Mark your calendars for a special evening in East Village on July 5th. Best-selling author, blogger and urban dreamer Roberta McDonald will be presenting four spoken word pieces that explore the themes of love, healing and hope. Mod rocker Ian Doig (the Crescent Heights), Todd Maduke (the Cullls, Big Foot Rocketship) and Heather Setka will provide some catchy fresh tunes.

RiverWalk Phase I features a separated promenade and pathway, as well as RiverWalk Plaza, a landmark public space that can accommodate up to 2,000 people for celebrations, festivals and other gatherings.

RiverWalk Phase I also boasts public outlooks, outdoor furniture, innovative lighting, washrooms, art installations and terraced steps down to the river made of Basalt. The area has been regenerated with native grasses and shrubs and planted with ash, elm, poplar and birch trees.

CMLC and The City of Calgary Public Art Program commissioned local artist Derek Besant, to create a series of photographic portraits of Calgarians expressing their connection to the Bow River.

“People are 70 percent water and we can think of Calgarians as being 70 percent Bow River,” said Besant. “This installation connects the people of Calgary back to the river – and that’s exactly what CMLC has done with RiverWalk.”

RiverWalk Phase I, which runs from Centre Street to 6th Street, features a large public plaza and gathering space that will play host to a variety of civic celebrations and festivals. Art installations will be a regular part of RiverWalk; currently, ‘I am the River‘, a photographic installation by Calgary artist Derek Besant, can be seen on Phase I. Once all phases are complete, RiverWalk will be a 4-kilometer stretch of pathway linking neighbourhoods from Chinatown to Fort Calgary, then south along the Elbow to Stampede.