The best two people to travel up Newtown Creek, in the south or east direction, are Nate Heiges and Marina Heron Tsaplina.
Nate, because he walks along the edge here every day. His studio and house are at opposite ends of the English Kills.
And Marina, because she used to live in Newtown Creek on a massive houseboat ferry called the Schamonchi.
It was through Marina that I started to understand the connection between healing the planet and thinking about soil. Simple, I know, maybe everyone else already gets this: earth = earth.
The reflection of the sun on the water was blinding; it was hard to see forward. “Do you see that?” Marina asked.
I strained to see through the light to whatever it was, but then I realized it was the light.
“A portal,” said Marina, a lavender apparition on the water. We spent a minute looking at the light, and then she poured a little water into the creek.
It was an interesting gesture. I wanted to ask why, but didn’t want to interrupt.
When I finally did, the moment had passed.
“It is a ritual… an offering of gratitude to this violated water,” she said. “You must have those, too?”
“I think I just have habits,” I said, completely forgetting about flotsamancy, and how similar it is to our mission for the day.
When we came around the corner and saw the Schamonchi, it took my breath away.
To see it leaning so far to the side was disorienting—the floor as a wall.
It was difficult to fix the massive object in my view, impossible not to feel like it was in motion, which I guess, in some sense, it is.
We floated by slowly, passing a broken open window. “That was my bedroom.”
I was surprised to see it so devoid of stuff, but Marina told us it had been empty for over a year and had only just begun to sink.
“The Newtown Creek is a body,” said Marina,
“drawing us into her vortex… as anyone does when they are traumatized… and trying to heal.”
The sun had set on Dutch Kills, and we paddled back in shadow.
As we rounded the bend at Plank Road,
we caught a few final rays—the ultimate light in darkness.
Here we are at the end of the road, and here is Marina’s drawing of the portal:
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