the future: How U-M is disrupting—and transforming—the educational landscape
The University of Michigan School of Education (SOE) celebrated its centennial in 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. This inauspicious start to their second century saw unprecedented challenges for the education system. Staffing shortages and schools closing nationwide upended learning environments as a shifting educational landscape unfolded before them. Despite the problems facing the profession, Elizabeth Birr Moje, SOE dean, George Herbert Mead Collegiate Professor of Education, and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, believes that… Read more: Schools of the future: How U-M is disrupting—and transforming—the educational landscape - Critical race theory flap makes teachers tiptoe on slavery, racism topics
Two years ago, a northern Michigan teacher assigned readings on anti-racism to her students. This fall, the books will sit in a cabinet, unused. A prominent conservative group is posting a list of “inappropriate library books” on its website, including “Beloved” by Toni Morrison, “How to be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi and “The 1619 Project: New Origin Story,” by Nikole Hannah-Jones. And some school districts are facing pushback about working with diversity consultants. - Ahoy! Maritime employers recruit at Detroit job fair
Detroit — Johnny McMath, 28, has worked in a variety of labor and hospitality positions for the past decade. Now he’s looking for a new experience. “I want to see what it’s like to work on a boat …” said the Detroit resident. “Being out at sea for a couple weeks at a time.” That desire — and encouragement from his fiancée — brought McMath to the Detroit Maritime Job Fair on Tuesday, the… Read more: Ahoy! Maritime employers recruit at Detroit job fair - How a Canadian coffee roaster is replacing container ships with sailboats to decarbonize its supply chain — and cutting costs in the process
The idea of sustainable transportation likely conjures images of futuristic technologies and electric cars, as well as scientific advances that have yet to be achieved. But there’s a burgeoning industry made up of sailors, coffee roasters, olive-oil companies, and wineries that’s reverting to shipping practices of the past to move toward a net-zero future. Instead of transporting products overseas on gas-guzzling container ships, some retailers are choosing to ship their products via sailboats. The so-called… Read more: How a Canadian coffee roaster is replacing container ships with sailboats to decarbonize its supply chain — and cutting costs in the process - Starting Out as a Tall Ship Sailor
U-M English Major Katie Moore is working as a Communications Intern this summer with Tall Ships America through a partnership with the Detroit River Story Lab. This blog post describes her introduction to the world of tall ship sailing on the Great Lakes. Read additional blog posts by Katie here or follow her on Instagram @tallshipsamerica. - ‘It’s a little bit of utopia’: the dream of replacing container ships with sailing boats
Global trade depends almost entirely on huge, dirty, dangerous container ships. Now a team of French shipbuilders is bringing back wind-powered sea freight
