What Does the Ohio River Mean to You?

This summer Youth Apprentice Artists ages 15-20 researched the history, present and imagined future of the Ohio River. In order to gain further insight into the impact and connection the Ohio River creates, they conducted a survey for those living in Cincinnati. Below are some of the beautiful words and stories shared with us.

Photo by Charli Erin Littleton

What does the Ohio (or any other river) mean to you? Do you have a relationship with the river? We've heard it means "solace" to some and "freedom" to others. 

"The river means home to me. It reminds me childhood summers."

"It is the boundary between home and elsewhere. It is a body that I don’t want to wash my own body in. It is a place I go to to sit and think with friends. And it is a place that reminds me of the history of this city."

"The river is entropy, always flowing. From its origins as preglacial Teays, to it carving new valleys that have cradled countless communities and stories, the Ohio River is a foundation of our lives here. The mighty river does not know borders, and it gives and takes."

"The Ohio River has evolved in my mind over my fifty years and was a gathering place, a social draw, was a place of work and memory, and has become a metaphor for my life.  I absolutely recognize its role in freedom and its significance as both boundary and beacon."  

"To me, the Ohio river is a place of frequent nostalgia and sentimentality, invoking feelings of such a craving for the past and to re-live simpler times I’ve been through." 

"Rivers to me represent journeys: I recall my grandfather looking at the lines of my palm and describing the shape those folds made as a river -- a fluid path marked and created by passage of time."

"The river is a silent cavern of change and form. It means to me evolution and adaptation. A church of nature."

What personal stories, if any, do you have with the Ohio (or other) River?

"I have had lots of fun canoeing on rivers ( but not the Ohio).  I enjoy looking out at the water, and walking along the riverfront parks.  It's a beautiful way to enjoy the Ohio River and it's one of the things that makes Cincinnati a great place to live."

"My father grew up on an island surrounded by ocean. My mother, next to the Missouri River. This is my body of water, and with it, my own history that consists of WEBN fireworks shows, flying pigs at Sawyer Point, and always bringing people from out of town to see the Romulus and Remus statue in Mt. Adams. The constant in all was the water."

"I’ve grown up in Cincinnati and spent many days in serpentine wall and sawyer point. Worked on a showboat theatre in for two years in late Highschool and have written about the river in both my book and  poetry - I’ve seen the river frozen, flooding and filthy, calm, crowded and disruptive. I love this and other rivers whose fingers reach into the earth to sustain life."

"I love running from Ohio to Kentucky using the Purple People Bridge that sprawls above the Ohio River. I love the view!"

"Along with the kayaking I also tested the ph water levels and went electro fishing in the ohio river with the Thomas More Biology center which was really cool to me because it sparked an interest in me and part of the career I want to pursue."

"I remember all the fireworks shows over the years.  Did them with my mom and then again as a father with my kids.  So that has been something we have passed down. We don’t go every year but it is something that cuts across generations."

"Perhaps what draws one to such large bodies of water is the potential to float away from these places, too, toward something even larger."

Learn more about the amazing works of art created by the apprentices!

My River, My Roots, My Freedom