Boston Flora

Category: Author Book Signing

  • Tuesday, April 14, 6:00 pm – Ethnobotany in the 21st Century

    For more than four decades, Michael J. Balick, Vice President for Botanical Science at the New York Botanical Garden, has studied the relationships between plants and people — the field known as ethnobotany — in the Amazon Valley, Central and South America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and most recently in Micronesia and Melanesia. In this Tuesday, April 14 lecture beginning at 6 pm he will discuss the relevance of working with indigenous cultures to document their knowledge of medicinal plants and evaluate their potential for broader applications. He will also highlight some of the medicinal plants used by non-Western cultures, such as ashwagandha and maca, which are becoming available and popular in the West and are discussed in his most recent book, Rodale’s 21st Century Herbal: A Practical Guide for Healthy Living Using Nature’s Most Powerful Plants.

    This free Harvard Museum on Natural History lecture and book signing will be held at the Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free parking is available at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.

  • Saturday, April 11, 12:00 noon – 2:00 pm – Girls Who Looked Under Rocks

    Meet author Jeannine Atkins On Saturday, April 11 and get a free behind-the-scenes peek at how she uncovers stories about real people for her nonfiction books. She’ll read from her book Girls Who Looked Under Rocks: The Lives of Six Pioneering Naturalists at Williamsburg’s Meekins Library on Petticoat Hill, Williams Street in Williamsburg. Following the talk, there will be a guided exploratory hike up Petticoat Hill, where you will have the opportunity to uncover the natural world – perhaps it will be waiting for you under a rock.

    “I wrote Girls Who Looked Under Rocks to bring more attention to women who pushed past discouragement and used their curiosity and passionate intelligence to break into work studying and caring for fields, forests, and the creatures who make these their homes. I hope the naturalists who put animals — from bumble bees to chimpanzees — at the center of their lives will inspire girls to follow their lead as scientists, explorers, and conservationists.” – Jeannine Atkins

    The post-talk hike will be held at Petticoat Hill, across Route 9 from Meekins Library on Petticoat Hill Road. Trailhead is on the left. Parking is limited, and it is a short walking distance from downtown Williamsburg.

    For more info contact Nicole Rhodes at hltlandsteward@ttor.org or (413) 628-4485 x4.

  • Wednesday, April 8, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing

    “See for yourself!” was the clarion call of the 1600s. Scientists peered at nature through microscopes and telescopes, making the discoveries in astronomy, physics, chemistry, and anatomy that ignited the Scientific Revolution. Artists investigated nature with lenses, mirrors, and camera obscuras, creating extraordinarily detailed paintings of flowers and insects, and scenes filled with realistic effects of light, shadow, and color. By extending the reach of sight the new optical instruments prompted the realization that there is more than meets the eye. But they also raised questions about how we see and what it means to see. In answering these questions, scientists and artists in Delft changed how we perceive the world. Author of The Philosophical Breakfast Club, a Scientific American Notable Book, Laura Snyder, professor of philosophy at St. John’s University, returns to the Arnold Arboretum on Wednesday, April 8 at 7 pm to share her latest book, Eye of the Beholder, in which she pairs painter with natural philosopher to explain the revelatory ways of seeing in the 17th century. Fee $5 Arboretum member, $10 nonmember. Register online at https://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?DayPlanner=1411&DayPlannerDate=4/8/2015.

  • Thursday, March 26, 5:30 pm – Emerald Necklace Conservancy Annual Meeting and Lecture

    Please join the Emerald Necklace Conservancy on Thursday, March 26 at the African Meeting House, 46 Joy Street in Beacon Hill, for the 2015 Annual Meeting and Lecture, featuring Dr. Carolyn Finney speaking on Radical Presence: Black Faces, White Spaces and Stories of Possibility.

    Dr. Finney will explore the relationship of African Americans to the environment and to the environmental movement. Drawing on “green” conversations with black people from around the country, Dr. Finney considers the power of resistance and resilience in the emergence of creative responses to environmental and social challenges in our cities and beyond. Dr. Finney’s love of environment was inspired by a backpacking trip around the world and numerous years living in Nepal. She is an assistant professor in environmental science, policy and management at the University of California Berkeley, and a member of the U.S. National Parks Advisory Board. As such, she works with the National Park Service to respond to America’s changing demographics and diversify the ranks of visitors and employees.

    The Annual Meeting begins at 5:30, followed by a reception at 6 and lecture at 6:45. The evening concludes with book signing and dessert. There is no cost for this event but space is limited, Pre-register by calling 617-522-2700, or sign up on line at https://25749.thankyou4caring.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=300&erid=526776&trid=1f1d5801-d8e9-44bb-bee6-b82e767de6f9.

  • Wednesday, March 18, 12:30 pm – 3:30 pm – The Orchard Ecosystem

    Farmer and writer Michael Phillips (www.groworganicapples.com,) author of The Holistic Orchard, discusses his holistic approach: health-guilding orchard practices that bring about wholesome fruit.  A healthy orchard ecosystem includes unerstanding soil biology, boosting tree immunity with deep nutrition, timing maintenance tasks relative to tree growth cycles, approaching insect pest situations from a life cycle standpoint, and abetting biodiversity.  Growing tree fruits and berries is something that anyone with a passionate desire can do, given wise guidance and a personal commitment to observe the teachings of the trees.  This Wellesley College Botanic Garden lunch and lecture will be held Wednesday, March 18, from 12:30 – 3:30, and the fee is $45 from Friends of WCBG, $60 for nonmembers (includes lunch.) Register by calling 781-283-3094, or email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu.

  • Wednesday, March 11, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm – The Brookline Troika: Olmsted, Richardson, Sargent and the Planning of a “Model Community”

    The Massachusetts Historical Society presents The Brookline Troika: Olmsted, Richardson, Sargent and the Planning of a “Model Community” on Wednesday, March 11, at their offices at 1154 Boylston Street, with a reception at 5:30 and lecture at 6:00.  Keith Morgan, Director of Architectural Studies at Boston University is the featured speaker.

    Derived from the recently publish book, Community by Design: The Olmsted Office and the Making of Brookline, Massachusetts, this lecture will explore the close and dynamic relationship of the country’s leading landscape architect, architect, and horticulturalist in the evolution of Boston’s premier suburb. These three men lived within easy walking distance of each other in the Green Hill section of Brookline and used their private residences and landscapes as teaching and professional spaces as well. Their friendships and (occasional) conflicts informed the character of the suburban development for a community that called itself “the richest town in the world” and believed that its model was worthy of emulation.

    Keith N. Morgan is a Professor of the History of Art & Architecture and American & New England Studies at Boston University, where he has taught since 1980. He currently direct BU’s Architectural Studies Program and is a former national president of the Society of Architectural Historians. Written in collaboration with Elizabeth Hope Cushing and Roger Reed, Community by Design was published in 2013 by the University of Massachusetts Press for the Library of American Landscape History and received the Ruth Emery Prize of the Victorian Society in America.

    This series has been made possible by the generous underwriting of Stephen Stimson Associates Landscape Architects and is cosponsored by the Mount Auburn Cemetery and the Nichols House Museum. $10 fee (no charge for Fellows and Members of the MHS, Mount Auburn Cemetery and the Nichols House Museum.) Register online at https://dnbweb1.blackbaud.com/OPXREPHIL/EventDetail.asp?cguid=76FBBAD5-59FC-442D-8347-A5AE40DBF561&eid=50859&sid=28E3AC1C-BE75-4D62-BB6E-EC1C9D0EE6AB

  • Wednesday, March 4, 7:00 pm – Unnatural Selection

    Join author Emily Monosson at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street (Porter Square Shopping Center in Cambridge) on Wednesday, March 4 at 7 pm for a discussion on her latest book Unnatural Selection: How We are Changing Life, Gene by Gene.

    Gonorrhea. Bed bugs. Weeds. Salamanders. People. All are evolving, some surprisingly rapidly, in response to our chemical age. In Unnatural Selection, Emily Monosson shows how our drugs, pesticides, and pollution are exerting intense selection pressure on all manner of species. And we humans might not like the result.  Monosson reveals that the very code of life is more fluid than once imagined. When our powerful chemicals put the pressure on to evolve or die, beneficial traits can sweep rapidly through a population. Species with explosive population growth — the bugs, bacteria, and weeds — tend to thrive, while bigger, slower-to-reproduce creatures, like ourselves, are more likely to succumb.

    Monosson explores contemporary evolution in all its guises. She examines the species that we are actively trying to beat back, from agricultural pests to life-threatening bacteria, and those that are collateral damage — creatures struggling to adapt to a polluted world. Monosson also presents cutting-edge science on gene expression, showing how environmental stressors are leaving their mark on plants, animals, and possibly humans for generations to come.

    Unnatural Selection is eye-opening and more than a little disquieting. But it also suggests how we might lessen our impact: manage pests without creating super bugs; protect individuals from disease without inviting epidemics; and benefit from technology without threatening the health of our children.

    Emily Monosson is an environmental toxicologist, writer, and consultant. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, author of Evolution in a Toxic World: How Life Responds to Chemical Threats, and editor of Motherhood: The Elephant in the Laboratory.

    For more information visit www.portersquarebooks.com.

  • Wednesday, February 25, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Amazing Alpine Communities of the Northeast

    The high alpine summits of New England, New York, and eastern Canada contribute significantly to the plant, bird, and invertebrate diversity of northeastern North America. Well-known summits such as Mount Washington have been the focus of ecological inquiry since the early 1800s. Beyond the Presidential Range and such other well-known mountains as Katahdin, Mont Jacques-Cartier, and Gros Morne are many little-known eastern alpine mountain ranges, unified by the treeless alpine communities on their slopes and summits but facing their own unique conservation challenges. Join New England Wild Flower Society on Wednesday, February 25 from 7 – 8:30 at Garden in the Woods for a presentation and lecture on the natural history of the lesser-known alpine ecosystems of Québec, Labrador, and Newfoundland and for a book signing by Liz Willey and Mike Jones, editors of the Eastern Alpine Guide: Natural History and Conservation of Mountain Tundra East of the Rockies and co-founders of Beyond Ktaadn (beyondktaadn.org). $13 for NEWFS members, $15 for nonmembers.  Register online at http://www.newenglandwild.org/learn/our-programs/amazing-alpine-communities-of-the-northeast.

  • Thursday, February 26, 7:00 pm – Back to the Garden

    Porter Square Books will host author James H. S. McGregor on Thursday, February 26 beginning at 7 pm, who will talk about his new book Back to the Garden: Nature and the Mediterranean World from Prehistory to the Present. The book will be available for purchase and signing.

    The garden was the cultural foundation of the early Mediterranean peoples; they acknowledged their reliance on and kinship to the land, and they understood nature through the lens of their diversely cultivated landscape. Their image of the garden underwrote the biblical book of Genesis and the region’s three major religions.

    In this important melding of cultural and ecological histories, James McGregor suggests that the environmental crisis the world faces today is a result of Western society’s abandonment of the “First Nature” principle — of the harmonious interrelationship of human communities and the natural world. The author demonstrates how this relationship, which persisted for millennia, effectively came to an end in the late eighteenth century, when “nature” came to be equated with untamed landscape devoid of human intervention. McGregor’s essential work offers a new understanding of environmental accountability while proposing that recovering the original vision of ourselves, not as antagonists of nature but as cultivators of a biological world to which we innately belong, is possible through proven techniques of the past.

    James H. S. McGregor is the author of five books on world cities. He is emeritus professor of comparative literature at the University of Georgia and lives in Cambridge, MA. The event is free and the book store is located in the Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White Street in Cambridge.  For more information visit www.portersquarebooks.com.

  • Monday, March 2, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – The Oldest Living Things in the World

    Since 2004 Rachel Sussman has been researching, working with biologists, and traveling the world to photograph continuously living organisms 2,000 years old and older. Her work spans disciplines, continents, and millennia: it is part art and part science, has an innate environmentalism, and is underscored by an existential incursion into Deep Time. Her original index of millennia-old organisms has never before been created in the arts or sciences. Enjoy her awe-inspiring photographs and hear what it means to bear witness to organisms that perhaps precede human history and that may survive well into future generations. Her book, The Oldest Living Things in the World, will be available for purchase and signing. This free evening at the Arnold Arboretum is part of the Director’s Lecture Series, takes place Monday, March 2 from 7 – 8:30 in the Hunnewell Building, and registration is required. Visit http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?EventID=1.