Robin Wall Kimmerer in Conversation

Join us on Indigenous Peoples’ Day for a conversation with author Robin Wall Kimmerer and Jill Koski, president and CEO of The Morton Arboretum.

Indigenous scientist and New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer, asks: How can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? How can we move away from the scarcity, competition, and hoarding of resources that our economy is rooted in?

Join us on Indigenous Peoples’ Day at the verdant Morton Arboretum for a conversation with Kimmerer and Jill Koski, president and CEO of The Morton Arboretum, about how we can orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.

The program will begin with drum and dance by Trickster Cultural Center, followed by a conversation inspired by Kimmerer’s new book, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World.

Program Schedule

Monday, October 13, 6:45 to 8:00 p.m.

This program is hosted at The Morton Arboretum in the Ginkgo Room, located inside the Visitor Center.

Address
The Morton Arboretum
4100 IL-53, Lisle, IL, 60532

Tickets

Tickets are limited and must be purchased online in advance through the Chicago Humanities website.

Registration opens to all on Thursday, August 14, at 10:00 a.m.

Supported by

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 Teachings 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, and her other work has appeared in Orion, Whole Terrain, and numerous scientific journals. In 2022, Braiding Sweetgrass was adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith. This new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us. Robin’s newest book, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World (November 2024), is a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.

Robin tours widely and has been featured on NPR’s On Being with Krista Tippett and in 2015 addressed the general assembly of the United Nations on the topic of “Healing Our Relationship with Nature.” Kimmerer is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, whose mission is to create programs which draw on the wisdom of both indigenous and scientific knowledge for our shared goals of sustainability. In 2022 she was named a MacArthur Fellow.

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. 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 lives on an old farm in upstate New York, tending gardens both cultivated and wild.

Interlocutor

Jill Koski

Jill Koski is president and CEO at The Morton Arboretum, an internationally recognized tree-focused botanical garden 25 miles west of Chicago in Lisle, Illinois. In her role, she oversees the organization’s mission to plant and protect trees for a greener, healthier, and more beautiful world where people and trees thrive together. She is the Arboretum’s fourth leader in its 100-year history and the first woman in that position.

Jill came to The Morton Arboretum from Holden Forests and Gardens in Ohio where she was president and CEO from 2017 to 2022. Prior to that, she was vice president of development at The Morton Arboretum for 10 years. Her previous experience includes leadership roles in science-focused environmental nonprofits, namely the John G. Shedd Aquarium and the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago. Jill holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

The Morton Arboretum encompasses 1,700 acres of tree and plant collections, with specialty gardens amid natural landscapes. The organization works to create an impact on the quality of life. It conducts scientific research to improve the health and care of trees, which provide essential benefits for the environment, people, and communities. In addition, the Arboretum provides nature-based education programs to build appreciation for trees. As an outdoor museum and public garden, it is a cultural destination showcasing trees and engaging the public. The Morton Arboretum welcomes more than one million visitors each year and employs 500 people who are supported by 1,000 volunteers.

Tickets for this program can be purchased through the Chicago Humanities website.
Monday, October 13, 6:45 to 8:00 p.m.
Ginkgo Room (parking lot P-1), The Morton Arboretum
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