When Trees Testify: Reclaiming America's Black Botanical Legacy with Beronda Montgomery

About this event

This author talk will be held online via our Authors and Speakers site, in partnership with the Library Speakers Consortium. By registering via the Event Link (see below), you'll receive an email with the watch link and reminders as the event approaches. After the talk ends, you'll receive an email with a link to the recording. Join us for a riveting conversation with award-winning biologist Beronda Montgomery as we discuss her book, When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy. The histories of trees in America are also the histories of Black Americans. Pecan trees were domesticated by an enslaved African named Antoine; sycamore trees were both havens and signposts for people trying to escape enslavement; poplar trees are historically associated with lynching; and willow bark has offered the gift of medicine. These trees, and others, testify not only to the complexity of the Black American narrative but also to a heritage of Black botanical expertise that, like Native American traditions, predates the United States entirely. In When Trees Testify, award-winning plant biologist Beronda L. Montgomery explores the ways seven trees, as well as the cotton shrub, are intertwined with Black history and culture. She reveals how knowledge surrounding these trees has shaped America since the very beginning. As Montgomery shows, trees are material witnesses to the lives of enslaved Africans and their descendants. Combining the wisdom of science and history with stories from her own path to botany, Montgomery talks to majestic trees, and in this unique and compelling narrative, they answer. Register today for this insightful discussion about Black history and botanical mastery. About the Author: Beronda L. Montgomery, PhD, is a writer, researcher, and scholar who pursues a common theme of understanding how individuals perceive, respond to, and are impacted by the environments in which they exist. Her primary laboratory-based…

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