Our second book is by Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Robin is a mother, scientist, and decorated professor. Her book has made it onto the best seller list this year for the first time despite being published in 2013.

As a botanist, she 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. (Goodreads)

For our first meeting, we will read the first two sections, Planting Sweetgrass and Tending Sweetgrass, pages 1-105.

We encourage you to purchase the book from a Black-owned bookstore: 

• Semi-colon - 515 N Halsted St, Chicago

• AALBC - a guide to Black-owned book stores in IL