FORESTS Speakers Series: Ross Gay

Thursday, February 4, 2021, 7:30 PM
"The Trees Wave Their Knotted Branches And": A Conversation with Ross Gay

To view the discussion from February 4th, please click: Ross Gay

"The Trees Wave Their Knotted Branches And" is a lyric meditation on trees and forests that considers the abundance and beauty and sanctuary of trees, in addition to the violence in which trees have so often been enlisted. This talk moves through personal story and legal history; it engages with photography, painting, poetry and fiction; it wonders hard about the ecological understandings that might make the possibility of our own survival possible; and it contends, deeply, with sorrow—sorrow as something, perhaps, the trees can show us how to hold. This talk joins the great poet Lucille Clifton in asking: "whenever I begin / 'the trees wave their knotted branches / and....' Why / is there under that poem always / another poem?"

To learn more about Mr. Gay, please visit his personal website: Ross Gay