Stories from the Water and the Land: Sustaining Communities

About the event

Join our moderated panel discussion to discover how North Carolina’s landscapes—its farms, forests, burial grounds, and waterways—sustain culture, memory, environmental health and community well‑being.

Delphine Godley Sellars is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Urban Community AgriNomics (UCAN), Catawba Trail Farm in Durham. Her passion since 2018 has been the reclaiming of a former plantation into the Catawba Trail Farm. The farm currently has a Youth and Community Garden, high tunnel, bees, walking trails, repurposed buildings and provides an array of programs and services.

Ryan E. Emanuel is a hydrologist and associate professor at Duke University where he researches and teaches about water, environmental justice, and Indigenous rights. His book, On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice, explains how Indigenous peoples in North Carolina maintain connections to their homelands despite centuries of social oppression and environmental degradation.

Beverly Scarlett is a co-founder of Indigenous Memories in Hillsborough. The organization returns the history, culture and legacy of the Indigenous People of this area to its community of origins. It also preserves Indigenous land and burial spaces and the burial spaces of the enslaved.

J.T. Tabron, panel moderator, is an assistant register in the Durham County Register of Deeds Office. He volunteers for Hacking into History, which seeks to uncover racially restrictive covenants in the public record and share this history to empower citizens.

Where can I park when the Main Library parking lot is full?

Parking is available in the library parking lot or at the North Queen Street Garage located at 115 North Queen Street which is behind the apartments directly across the street from the library. Parking is free in the garage. Please bring your ticket to a service desk in the library for validation.