Tift Merritt's HUNGRY RIVER

Hungry River is a performance collaboration between songwriter and community historian Tift Merritt illuminating the prophetic importance of the people in an unexplored box of patient photographs from a 1920s-era segregated North Carolina asylum, and a portrait of how the vulnerable carry the soul of a society. A collection of songs and monologues, a ceremony, a meditation, a community history - this creative intervention sings loudly: who are these people, and what must we learn from them? Giving voice to how these century-old photographs speak prophetically to our present, we pursue these hidden histories as central, essential knowledge - not simply for learning about the asylum’s past, but how that past informs our present selves and the way we view race relations, poverty, criminalized margins, and the stigma of mental illness today. Hungry River exemplifies how storytelling, archival work, and community engagement amplify each other’s depth perception, audience reach and capacity to heal. Unmanageable Arts has offered project management, grant writing, and development support for the archiving and rematriating / repatriating of the photographs to their descendents, along with support for the public-facing performance of the musical collaboration bringing these stories to light. Hungry River is created in partnership with Duke University, along with community partners and an advisory board of activists, archivists and historians.

This project is supported in part by North Carolina Humanities.