Description

Natural and man-made disasters of seemingly Biblical proportions were what former middle school teacher Derrick Evans faced after leaving Boston to return to his beloved hometown of Turkey Creek, Mississippi. Taking Nature Black will premiere Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek, a documentary by Leah Mahan that chronicles the remarkable, trailblazing journey of Evans and the Turkey Creek community as they worked to conserve and protect the rich African American cultural history and ecological knowledge of their ancestral land and water. Evans’ work in Turkey Creek has included urban planning, becoming a master naturalist, and bringing together unlikely groups to protect the area from development. After Hurricane Katrina, Evans became a regional spokesperson and a nationally known activist around issues of sustainable development and recovery of the Gulf Coast. He has also been an activist on the forefront of Hurricane Rita and the BP Deepwater Horizon spill. Join us after the film for a Q and A with Evans, co-founding Managing Advisor to the Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health, to learn more about his community’s success in rescuing itself from erasure and launching new institutions that ensure its future.