You are cordially invited to join us for a class in which we will read and talk about a very powerful book, “Braiding Sweetgrass,” by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The class will meet from 9-10 a.m. for 5 weeks beginning February 18 (and February 25, March 3, March 10, and March 17) in the Dean Clark Room of the McKinley Foundation Building.
A brief and useful description of the book is contained in this review by Goodreads. The book is divided into 5 sections, each with several sub-pieces included which illuminate that section. Each week we will focus our attention on one of these sections.
“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, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth and learning to give our own gifts in return.”
The class will be convened by Tom Seals and Julie Birdwell and will focus on the responses we all bring to reading this lovely book and share with one another. We will have info about where to get or borrow the book since a reading of it is central to this class. Please come join us!
To notify us if you intend to participate or if you have additional questions, please reach out to Tom Seals or Julie Birdwell at:
taseals@illinois.edu; julie.birdwell@gmail.com