Hearing Roots: Plant Oral Histories (2024)
By Clarissa Annabel Shane
The volunteers and visitors of the community garden will listen to recordings of plant knowledge keepers. The attendees will have the opportunity to experience the plant by making an herbal drink. The goal is for the attendees to embody the oral history archive by taking home a guide of the plants shared so that stories from narrators continue to circulate (so that more people can engage in reciprocity with the plants - to know, use, and keep the plants alive).
As part of the 2024 exhibition, Clarissa hosted the HERBARIUM + COMMUNITY GARDEN EARTH DAY CELEBRATION!.
Visit a community garden and listen to plant knowledge keepers share narratives from their plant relations. Experience for yourself the power of the plants shared in the oral histories by making your own hands-on herbal wellness drinks. Embody the oral history archive by taking home a guide of the plants you meet and continuing to introduce them to your kinships. Please gather with us for a celebration of our Earth to explore the plants and ecologies we love. This is an event to connect with others, including neighbors and folks from Regiven Environmental Project, William B. Washington Memorial Garden, and the New York Botanical Garden, to talk about topics of interest and importance to us! Please feel free to bring small items for sharing and show and tell, such as favorite books, works of art, preserved plants, seeds, and related upcoming event information. This event is a part of the Herbarium + Community Garden Initiative, an interdisciplinary collaboration between community members and the NYBG Herbarium, Humanities Institute, and Bronx Green-Up, in partnership with Regiven Environmental Project, Regiven Compost Jewels, and William B. Washington Memorial Garden.
