Dr. Kimmerer, author of the Fall 2021 Common Book Braiding Sweetgrass, will give a public talk and have conversations with KU and Haskell students on November 10-11, 2021. The KU portion of the schedule will include two events:

• Nov. 10, 7:30pm – Dr. Kimmerer will give the KU Common Book Lecture. This event will be live streamed followed by a Q&A. Register for the live stream via the Hall Center's website. 
  • STUDENT WATCH PARTY: For this event, the Office of Academic Programs & Experiential Learning invites KU students to a watch party in Budig 120. Arrive at 7:00pm to claim your seat and be there for the first round of door prizes! We will watch Dr. Kimmerer's talk in community, participate in the Q&A that follows, and end our night with a final round of door prizes. Don't miss it!
• Nov. 11, 11:00am – Dr. Kimmerer will hold a small event exclusively for KU and Haskell students. This informal conversation will take place via Zoom, and is hosted by The Commons and the Natural History Museum. To register to attend this Zoom session, please visit this link.

Dr. Kimmerer's events are hosted by the Hall Center for the Humanities and supported by many dedicated partnerships, including Academic Success, KU Libraries, Center for Undergraduate Research, The Commons, KU Biodiversity Institute & Natural History Museum, and Haskell Indian Nations University.

This year’s Common Work of Art is a series of five signs by Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds on view now in front of the Spencer Museum of Art. The five signs in this Native Host series name Native tribes who historically or currently inhabit the region that is now called Kansas. For details on the work and related resources, visit the Common Work of Art webpage.

UPDATE: Please see this update from the Spencer Museum of Art's Twitter about vandalization of these pieces and ways to continue to connect with them while the Spencer works with the artist to get the damaged pieces back on display.

Each year, members of the University of Kansas community read a single book that speaks to the current moment and sparks conversation. The KU Natural History Museum has created reflection stations at exhibits throughout the museum that incorporate passages and themes from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. Museum visitors are invited to explore passages from her book paired with chosen exhibits and reflect on what they mean to them as individuals and as members of the KU and Lawrence community.

Class visit guides incorporating the reflection stations are available on request.

Come volunteer for the Black Jack Battlefield Prairie Restoration Project this October. Upcoming work days are:

• Wildflower Planting: Oct. 9, 1:00-4:00pm
• Seed Collection: Oct. 16, 10:00am-12:00pm
• Prairie Restoration: Oct. 30, 1:00-4:00pm

If you'd like to participate in one or all of these events, find more information and RSVP on the Grassland Heritage Foundation website. Email Kaitlyn at grafsslandheritage@gmail.com with any questions.

Our friends at KPR have chosen Braiding Sweetgrass for their next book club selection. Kaye McIntyre's conversation will feature KU’s Bob Hagen, Jennifer Moody, Ray Pierotti, and Haskell’s Dan Wildcat. From their website:

KPR's next book club selection will get you thinking about the natural world in a way you have never thought of before! In Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, 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. She shows us that the awakening of 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 will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

Our next book club meets Thursday, October 21, at 7 p.m. To sign up for your spot, please visit the event page.

In partnership with The Commons, The KU Common Book program invites KU and Haskell students to a casual, student-led conversation around the themes of Braiding Sweetgrass in advance of Robin Wall Kimmerer's visit. Want to see essays from Braiding Sweetgrass brought to life? Come discuss essays from the book: "A Mother's Work" and "Allegiance to Gratitude" or "Collateral Damage" and "Epiphany in the Beans" with KU Field Ecology students, who draw parallels between their field work and Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book. You can read the essays in advance of the conversation if you have the time, but you're welcome to participate no matter what!

This event will be held in person in The Commons, Spooner Hall. Due to COVID protocols, attendance for this event will be capped at 45 people and will be first-come, first-serve.

Sunday, Aug. 29, 11:00am-12:15pm. Meet outside the Burge Student Union, and the bus will leave at 11:00am to take us to the garden.

Interested in sustainability, ecology, or natural medicine? Come on the guided tour of the Native Medicinal Plant Garden with Dr. Jennifer Moody, that will introduce you to the themes of this year’s KU Common Book, Braiding Sweetgrass. You will learn about the uses of native plants for food, medicine, and fiber, the importance of sustainable harvest, and how to get involved with this research. You will even see sweetgrass! Bus service is provided to and from the garden. This event is a partnership between Environmental Studies, Kansas Biological Survey, and the KU Common Book program. Question? Reach out to Kate Nygren (knygren@ku.edu).

This event is part of Hawk Week. More details and other events are available on the Hawk Week website.

The Spencer Museum of Art's new exhibition, Cultivating Reciprocity: In Conversation with the 2021–2022 KU Common Book, is both in-person and virtual. The virtual exhibition is on view through the full 2021-22 academic year via this web link. The in-person component will be open Aug. 17 - Sept. 10 from 10:00am to 5:00pm M-F.

Spotlight on Care: Restorative Relationships with More-Than-Human Persons

12:00-1:00pm CT Thursday, September 16, 2021 Online

Hosted by The Commons, the IPSR Center for Compassionate and Sustainable Communities, and the Spencer Museum of Art, and the Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity; with support from the Center for Faculty Development and Mentoring, the Center for Teaching Excellence, and the Environmental Studies Program.

This session features an opportunity to reflect, in community, on ongoing events surrounding the Common Work of Art, Native Hosts, by Cheyenne & Arapaho artist Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds.

Additionally, we will host an exercise in connecting to place, by examining ‘species loneliness,’ an idea described by Robin Wall Kimmerer in Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Through experiencing for ourselves, we will explore how we might know a species better.

Zoom Registration Link.

Do you have a green thumb? Have you dreamed of getting to spend all your time in nature, but you aren’t sure where to begin? Take your passion and make it your purpose--no matter your major! Beyond KU | Careers with Roots; Ecology, Nature, and Food Systems hopes to demonstrate how you can take your passion for things that grow and grow it into a career!

You can learn more at https://career.ku.edu/beyond-ku.

Panelists

• Becky Harpstrite – Vice President of Marketing, VG Food & Beverage Group and Hilary’s Eat Well
• Zac Hoppenstedt – Horticulture Agent, K-State Research and Extension
• Emily Lysen - Director of Development, Lawrence Farmers Market
• Courtney Masterson – Ecologist, For the Prairie
• Jasmin Moore – Sustainability Director, Douglas County

Thursday, September 23, 2021

12:00-1:00pm CT Online

RESTORATIVE PRACTICES & WELLNESS

Presented by the KU First Nations Student Association, the KU School of Social Welfare Toni Johnson Center for Racial and Social Justice, and The Commons

Dr. Melissa Holder, Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska | Assistant Professor, KU School of Social Welfare
Laurie Ramirez, MSW, Ojibway | Associate Professor of Practice / Liaison to Native Communities, KU School of Social Welfare

“What is the duty of humans? If gifts and responsibilities are one, then asking ‘What is our responsibility?’ is the same as asking ‘What is our gift?’ It is said that only humans have the capacity for gratitude. This is among our gifts.”
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

What can practicing well-being teach us?
What are the relationships between well-being and reciprocity?

Learn about human-centered approaches to healing and restorative therapies adopted to overcome historical and individual trauma. Following the presentation, participants may share their own practices for healing, restoration, and transformation. We hope to build community and skills for self-care and healing in more and meaningful ways.

Community Learning & Practice is presented by KU First Nations Student Association and The Commons to offer space for building understanding around topics resonating with researchers at KU and in public life in 2021. These sessions lead with Indigenous values and practice, including reciprocity, relationship, and reconciliation.

Link to Register on Zoom.

Indigenous Arts Initiative, a partnership between the KCAIC and Lied Center, Spencer Museum of Art and Film & Media Studies taking place during Indigenous Peoples’ Week (Oct. 4-8) including mentor artists: Filmmaker - Nanobah Becker and Photographer - Cara Romero. Two public events are available in conjunction with the mentors' visits.

• Wed. 10/6 at 11:00am at the Lied Center Pavilion - Photographer Cara Romero will display her work and talk about her methods and themes. This event is free and open to the public.
• Friday, 10/8 at 4:00pm at the Lied Center – Filmmaker Nanobah Becker and Photographer Cara Romero - talk with both guest artists on Indigenous contemporary art. This event is free and open to the public.