Third Margin Deepest Spring

“I’ve known rivers: / I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins / My soul has grown deep like the rivers” writes American poet Langston Hughes of the impermanence and interdependence of river streams, in their constant and continual change. Our origin stories, Hughes narrates, spring from many tributaries, converge, and extend onwards, sustained by the flux of time. What can rivers tell us about our roots and routes?

Deeply connected to the fragility of ecosystems and ecological balance, the belief systems of river valley civilizations traveled widely across historical and transnational boundaries to reach us today through song, poetry, and praise. How can the environmental histories of river valley civilizations, empires, nation states, and self-governed communities help us navigate some of the challenges that lie ahead of us? Bridging Ibn al-Arabi’s shoreless reach of the creative imagination with Hughes’ verses, the convening Third Margin Deepest Spring listens to our founding narratives—from the Yangtze and the Ganges to the Euphrates and the Nile and from the Guadalquivir to the Congo and the Mississippi—to develop a kind of conscious creative participation that can strengthen our collective symbolic agency.

Third Margin Deepest Spring responds to Hughes' call to root our souls “deep like the rivers” and offers subtle, sensorial, and experiential resources for understanding our interdependence with the watershed. A weekend-long and city-wide festival of performances, talks, meditation, river-walks, communal meals, music, and poetry along the banks of the Guadalquivir, Third Margin Deepest Spring brings together artists, anthropologists, chefs, dancers, poets, and metaphysical practitioners to surface different genealogies and trajectories of environmental thinking, and collectively re-imagine the socio-spiritual continuum that connects all planetary life.

The Spanish title of our convening “Un manantial entre dos aguas,” takes inspiration from the celebrated 1976 song “Entre dos Aguas” by the musician, composer, and flamenco guitar virtuoso, Paco de Lucía. Composed between Havana and the Andalusian ports, the song expresses a sonic continuum between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, embodying the sound and history of flamenco.