Hello! My name is Xandi (he/they). I am directing a documentary—methodologically I think of it more as a visual ethnography—about the Jones Falls, the layers of highway that have been built atop it throughout the last 150 years, and present-day engagements with this urban topography that seek not only to uplift its history but to reimagine how, as a collective, we might physically and emotionally resurface the Falls. How can we who live in Baltimore City help cultivate a more ubiquitous culture of stewardship for the watersheds and ecologies that connect us, whether we see these rhizomatic connections or not? @jordan is somebody I’ve been collaborating a whole lot with on this endeavor, and @anand (a former teacher of mine) has been an inspiration for me over the years, as I didn’t start meditating deeply on watersheds and ecological design until taking a course with him entitled Social Ecology. The direction of this project, much like the subjects it focalizes, has been generative, facilitated through organic relations. As I continue filming imaginative engagements with the Jones Falls, learning about the history of Baltimore’s city and road development, and finding novel ways that advocates and communities nowadays are repurposing/revitalizing urban pockets and corridors deemed “abject” by a lineage of heedless development, my hope is to welcome more and more folks into the fold of this venture, in whatever capacity might appeal to them. Thank you all; I am very excited about this community and I am grateful to be here.