Join us for a campus plant walk inspired by Oxy's '23 Community Book selection, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Join us for a campus plant walk inspired by Occidental College's 2023 Community Book selection, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Led by Professors Gretchen North, Jocelyn Pedersen and Meztli Projects, this plant walk is an opportunity to learn about and build relationships with the plants on campus and around Fiji Hill. There will be a focus on Native plants, and the way these plants can be used to create inks and dyes. This event is free, all ages, and open to all. Register here.
The walk will start at Sycamore Glen on Occidental College's camps. You can find Sycamore Glen on an interactive map here: https://map.oxy.edu/?id=1103#!m/267722
At the end of the walk, there will be an optional gallery visit at OXY ARTS to see The Iridescence of Knowing - a group exhibition featuring work by 16 First Peoples artists exploring the rich lineage of Indigenous cultural production in Tovaangar, known today as the greater Los Angeles basin.
Join us for a follow up workshop to the walk, where we will create artwork using natural dyes created using local plants. Date TBA.
Meztli Projects is an Indigenous based arts & culture collaborative centering Indigeneity into the creative practice of Los Angeles by using arts-based strategies to support, advocate for, and organize to highlight Native and Indigenous Artists and systems-impacted youth.
Gretchen North is the Chair of Occidental College's Biology Department. Her work investigates how plants cope with physically challenging conditions. Dr. North's research focuses on plant physiological ecology, with an emphasis on the water relations of arid-land plants.
Jocelyn Pedersen is a Los Angeles based artist and fine press printer. She currently teaches courses in Typography/Letterpress Printing and Hand Printed Book Production at Occidental College.
