New Book BRAVING THE BRONX RIVER: A 23-MILE KAYAK FROM WESTCHESTER TO RIKERS ISLAND Available Now

In a novel pandemic-era project, actor Daniel Robert Sullivan (Jersey Boys, Dear Evan Hansen, Motown) and stage manager Katelynn Cooper (Dear Evan Hansen, Matilda, School of Rock) have become the first people ever to document a journey down the entire length of the Bronx River.

Their epic adventure is captured in a new, photo-packed book, BRAVING THE BRONX RIVER: A 23-MILE KAYAK FROM WESTCHESTER TO RIKERS ISLAND.

Says Sullivan, "We both love kayaking. We both live in the Bronx. And we both wanted to take on something during the pandemic that was physically and creatively challenging. I couldn't believe no one had ever tried to paddle this whole river before... until we saw how difficult it was!"

Cooper continues, "The Bronx River runs from one of the richest neighborhoods in New York to the poorest district in the entire country. We wanted to learn about the history surrounding the river, but we also wanted to see and acknowledge the disparity."

Promotional material for the new book reads as follows: "New York City's only freshwater river coalesces from brooks and streams in Westchester County and dumps itself twenty-three miles south in the face of Rikers Island. The river is witness to more of our country's income inequality than its surrounding residents, stumbling and tumbling from its tributaries in one of New York's wealthiest districts to its mouth in the single poorest district in the entire United States.

The Bronx River has a bad rap. Polluted? Yeah, in some parts. Full of tires and cars? Yeah, it used to be. But these fleeting eras of negative human impact have not destroyed the things that make the Bronx River one of the most striking waterways in North America: sky-high bluffs that encase a paddler on both sides, rocky waterfalls powerful enough to grind tobacco into snuff through the 19th century, countless deep channels hiding beaver and gargantuan carp, and an urban landscape that runs from pastoral to post-apocalyptic. The Bronx River is an outdoor adventure-seeker's paradise.

The Bronx River begins in prosperity and ends in America's most extreme poverty, and this is the first documented journey down its entire length."

Sullivan is currently appearing in the First National Tour of Dear Evan Hansen as the standby for Larry Murphy. He is the author of Prospect High: Brooklyn, There's No Substitute for Empathy: A Liberal's Journey Through Conservative America, Lockdown: Await Further Instructions, and Places, Please! (Becoming a Jersey Boy).

Cooper is currently the Assistant Stage Manager of the First National Tour of Dear Evan Hansen.

BRAVING THE BRONX RIVER is available in hardcover, paperback, and digital formats here: https://www.amazon.com/Braving-Bronx-River-23-Mile-Westchester-ebook/dp/B09MLMHN5K