Boston Flora

Tag: New York Times

  • Sunday, April 13, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm – Brunch with Margaret Renkl

    Grow Native Massachusetts is delighted to host a conversation with New York Times Opinion writer and bestselling author Margaret Renkl on April 13. We will be delving into her book The Comfort of Crows, which tells the story of the creatures and plants observed in her backyard over the course of a year. 

    Moving through the seasons—beginning with a crow spied on New Year’s Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year—what develops is a portrait of joy and grief. Joy at the ongoing pleasures of the natural world: “Until the very last cricket falls silent, the beauty-besotted will always find a reason to love the world.” And grief at a shifting climate, at winters that end too soon, at songbirds growing fewer and fewer.

    Along the way, we also glimpse the changing rhythms of a human life. Grown children, unexpectedly home during the pandemic, prepare to depart once more. Birdsong and night-blooming flowers evoke generations past. The city and the country where Renkl raised her family transform a little more with every passing day. How can one person make a difference amid such destabilizing changes?

    Exploring Renkl’s observations and themes of change, personal action, and hope, this intimate brunch chat will span topics from taking time to notice and appreciate nature right outside your door, to preserving and restoring wildlife habitat, addressing climate change, and making other difficult systemic changes in the way human beings live. 

    Our venue, Bull Run, is a farm-to-table restaurant and function hall situated in a historic tavern at 215 Great Road in Shirley, MA. You can enjoy their delicious brunch buffet before or during the discussion with Margaret, included as part of your ticket.

    The Comfort of Crows and its companion journal Leaf, Cloud, Crow, will be available for purchase and signing at the event, courtesy of Little Bee Bookshop in Ayer.

    Doors open at 10 am – book signing prior to discussion. Discussion begins at noon. Grow Native members $50, public $60, including brunch. Register at www.grownativemass.org

  • Monday, February 3, 6:30 pm – Curated Cuisine: Easy Weeknight Dinners

    WBUR and CitySpace host an edition of Curated Cuisine on February 3 with New York Times Cooking’s Emily Weinstein, Melissa Clark, and Eric Kim. Inspired by one of The New York Times’s most popular newsletters, Weinstein’s “Five Weeknight Dishes,” the new book Easy Weeknight Dinners offers 100 fast and flavorful meals that will satisfy whether you’re seeking a standout dinner for one, crowd pleasers for picky kids or something special for company. Just because you’re busy doesn’t mean that you can’t have something excellent to eat.

    Weinstein will be joined by popular Cooking columnists Melissa Clark and Eric Kim, who will discuss recipe writing, go-to meals and tips for easy excellence in the kitchen. Copies of the book will be available for purchase, the chefs will sign and guests will enjoy a bite from the book following the conversation. $10 (students) – $30. Register HERE.

  • Tuesday, February 7, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm Eastern – Sargent’s Women: Four Lives Behind the Canvas, Online

    Sargent’s Women explores the extraordinary lives of four women painted by the iconic, high-society Gilded Age portraitist John Singer Sargent. Each woman inhabited a rarefied world of large fortunes and strict conventions, yet managed to do something unexpected to upend society’s rules. Basing her research on original letters and diaries, author Donna Lucey uncovered stories of forbidden love, family conflict, ambition, desire, and triumph. The New York Times Book Review called Sargent’s Women “[a] rollicking snow globe version of an almost unimaginable world of wealth.” Chosen as a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, Sargent’s Women won the 2019 Victorian Society in America Book Award and the 2018 Art in Literature Mary Lynn Kotz Award, and was a finalist for the 2018 best work of nonfiction for the Library of Virginia Literary Awards.

    Donna M. Lucey is the author of a number of award-winning books on the Gilded Age, including the New York Times best-selling Archie and Amélie: Love and Madness in the Gilded Age and Photographing Montana 1894–1928: The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron. Ms. Lucey has been awarded two National Endowment for the Humanities grants as an independent scholar, and was a 2017 writer-in-residence at Edith Wharton’s The Mount. She lives with her husband, author Henry Wiencek, in Charlottesville, Virginia, and is currently at work on a book titled Victoria’s Island, on Queen Victoria’s summer residence on the Isle of Wight.

    The Gibson House Museum is sponsoring this virtual talk on February 7 from 7 – 8 with Donna M. Lucey. $10 for Gibson House members, $12 for nonmembers. A $1.00 registration fee will be assessed by the ticketing provider Fareharbor in addition to the program cost. Register HERE.

  • Thursday, January 26, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Wicked Plants Book Talk, Online

    In her New York Times bestseller Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities, Amy Stewart takes on Mother Nature’s most appalling creations. It’s an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend. Drawing on history, medicine, science, and legend, Stewart presents tales of bloodcurdling botany that will entertain, alarm, and enlighten even the most intrepid gardeners and nature lovers.

    This is an Arnold Arboretum free virtual-only event. You will receive a Zoom link upon registering. Register at https://arboretum.harvard.edu/events/event-signup/?id=61526

  • Tuesday, July 26, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Cooking with the Expert: African American Flavors & Stories, Online

    A recipe is so much more than a culmination of ingredients; a recipe can carry a story, passed from generation to generation. This concept is familiar to cookbook author Nicole A. Taylor. Nicole combines traditional African-American flavors with a modern flair in recipes that encompass our past, present, and future.   

    Nicole’s latest cookbook, Watermelon and Red Birds, is the first cookbook to celebrate Juneteenth. Her recipes and anecdotes aim to inspire celebrations of this important American holiday. Nicole has also written for the New York Times, Bon Appetit, and Food & Wine, and is the executive producer of If We So Choose, a documentary short about the desegregation of an iconic fast-food location.  Join GBH on July 26 as we explore her latest cookbook and cook alongside her. Bring your culinary questions to the table for Nicole to answer! 

    This virtual event will begin at 7PM EDT Have a question? Contact our Audience and Member Services Department at  info@wgbh.org or 617-300-3300 Register for free ticket HERE

  • Sunday, March 7, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Landscaping Your Historic Home, Online

    Whether your house was built in the 17th century or the 21st, you can create a garden to suit its style. This online Berkshire Botanical Garden lecture on March 7 at 1 pm Eastern by author, horticulturist and landscape historian Marta McDowell covers American residential gardening fashions from the Colonial period to the present. In this online class you will learn design basics and the steps to take to create an authentic, appealing landscape for your home. $15 for BBG members, $25 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/landscaping-your-historic-home

    Marta McDowell teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden and consults for private clients and public gardens. Her latest book is Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life. She is also the author of The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder, New York Times bestselling All the Presidents’ Gardens, and Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, now in its seventh printing, all published by Timber Press. Marta is working on a new book about The Secret Garden and its author, Frances Hodgson Burnett, due out from Timber Press in 2021. She is the 2019 recipient of the Garden Club of America’s Sarah Chapman Francis Medal for outstanding literary achievement.

  • Wednesday, November 11, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Living Wild with Hilton Carter, Online

    Author, artist, and plant stylist, Hilton Carter is an advocate for seeing plants as living beings worthy of your passion, time, and attention. His own home is filled with more than 200 of them. In this talk, he’ll share the best plants for particular rooms, his top 10 favorites right now, and how to care for them. Along the way you’ll get inspiration on how to use plants to create an oasis of calm in your own home.

    Hilton Carter’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, HGTV, and BuzzFeed among others. His popular 2019 book, Wild at Home, was followed up this year with Wild Interiors: Beautiful Plants in Beautiful Spaces. This New York Botanical Garden webinar will take place November 11 from 7 – 8, and is $15 for NYBG members, $18 for nonmembers. Register HERE.

  • Thursday, October 15, 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm – Marcus Samuelsson in Conversation with Toni Griffin, Online

    The Harvard Graduate School of Design is pleased to present a series of talks and webinars broadcast to our audiences via Zoom. *This lecture will be ONLINE ONLY. For security reasons, virtual attendees must register. Scroll down to find complete instructions for how to register. On October 15, the Roouse Visiting Artist Lecture will feature Marcus Samuelsson in conversation with Toni Griffin.

    Marcus Samuelsson is the acclaimed chef behind many restaurants worldwide including Red Rooster Harlem, MARCUS Montreal, and Marcus B&P in Newark, NJ. Samuelsson was the youngest person to ever receive a three-star review from The New York Times and has won multiple James Beard Foundation Awards including Best Chef: New York City and Outstanding Personality for No Passport Required on PBS. He is the author of multiple books including The New York Times bestselling memoir Yes, Chef and his latest book– The Red Rooster Cookbook: The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem. His podcast titled This Moment with Swedish rapper Timbuktu is out now.

    Follow Samuelsson on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at @MarcusCooks.

    Toni L. Griffin is the founder of urbanAC, based in New York, specializing in leading complex, trans-disciplinary planning and urban design projects for multi-sector clients in cities with long histories of spatial and social injustice. Recent and current clients include the cities of Detroit, Memphis, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Philadelphia.

    Toni is also Professor in Practice of Urban Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and leads The Just City Lab, a research platform for developing values-based planning methodologies and tools, including the Just City Index and a framework of indicators and metrics for evaluating public life and urban justice in public plazas.

    Toni is also Professor in Practice of Urban Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and leads The Just City Lab, a research platform for developing values-based planning methodologies and tools, including the Just City Index and a framework of indicators and metrics for evaluating public life and urban justice in public plazas.

    Register to attend the lecture here. Once you have registered, you will be provided with a link to join the lecture via Zoom. This link will also be emailed to you.

    The event will also be live streamed to the GSD’s YouTube page. Only viewers who are attending the lecture via Zoom will be able to submit questions for the Q+A. Live captioning will be provided during this event. After the event has ended, a transcript will be available upon request.

  • Thursday, July 23, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm – Emily Dickenson’s Gardening Life Webinar

    On July 23 at 6:30 pm, enjoy a Berkshire Botanical Garden lecture and Q&A session with author Marta McDowell about her new book, Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life. In addition to writing poetry, The Belle of Amherst was a gardener. She cultivated flowers on her father’s property and in the glass conservatory that he added to the Homestead. This lecture explores Dickinson’s gardens through excerpts from her letters and poems and historic and modern images of her garden. The book is available for purchase through the BBG online shop. Our Summer Author Series is presented in collaboration with Tower Hill Botanic Garden and Timber Press. $10 for sponsor members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/summer-author-series-marta-mcdowell-emily-dickinsons-gardening-life-online

    Marta McDowell teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden and consults for private clients and public gardens. Her latest book is Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life, published by Timber Press, who also published The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder, New York Times bestselling All the Presidents’ Gardens and Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, now in its seventh printing. Marta is working on a new book about The Secret Garden and its author, Frances Hodgson Burnett, due out from Timber Press in 2021. She is the 2019 recipient of the Garden Club of America’s Sarah Chapman Francis Medal for outstanding literary achievement.

  • From the Archives: Early Fundraising with Thalassa Cruso

    Every not for profit group needs to do its share of fundraising so all its planned projects and improvements can be paid for, and The Garden Club of the Back Bay is no exception.  In 1983 we welcomed Thalassa Cruso  (1909 – 1997) at the First and Second Church on Marlborough Street (now known as First Church, Boston). Her lecture was entitled My Grandfather’s Garden. Tickets were $6 in advance and $8 on the day of the event, and included refreshments in the Library Courtyard garden.

    Thalassa Cruso was well known as the host of WGBH’s Making Things Grow, and was a successful author and newspaper columnist. In her obituary in the New York Times, she was referred to as “The Julia Child of horticulture” and “In brisk, impeccable diction, she indoctrinated viewers into the mysterious world of cyclamen and spathiphyllum, enjoining them to tend their plants with loving kindness, and to throw them in the dustbin without a backward glance if the little ingrates failed to respond.”  Net profits from the event totaled $387.45, with 69 tickets sold. Image from www.digitalcommonwealth.org.