is a project which began in 2022 and is now, in November 2023, in its last phase (for the moment).  I'm working with creative producer Katie Daley-Yates from Host productions, who is also local to Southampton Riverside.

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It's a document.  Research.  Oral history collection.  Memory bank.  Poetry.  Printmaking.  Participation and collaboration. Performance and Celebration. And films.

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It's about eels.

It's about where I live.

It's about the people round where I live and how we live with our river - the River Itchen, and what it means to us.

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The European eel - Anguilla Anguilla is a red-list species that used to be abundant in the River Itchen.  It's now a globally threatened species.  It used to provide food and income.  Now many people cannot remember when they last saw one, if ever.

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The project began with research, story collection and oral history interviews to get the lie of the land.  We invited people to write in and send us memories and sightings and gradually built up a network of riverlovers and eel people. 

 

In spring 2023 we worked with artist Mandy Smith to deliver printmaking workshops with families, Southampton Mencap group and the local preschool to create banners.

 

Over the summer, Mandy and I met up with fellow artist Lizzie Jones for a ‘Making Day’. We then walked from Winchester to Southampton – a ritual walk for the eel run, wearing and carrying the things we had made:  Lizzie’s Urgent flag, Mandy’s giant eel, and me in character as Anne Clerk, who had been leaseholder of two mills with eel traps in 1640.  (That’s what research gives a writer).