Tree Note: 
A Performance on Trust—Tamanend, a Chief of the Lenape Turtle Clan and William Penn
by Marty Pottenger

Re-PLACE-ing Philadelphia is building an expanded archive of cultural memory that includes multiple histories, re-place-ing the established with new narratives and understandings. Notes from invited artists and community members consider place via the street, sound, food, trees, and other portals. 

Marty Pottenger's event, Listening to Trees took place last night. The event, building on Marty's collection of tree stories, kicks off a whirlwind two week stretch for Re-PLACE-ing Philadelphia, in which Artist/Thinkers, Free-Radicals, community and Painted Bride team, will share ideas, stories and of course, space--here in Philadelphia. 

Fittingly, Marty has shared a tree story of her own. Though brief, it touches on each of her areas of focus for the project. Enjoy this and if you haven't, read more about those areas in her interview with Lauren Bakst.

This willow is rooted in what was the Lenape village of Shackamaxon, now Penn Treaty Park, where Tamanend, a chief of the Lenape Turtle Clan entered into a treaty of peace with William Penn in 1683. I love that this tree grows in the soil of the past and the present, looking out on what Philly’s become, offering shade on a hot day to the river, the rocks along the shore, the man fishing and catching fish.