Legacies of Black Culture and Resilience

Wednesday, October 15, 2025
6:00 PM EDT - 8:00 PM EDT

Note: If you are sick or exhibiting symptoms associated with COVID-19 (such as fever, chills, cough, sore throat, difficulty breathing, loss of taste or smell, etc.), please do not come to the event and consider joining us another time.

Date: Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Time: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Event Location: This event will be held outdoors at Anacostia Watershed Society's office, The George Washington House. You can enter the main parking lot on Baltimore Avenue or Upshur Street. Additional parking can be found at the lot across the Upshur Street entrance to the office. In case of inclement weather, we will pivot to indoors. 

Speaker Bios:

Akiima Price:

A nationally respected thought leader at the intersection of social justice and environmental issues, Akiima Price has pioneered innovative Restorative Park Engagement strategies that use nature as a powerful medium to connect economically stressed urban communities with positive, life-changing outdoor experiences, reshaping how they see themselves, their communities, and their parks.

With over 30 years of experience, Akiima has developed cutting-edge best practices in trauma-informed, equitable environmentalism. She started her career as a U.S. Park Ranger at Lake Mead in 1993 and has worked on and around the Anacostia River since 1996. As a contractor with the Anacostia Watershed Society, she helped establish the first AWS River Trail boat engagement program, highlighting parts of the river with thoughtful interpretation that deepened public understanding of its beauty, culture, and challenges. This early work solidified her reputation as an interpreter who could connect natural resources to real-life issues faced by stressed communities.

Over the years, Akiima has collaborated with a wide range of environmental, social, and justice organizations across the country and internationally. In 2018, she co-founded Friends of Anacostia Park, where she continues to advise and help expand programs that make the park a welcoming and healing space.

Today, Akiima leads the Restorative Park Engagement Fellowship, which establishes the practice, trains community leaders, documents how parks support the wellness of low-income communities, and unites justice, health, social, and environmental practitioners around more human-centered collaboration.

Fred Tutman:

Fred Tutman is a grassroots community advocate for clean water in Maryland’s longest and deepest intrastate waterway and holds the title of Patuxent Riverkeeper and organization that he founded in 2004. He also lives and works on an active farm located near the Patuxent that has been his family’s ancestral home for nearly a century. Prior to Riverkeeping, Fred spent nearly 25 years working as a media producer and consultant on telecommunications assignments all over the globe, including a long stint working with and advising traditional healers in West Africa and coverage of the Falkands conflict in Argentina on assignment by the BBC. After late life sojourn into law school, in addition to his duties as a Waterkeeper, Fred also teaches Environmental Law and Policy at Historic St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Fred is the recipient of numerous regional and state awards for his various environmental works on behalf of communities He is the longest serving Waterkeeper in the Chesapeake region and the sole African-American Waterkeeper in the Nation.

If you have any questions, please contact Lindsay Allen at lallen@anacostiaws.org.