I thought ya’ll would get a chuckle out of this unique event we have organized for this Saturday!

Follow the Flush is a uniquely humorous, educational and participatory 5K walk that follows the path of Santa Cruz wastewater through natural and urban landscape on Saturday, May 5. The free family-friendly event begins at UC Santa Cruz with walking groups departing from 9:30 a.m. to noon. The walk concludes at the City of Santa Cruz Wastewater Treatment Facility where free tours are offered at 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m., and 2 p.m.

The walk follows the approximate path that human waste travels via underground infrastructure. It includes interactive art installations, games and informational kiosks intended to raise awareness of the water footprint, issues of sustainability and equity, and the psychological dimensions of modern human waste sanitation. Potty humor may provide a playful bridge to broader conversations. The walk concludes at the City's Wastewater Treatment Facility where participants will view the ocean and estuary themed mural in progress by local artist Elijah Pfotenhauer and may join tours of the facility to learn all that goes into maintaining this critical infrastructure. Tours explain the role that microorganisms play in processing human waste and how the all-natural treatment process reduces the Santa Cruz carbon footprint and protects the environment.

Art installations and performances:

● A special appearance by POOP (People’s Own Organic Power) Project founder Shawn Shafner, aka The Puru, who will lead hourly meditations to rebalance the bowels, and offer wildflower mud pies to encourage communion with the holy soil.

● The Bureau of Linguistical Reality, an interactive artwork that collaborates with the public to create new words for feelings and experiences for which no words yet exist.

● A rare public display of Alviso’s Medicinal All-Salt,  a unique hand-harvested salt enriched with pharmaceuticals found in Silicon Valley’s natural water systems, created by Morgan Levy + Jon Cohrs.

● A site-specific sound installation by Gregory Sullo, using wastewater pipes as both the source of the sound and the resonant speaker.

● Poster prints by Molly Winter about the toilets of the world, decomposers, composting, and the nitrogen cycle.

● A peek at a new ocean and estuary themed mural in progress by local artist Eljah Pfotenhauer.

● Plus videos by Karina Mangu-Ward, Rachel Zollinger, Lize Mogel, other artists to be added soon...

Interactive displays from water-related nonprofits:

● “Guess the Scat,” with UCSC Campus Natural Reserve Manager Alex Jones, featuring real droppings of mysterious local creatures,

● A display about Restorative Sanitation from equitable sanitation advocacy org PHLUSH (Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human)

● And other interactive displays from water-related nonprofits like Community Water Center,

● Surfrider Foundation, Homeless Garden Project, UCSC Sustainability Office, Fossil Free UCSC, and Santa Cruz Climate Action Network.

The artist team working on this project with us is FICTILIS – the same group that created the Museum of Capitalism in Oakland that was a huge success!

Thanks,

Beth Tobey

Arts Program Manager

City of Santa Cruz Economic Development Office

(831) 420-5154 | btobey@cityofsantacruz.com
www.SantaCruzCityArts.com