National Writers Series: Robin Wall Kimmerer — June 10, 2021

 Details here.

ROBIN WALL KIMMERER

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants, which has earned Kimmerer wide acclaim. Her first book, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses, was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing.

As a writer and a scientist, her interests in restoration include not only restoration of ecological communities, but restoration of our relationships to land. She holds a BS in Botany from SUNY ESF, an MS and PhD in Botany from the University of Wisconsin and is the author of numerous scientific papers on plant ecology, bryophyte ecology, traditional knowledge and restoration ecology. 

EVENT AND BOOK

This special TICKETED virtual event is presented in partnership with For Love of Water (FLOW), a nonprofit dedicated to protecting and preserving the extraordinary and essential natural resources of the Great Lakes. Half of the proceeds from our ticket sales will go to FLOW to support their mission. We are also honored to welcome Chairman David M. Arroyo of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians for a blessing at the beginning of our event, and the Botanic Garden at Historic Barns Park as a community partner.

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert).

Braiding Sweetgrass weaves together a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world.

This event is made possible in part by a grant from the Michigan Humanities, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

VIA TURTLE TALK