Braiding Sweetgrass Discussion Questions

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  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: A Way to Garden Margaret Roach, 2019-04-30 “A Way to Garden prods us toward that ineffable place where we feel we belong; it’s a guide to living both in and out of the garden.” —The New York Times Book Review For Margaret Roach, gardening is more than a hobby, it’s a calling. Her unique approach, which she calls “horticultural how-to and woo-woo,” is a blend of vital information you need to memorize and intuitive steps you must simply feel and surrender to. In A Way to Garden, Roach imparts decades of garden wisdom on seasonal gardening, ornamental plants, vegetable gardening, design, gardening for wildlife, organic practices, and much more. She also challenges gardeners to think beyond their garden borders and to consider the ways gardening can enrich the world. Brimming with beautiful photographs of Roach’s own garden, A Way to Garden is practical, inspiring, and a must-have for every passionate gardener.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Study Guide Supersummary, 2019-12-08 SuperSummary, a modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, offers high-quality study guides for challenging works of literature. This 65-page guide for Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer includes detailed chapter summaries and analysis covering 32 chapters, as well as several more in-depth sections of expert-written literary analysis. Featured content includes commentary on major characters, 25 important quotes, essay topics, and key themes like The History of Indigenous People and The Intersection of Science and Spirituality.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults Robin Wall Kimmerer, Monique Gray Smith, 2022-11-01 Drawing from her experiences as an Indigenous scientist, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer demonstrated how all living things—from strawberries and witch hazel to water lilies and lichen—provide us with gifts and lessons every day in her best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass. Adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith, this new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us. With informative sidebars, reflection questions, and art from illustrator Nicole Neidhardt, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults brings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons of plant life to a new generation.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Coyote America Dan Flores, 2016-06-07 The New York Times best-selling account of how coyotes--long the target of an extermination policy--spread to every corner of the United States Finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award A masterly synthesis of scientific research and personal observation. -Wall Street Journal Legends don't come close to capturing the incredible story of the coyote. In the face of centuries of campaigns of annihilation employing gases, helicopters, and engineered epidemics, coyotes didn't just survive, they thrived, expanding across the continent from Alaska to New York. In the war between humans and coyotes, coyotes have won, hands-down. Coyote America is the illuminating five-million-year biography of this extraordinary animal, from its origins to its apotheosis. It is one of the great epics of our time.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Difficult Women Roxane Gay, 2017-01-03 The New York Times–bestselling author of Bad Feminist shares a collection of stories about hardscrabble lives, passionate loves and vexed human connection. The women in these stories live lives of privilege and of poverty, are in marriages both loving and haunted by past crimes or emotional blackmail. A pair of sisters, grown now, have been inseparable ever since they were abducted together as children, and must negotiate the elder sister’s marriage. A woman married to a twin pretends not to realize when her husband and his brother impersonate each other. A stripper putting herself through college fends off the advances of an overzealous customer. A black engineer moves to Upper Michigan for a job and faces the malign curiosity of her colleagues and the difficulty of leaving her past behind. From a girls’ fight club to a wealthy subdivision in Florida where neighbors conform, compete, and spy on each other, Roxanne Gay delivers a wry, beautiful, haunting vision of modern America with her “signature wry wit and piercing psychological depth” (Harper’s Bazaar).
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Sky Woman Falling Kirk Mitchell, 2004-11-02 She’s an FBI Special Agent and Modoc Indian. He’s a Bureau of Indian Affairs Investigator and Comanche. Together, Anna Turnipseed and Emmett Parker have proven to be “a memorable literary pair” (Publishers Weekly). Now, they’re called upon to tackle a case thousands of miles from their home-sweet-home on the range... On the New York reservation of the Oneida, the team finds the broken body of Brenda Two Kettles, a community elder, in a cornfield. From what Turnipseed and Parker can see, she wasn’t attacked. Instead, it seems Ms. Two Kettles—much like the woman in the Oneida creation myth—simply fell out of sky. But it’s a land dispute that has claimed Ms. Two Kettles’ life—one that threatens to ground Turnipseed and Parker in facts far stranger than fiction...
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral Kris Radish, 2006 Annie Freeman, left one final request, a traveling funeral, and she wants the most important women in her life as pallbearers. From Sonoma to Manhattan, Katherine, Laura, Rebecca, Jill, and Marie will carry Annie's ashes to the special places in her life. At every stop there's a surprise encounter and a small miracle waiting, and as they whoop it up across the country, attracting interest wherever they go, they share their deepest secrets--tales of broken hearts and second chances, missed opportunities and new beginnings. And as they grieve over what they've lost, they discover how much is still possible if only they can unravel the secret Annie left them.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Nurturing Our Humanity Riane Tennenhaus Eisler, Douglas P. Fry, 2019 Nurturing Our Humanity offers a new perspective on our personal and social options in today's world, showing how to structure our environments--from family and gender relations to politics and economics--to support our great capacities for consciousness, caring, and creativity. It examines where societies fall on the partnership-domination scale, and how this impacts equity, sustainability, peace, and how our brains develop. Combining cutting-edge findings from biological and social science, it explains regressions to strongman rule and other dangerous trends; re-examines our past (including societies that for millennia oriented toward partnership); and outlines actions to move us in this life-sustaining and enhancing direction.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: The First Blade of Sweetgrass Suzanne Greenlaw, Gabriel Frey, 2021-08-10 Selected for the Notable Social Studies 2022 List Named to ALA Notable Children's Books 2022 In this Own Voices Native American picture book story, a modern Wabanaki girl is excited to accompany her grandmother for the first time to harvest sweetgrass for basket making. Musquon must overcome her impatience while learning to distinguish sweetgrass from other salt marsh grasses, but slowly the spirit and peace of her surroundings speak to her, and she gathers sweetgrass as her ancestors have done for centuries, leaving the first blade she sees to grow for future generations. This sweet, authentic story from a Maliseet mother and her Passamaquoddy husband includes backmatter about traditional basket making and a Wabanaki glossary.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Mind and Matter John Urschel, Louisa Thomas, 2019 For John Urschel, what began as an insatiable appetite for puzzles as a child quickly evolved into mastery of the elegant systems and rules of mathematics. By the time he was thirteen, Urschel was auditing college-level calculus courses. But when he joined his high school football team, a new interest began to eclipse the thrill he once felt in the classroom. Football challenged Urschel in an entirely different way, and he became addicted to the physical contact of the sport. Accepting a scholarship to play football at Penn State, Urschel refused to sacrifice one passion for another, and simultaneously pursued his bachelor's and then master's degrees in mathematics. Against the odds, Urschel found a way to manage his double life as a scholar and an athlete, and so when he was drafted to the Baltimore Ravens, he enrolled in his PhD at MIT. Weaving together two separate yet bound narratives, Urschel relives for us the most pivotal moments of his bifurcated life. He explains why, after Penn State was sanctioned for the acts of former coach Jerry Sandusky, he turned his back on offers from Ivy League universities and refused to abandon his team, and contends with his mother's repeated request, at the end of every season, that he quit the sport and pursue a career in rocket science. Perhaps most personally, he opens up about the correlation between football and CTE, and the risks he took for the game he loves. Equally at home with both Bernard Riemann's notion of infinity and Bill Belichick's playbook, Urschel reveals how each challenge - whether on the field or in the classroom - has brought him closer to understanding the two different halves of his own life, and how reason and emotion, the mind and the body, are always working together--
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: See No Stranger Valarie Kaur, 2020-06-16 An urgent manifesto and a dramatic memoir of awakening, this is the story of revolutionary love. Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize • “In a world stricken with fear and turmoil, Valarie Kaur shows us how to summon our deepest wisdom.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love How do we love in a time of rage? How do we fix a broken world while not breaking ourselves? Valarie Kaur—renowned Sikh activist, filmmaker, and civil rights lawyer—describes revolutionary love as the call of our time, a radical, joyful practice that extends in three directions: to others, to our opponents, and to ourselves. It enjoins us to see no stranger but instead look at others and say: You are part of me I do not yet know. Starting from that place of wonder, the world begins to change: It is a practice that can transform a relationship, a community, a culture, even a nation. Kaur takes readers through her own riveting journey—as a brown girl growing up in California farmland finding her place in the world; as a young adult galvanized by the murders of Sikhs after 9/11; as a law student fighting injustices in American prisons and on Guantánamo Bay; as an activist working with communities recovering from xenophobic attacks; and as a woman trying to heal from her own experiences with police violence and sexual assault. Drawing from the wisdom of sages, scientists, and activists, Kaur reclaims love as an active, public, and revolutionary force that creates new possibilities for ourselves, our communities, and our world. See No Stranger helps us imagine new ways of being with each other—and with ourselves—so that together we can begin to build the world we want to see.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: The Seed Keeper Diane Wilson, 2021-03-09 A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakhóta family’s struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most. Rosalie Iron Wing has grown up in the woods with her father, Ray, a former science teacher who tells her stories of plants, of the stars, of the origins of the Dakhóta people. Until, one morning, Ray doesn’t return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to live with a foster family in nearby Mankato—where the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they’ve inherited. On a winter’s day many years later, Rosalie returns to her childhood home. A widow and mother, she has spent the previous two decades on her white husband’s farm, finding solace in her garden even as the farm is threatened first by drought and then by a predatory chemical company. Now, grieving, Rosalie begins to confront the past, on a search for family, identity, and a community where she can finally belong. In the process, she learns what it means to be descended from women with souls of iron—women who have protected their families, their traditions, and a precious cache of seeds through generations of hardship and loss, through war and the insidious trauma of boarding schools. Weaving together the voices of four indelible women, The Seed Keeper is a beautifully told story of reawakening, of remembering our original relationship to the seeds and, through them, to our ancestors.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Career Theory and Practice Jane L. Swanson, Nadya A. Fouad, 2014-07-11 Unique in the way it links five major career development and choice theories to a fictional case client, this user-friendly text is ideal for counselors engaged in helping clients make wise career choices. Thoroughly updated, the Third Edition of Career Theory and Practice takes a multicultural approach as it blends theory, practical examples, and specific cases, helping readers apply a wide range of career development theories to counseling clients.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: World of Wonders Aimee Nezhukumatathil, 2020-09-08 “A poet celebrates the wonders of nature in a collection of essays that could almost serve as a coming-of-age memoir.” —Kirkus Reviews As a child, Nezhukumatathil called many places home: the grounds of a Kansas mental institution, where her Filipina mother was a doctor; the open skies and tall mountains of Arizona, where she hiked with her Indian father; and the chillier climes of western New York and Ohio. But no matter where she was transplanted—no matter how awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape—she was able to turn to our world’s fierce and funny creatures for guidance. “What the peacock can do,” she tells us, “is remind you of a home you will run away from and run back to all your life.” The axolotl teaches us to smile, even in the face of unkindness; the touch-me-not plant shows us how to shake off unwanted advances; the narwhal demonstrates how to survive in hostile environments. Even in the strange and the unlovely, Nezhukumatathil finds beauty and kinship. For it is this way with wonder: it requires that we are curious enough to look past the distractions in order to fully appreciate the world’s gifts. Warm, lyrical, and gorgeously illustrated by Fumi Nakamura, World of Wonders is a book of sustenance and joy. Praise for World of Wonders Barnes & Noble 2020 Book of the Year An NPR Best Book of 2020 An Esquire Best Book of 2020 A Publishers Weekly “Big Indie Book of Fall 2020” A BuzzFeed Best Book of Fall 2020 “Hands-down one of the most beautiful books of the year.” —NPR “A timely story about love, identity and belonging.” —New York Times Book Review “A truly wonderous essay collection.” —Roxane Gay, The Audacity
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Gathering Moss Robin Wall Kimmerer, 2021-07-01 'Kimmerer blends, with deep attentiveness and musicality, science and personal insights to tell the overlooked story of the planet's oldest plants' Guardian 'Bewitching ... a masterwork ... a glittering read in its entirety' Maria Popova, Brainpickings Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses. In these interwoven essays, Robin Wall Kimmerer leads general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings. Kimmerer explains the biology of mosses clearly and artfully, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us. Drawing on her experiences as a scientist, a mother, and a Native American, Kimmerer explains the stories of mosses in scientific terms as well as within the framework of indigenous ways of knowing. In her book, the natural history and cultural relationships of mosses become a powerful metaphor for ways of living in the world.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Hell of a Book Jason Mott, 2022-06-28 ***2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER*** ***THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER*** Winner of the 2021 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize Finalist, 2022 Chautauqua Prize Finalist, Willie Morris Award for Southern Writing Shortlist, 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize Shortlist, 2022 Maya Angelou Book Award Shortlist, 2022 Carnegie Medal Longlist A Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! An Ebony Magazine Publishing Book Club Pick! One of Washington Post's 50 Notable Works of Fiction | One of Philadelphia Inquirer's Best Books of 2021 | One of Shelf Awareness's Top Ten Fiction Titles of the Year | One of TIME Magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books | One of NPR.org's Books We Love | EW’s Guide to the Biggest and Buzziest Books of 2021 | One of the New York Public Library's Best Books for Adults | San Diego Union Tribune—My Favorite Things from 2021 | Writer's Bone's Best Books of 2021 | Atlanta Journal Constitution—Top 10 Southern Books of the Year | One of the Guardian's (UK) Best Ten 21st Century Comic Novels | One of Entertainment Weekly's 15 Books You Need to Read This June | On Entertainment Weekly's Must List | One of the New York Post's Best Summer Reading books | One of GMA's 27 Books for June | One of USA Today's 5 Books Not to Miss | One of Fortune's 21 Most Anticipated Books Coming Out in the Second Half of 2021 | One of The Root's PageTurners: It’s Getting Hot in Here | One of Real Simple's Best New Books to Read in 2021 An astounding work of fiction from New York Times bestselling author Jason Mott, always deeply honest, at times electrically funny, that goes to the heart of racism, police violence, and the hidden costs exacted upon Black Americans and America as a whole In Jason Mott’s Hell of a Book, a Black author sets out on a cross-country publicity tour to promote his bestselling novel. That storyline drives Hell of a Book and is the scaffolding of something much larger and more urgent: Mott’s novel also tells the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour. As these characters’ stories build and converge, they astonish. For while this heartbreaking and magical book entertains and is at once about family, love of parents and children, art and money, it’s also about the nation’s reckoning with a tragic police shooting playing over and over again on the news. And with what it can mean to be Black in America. Who has been killed? Who is The Kid? Will the author finish his book tour, and what kind of world will he leave behind? Unforgettably told, with characters who burn into your mind and an electrifying plot ideal for book club discussion, Hell of a Book is the novel Mott has been writing in his head for the last ten years. And in its final twists, it truly becomes its title.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: The Democracy of Species Robin Wall Kimmerer, 2021-08-26 In twenty short books, Penguin brings you the classics of the environmental movement. In The Democracy of Species Robin Wall Kimmerer guides us towards a more reciprocal, grateful and joyful relationship with our animate earth, from the wild leeks in the field to the deer in the woods. Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As life on Earth has become irrevocably altered by humans, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend the planet, and affirm our place at the heart of its restoration. Their words have endured through the decades, becoming the classics of a movement. Together, these books show the richness of environmental thought, and point the way to a fairer, saner, greener world.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: The Sacred Depths of Nature Ursula Goodenough, 1998 Documentary looking at caravan enthusiasts and how they have made their caravans into a way of life. The programme incudes tips from caravan veterans about restoration, interiors, gadgets and accessories.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: A History of Nebraska Agriculture: A Life Worth Living Jody L. Lamp & Melody Dobson, 2017-06-12 Once known as the Great American Desert, Nebraska's plains and native grasslands today make it a domestic leader in producing food, feed and fuel. From Omaha to Ogallala, Nebraska's founding farmers, ranchers and agribusiness leaders endured hardships while fostering kinships that have lasted generations. While many continued on the trails leading west, others from around the world stayed, seeking a home and land to cultivate. American Doorstop Project co-founders and authors Jody L. Lamp and Melody Dobson celebrate the state's forgotten and untold agricultural history, highlighting more than a century and a half of agriculture industry, inventions and innovations in the Cornhusker State.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Coming of Age in Second Life Tom Boellstorff, 2015-08-25 Millions of people around the world today spend portions of their lives in online virtual worlds. Second Life is one of the largest of these virtual worlds. The residents of Second Life create communities, buy property and build homes, go to concerts, meet in bars, attend weddings and religious services, buy and sell virtual goods and services, find friendship, fall in love--the possibilities are endless, and all encountered through a computer screen. At the time of its initial publication in 2008, Coming of Age in Second Life was the first book of anthropology to examine this thriving alternate universe. Tom Boellstorff conducted more than two years of fieldwork in Second Life, living among and observing its residents in exactly the same way anthropologists traditionally have done to learn about cultures and social groups in the so-called real world. He conducted his research as the avatar Tom Bukowski, and applied the rigorous methods of anthropology to study many facets of this new frontier of human life, including issues of gender, race, sex, money, conflict and antisocial behavior, the construction of place and time, and the interplay of self and group. Coming of Age in Second Life shows how virtual worlds can change ideas about identity and society. Bringing anthropology into territory never before studied, this book demonstrates that in some ways humans have always been virtual, and that virtual worlds in all their rich complexity build upon a human capacity for culture that is as old as humanity itself. Now with a new preface in which the author places his book in light of the most recent transformations in online culture, Coming of Age in Second Life remains the classic ethnography of virtual worlds.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Rebel Witch Kelly-Ann Maddox, 2021-04-13 A truly contemporary take on how to be a witch, Rebel Witch is an antidote to the cookie-cutter witchcraft agenda that gives a new perspective on the craft, asking each reader to create a powerful, personalized practice that taps into the current mood of female empowerment and spiritual rebellion. Rebel Witch reminds witches of the wondrous opportunity to jump into experimentation and invent something wild and individual, a practice shaped by their individual personality and life journey, rather than allowing themselves to be spoon-fed. It challenges witches to design a nurturing practice that is truly theirs. There's information about all the elements of the craft, from energy raising, sacred space creation and receiving signs to casting spells, holding rituals, scrying, potions and much more … crucially, in each case the topic is discussed from an exciting contemporary perspective. So, when Kelly-Ann talks about sacred texts, she stresses that you can choose the texts that resonate with you – so why not Alice in Wonderland or Narnia? Maybe you want to move away from the traditional Wheel of the Year and create your own divisions? Instead of honouring a traditional deity, why not construct your own, choosing elements from rock stars, movie icons or fictional heroes? Or embody magical signs in your clothing and jewellery? Creativity and experimentation are encouraged, with tips to help the reader to be inventive. A curious reader with a desire to create an inspired, deeply personal path and free themselves from conformity will finish the book ready to take action and make magick happen!
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: The Home Place J. Drew Lanham, 2016-08-22 “A groundbreaking work about race and the American landscape, and a deep meditation on nature…wise and beautiful.”—Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk A Foreword Reviews Best Book of the Year and Nautilus Silver Award Winner In me, there is the red of miry clay, the brown of spring floods, the gold of ripening tobacco. All of these hues are me; I am, in the deepest sense, colored. Dating back to slavery, Edgefield County, South Carolina—a place “easy to pass by on the way somewhere else”—has been home to generations of Lanhams. In The Home Place, readers meet these extraordinary people, including Drew himself, who over the course of the 1970s falls in love with the natural world around him. As his passion takes flight, however, he begins to ask what it means to be “the rare bird, the oddity.” By turns angry, funny, elegiac, and heartbreaking, The Home Place is a meditation on nature and belonging by an ornithologist and professor of ecology, at once a deeply moving memoir and riveting exploration of the contradictions of black identity in the rural South—and in America today. “When you’re done with The Home Place, it won’t be done with you. Its wonders will linger like everything luminous.”—Star Tribune “A lyrical story about the power of the wild…synthesizes his own family history, geography, nature, and race into a compelling argument for conservation and resilience.”—National Geographic
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Dear Church Lenny Duncan, 2019-07-02 Lenny Duncan is the unlikeliest of pastors. Formerly incarcerated, he is now a black preacher in the whitest denomination in the United States: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Shifting demographics and shrinking congregations make all the headlines, but Duncan sees something else at work--drawing a direct line between the church's lack of diversity and the church's lack of vitality. The problems the ELCA faces are theological, not sociological. But so are the answers. Part manifesto, part confession, and all love letter, Dear Church offers a bold new vision for the future of Duncan's denomination and the broader mainline Christian community of faith. Dear Church rejects the narrative of church decline and calls everyone--leaders and laity alike--to the front lines of the church's renewal through racial equality and justice. It is time for the church to rise up, dust itself off, and take on forces of this world that act against God: whiteness, misogyny, nationalism, homophobia, and economic injustice. Duncan gives a blueprint for the way forward and urges us to follow in the revolutionary path of Jesus. Dear Church also features a discussion guide at the back--perfect for church groups, book clubs, and other group discussion.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Seeds of Hope Jane Goodall, 2014-04-01 From world-renowned scientist Jane Goodall, as seen in the new National Geographic documentary Jane, comes a fascinating examination of the critical role that trees and plants play in our world. From world-renowned scientist Jane Goodall, as seen in the new National Geographic documentary Jane, comes a fascinating examination of the critical role that trees and plants play in our world. Seeds of Hope takes us from Goodall's home in England to her home-away-from-home in Africa, deep inside the Gombe forest, where she and the chimpanzees are enchanted by the fig and plum trees they encounter. She introduces us to botanists around the world, as well as places where hope for plants can be found, such as The Millennium Seed Bank. She shows us the secret world of plants with all their mysteries and potential for healing our bodies as well as Planet Earth. Looking at the world as an adventurer, scientist, and devotee of sustainable foods and gardening--and setting forth simple goals we can all take to protect the plants around us--Goodall delivers an enlightening story of the wonders we can find in our own backyards.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: No One Is Coming to Save Us Stephanie Powell Watts, 2017-04-04 *THE INAUGURAL SARAH JESSICA PARKER PICK FOR BOOK CLUB CENTRAL* CHOSEN AS A 2017 BEST SUMMER READ PICK BY The Wall Street Journal • The Washington Post • The Seattle Times NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2017 BY Entertainment Weekly • Nylon • Elle • Redbook • W Magazine • The Chicago Review of Books JJ Ferguson has returned home to Pinewood, North Carolina, to build his dream house and to pursue his high school sweetheart, Ava. But as he reenters his former world, where factories are in decline and the legacy of Jim Crow is still felt, he’s startled to find that the people he once knew and loved have changed just as much as he has. Ava is now married and desperate for a baby, though she can’t seem to carry one to term. Her husband, Henry, has grown distant, frustrated by the demise of the furniture industry, which has outsourced to China and stripped the area of jobs. Ava’s mother, Sylvia, caters to and meddles with the lives of those around her, trying to fill the void left by her absent son. And Don, Sylvia’s unworthy but charming husband, just won’t stop hanging around. JJ’s return—and his plans to build a huge mansion overlooking Pinewood and woo Ava—not only unsettles their family, but stirs up the entire town. The ostentatious wealth that JJ has attained forces everyone to consider the cards they’ve been dealt, what more they want and deserve, and how they might go about getting it. Can they reorient their lives to align with their wishes rather than their current realities? Or are they all already resigned to the rhythms of the particular lives they lead? No One Is Coming to Save Us is a revelatory debut from an insightful voice: with echoes of The Great Gatsby it is an arresting and powerful novel about an extended African American family and their colliding visions of the American Dream. In evocative prose, Stephanie Powell Watts has crafted a full and stunning portrait that combines a universally resonant story with an intimate glimpse into the hearts of one family.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Sweetgrass Basket Marlene Carvell, 2005-09-22 In prose poetry and alternating voices, Marlene Carvell weaves a heartbreakingly beautiful story based on the real-life experiences of Native American children. Mattie and Sarah are two Mohawk sisters who are sent to an off-reservation school after the death of their mother. Subject to intimidation and corporal punishment, with little hope of contact with their father, the girls are taught menial tasks to prepare them for life as domestics. How Mattie and Sarah protect their culture, memories of their family life, and their love for each other makes for a powerful, unforgettable historical novel.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: American Like Me America Ferrera, 2019-09-03 INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From Academy Award–nominated actress and 2023 SeeHer award recipient America Ferrera comes a vibrant and varied collection of first-person accounts from prominent figures about the experience of growing up between cultures. America Ferrera has always felt wholly American, and yet, her identity is inextricably linked to her parents’ homeland and Honduran culture. Speaking Spanish at home, having Saturday-morning-salsa-dance-parties in the kitchen, and eating tamales alongside apple pie at Christmas never seemed at odds with her American identity. Still, she yearned to see that identity reflected in the larger American narrative. Now, in American Like Me, America invites thirty-one of her friends, peers, and heroes to share their stories about life between cultures. We know them as actors, comedians, athletes, politicians, artists, and writers. However, they are also immigrants, children or grandchildren of immigrants, indigenous people, or people who otherwise grew up with deep and personal connections to more than one culture. Each of them struggled to establish a sense of self, find belonging, and feel seen. And they call themselves American enthusiastically, reluctantly, or not at all. Ranging from the heartfelt to the hilarious, their stories shine a light on a quintessentially American experience and will appeal to anyone with a complicated relationship to family, culture, and growing up.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: A Stranger At Home Christy Jordan-Fenton, Margaret-Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton, 2011-09-01 Margaret can’t wait to see her family, but her homecoming is not what she expected. Traveling to be reunited with her family in the arctic, 10-year-old Margaret Pokiak can hardly contain her excitement. It’s been two years since her parents delivered her to the school run by the dark-cloaked nuns and brothers. Coming ashore, Margaret spots her family, but her mother barely recognizes her, screaming, “Not my girl.” Margaret realizes she is now marked as an outsider. And Margaret is an outsider: she has forgotten the language and stories of her people, and she can’t even stomach the food her mother prepares. However, Margaret gradually relearns her language and her family’s way of living. Along the way, she discovers how important it is to remain true to the ways of her people—and to herself. Highlighted by archival photos and striking artwork, this first-person account of a young girl’s struggle to find her place will inspire young readers to ask what it means to belong.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Motorcycles & Sweetgrass Drew Hayden Taylor, 2021-06-01 A story of magic, family, a mysterious stranger . . . and a band of marauding raccoons. Otter Lake is a sleepy Anishnawbe community where little happens. Until the day a handsome stranger pulls up astride a 1953 Indian Chief motorcycle – and turns Otter Lake completely upside down. Maggie, the Reserve’s chief, is swept off her feet, but Virgil, her teenage son, is less than enchanted. Suspicious of the stranger’s intentions, he teams up with his uncle Wayne – a master of aboriginal martial arts – to drive the stranger from the Reserve. And it turns out that the raccoons are willing to lend a hand.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Wild and Free Nature Ainsley Arment, 2021-03-30 The companion to The Call of the Wild + Free: styled in the lush aesthetic of the Wild + Free brand, a four-color book offering outdoor activities and essays, that parents, educators, and caregivers can use to inspire their children. Wild and Free Nature is a beautiful, four-color resource book for parents, educators, and caregivers to enjoy doing hands-on activities outside with kids. One of the core philosophies behind Wild + Free is the belief that nature is the best classroom we could ever hope for. It unlocks the imagination and inspires creativity in ways that a schoolroom never could. Being out in nature has a number of benefits. Studies show that children are more likely to interact with kids of different ages and learn to problem solve in natural settings. Being in natural settings stimulates the brain and restores cognitive function. Children who spend time in natural settings also interact better with kids of all ages and learn to solve problems more easily. They build muscle and coordination and fend off obesity. It cultivates a sense of responsibility for caring for the earth, not to mention, encourages imaginative play, curiosity, and other qualities necessary to spark a love for investigation and learning. This resource book will help equip parents and adults who work with children to get them outdoors with activities such as: Build a treehouse in the woods. Cultivate a garden plot. Make land art and nature crafts. Create a mud kitchen in the backyard. Go for a nature walk each morning. Find a secret swimming hole. Go to the creek to learn about the water cycle. Plant a garden to see what will grow in your backyard. Raise monarch caterpillars and feed them milkweed until they transform into butterflies. Set up a birdwatching station in your front window equipped with binoculars, notebooks, and bird guides. Make a wilderness fort with the fallen branches from trees. With the same lush photography as The Call of the Wild + Free, this book includes step-by-step pictures that show parents how to do the activity, and essays on the importance of nature in a child's life.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Fatty Legs Christy Jordan-Fenton, Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, 2010-09-01 Eight-year-old Margaret Pokiak has set her sights on learning to read, even though it means leaving her village in the high Arctic. Faced with unceasing pressure, her father finally agrees to let her make the five-day journey to attend school, but he warns Margaret of the terrors of residential schools. At school Margaret soon encounters the Raven, a black-cloaked nun with a hooked nose and bony fingers that resemble claws. She immediately dislikes the strong-willed young Margaret. Intending to humiliate her, the heartless Raven gives gray stockings to all the girls — all except Margaret, who gets red ones. In an instant Margaret is the laughingstock of the entire school. In the face of such cruelty, Margaret refuses to be intimidated and bravely gets rid of the stockings. Although a sympathetic nun stands up for Margaret, in the end it is this brave young girl who gives the Raven a lesson in the power of human dignity. Complemented by archival photos from Margaret Pokiak-Fenton’s collection and striking artworks from Liz Amini-Holmes, this inspiring first-person account of a plucky girl’s determination to confront her tormentor will linger with young readers.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Refugia Faith Debra Rienstra, 2022-02-22 Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth explores how Christian spirituality and practice must adapt to prepare for life on a climate-altered planet. Refugia (reh-FU-jee-ah) is a biological term describing places of shelter where life endures in times of crisis, such as a volcanic eruption, fire, or stressed climate. Ideally, these refugia endure, expand, and connect so that new life emerges. Debra Rienstra applies this concept to human culture and faith, asking, In this era of ecological devastation, how can Christians become people of refugia? How can we find and nurture these refugia, not only in the biomes of the earth, but in our human cultural systems and in our spiritual lives? How can we apply all our love and creativity to this task as never before? Rienstra recounts her own process of reeducation--beginning not as a scientist or an outdoors enthusiast but by examining the wisdom of theologians and philosophers, farmers and nature writers, scientists and activists, and especially people on the margins. By weaving nature writing, personal narrative, and theological reflection, Rienstra grapples honestly with her own fears and longings and points toward a way forward--a way to transform Christian spirituality and practice, become a healer on a damaged earth, and inspire others to do the same. Refugia Faith speaks to people securely within the faith as well as to those on the edge, providing a suitable entry for those who sense that this era of upheaval requires a transformed faith but who don't quite know where to begin.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: When We Were Alone David A. Robertson, 2017-02-13 Winner of the 2017 Governor General's Literary Award! A young girl notices things about her grandmother that make her curious. Why does her grandmother have long, braided hair and beautifully coloured clothing? Why does she speak Cree and spend so much time with her family? As the girl asks questions, her grandmother shares her experiences in a residential school, when all of these things were taken away. Also available in a bilingual Swampy Cree/English edition. Download the free teacher guide on the Portage & Main Press website.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Starry Messenger Peter Sis, 2000 Describes the life and work of the courageous man who changed the way people saw the galaxy, by offering objective evidence that the earth was not the fixed center of the universe
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: People of the Seventh Fire Dagmar Thorpe, 1996
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Old Growth Robin Wall Kimmerer, 2021-08 Articles about trees that have appeared in Orion Magazine.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Sand Talk Tyson Yunkaporta, 2020-05-12 A paradigm-shifting book in the vein of Sapiens that brings a crucial Indigenous perspective to historical and cultural issues of history, education, money, power, and sustainability—and offers a new template for living. As an indigenous person, Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems from a unique perspective, one tied to the natural and spiritual world. In considering how contemporary life diverges from the pattern of creation, he raises important questions. How does this affect us? How can we do things differently? In this thoughtful, culturally rich, mind-expanding book, he provides answers. Yunkaporta’s writing process begins with images. Honoring indigenous traditions, he makes carvings of what he wants to say, channeling his thoughts through symbols and diagrams rather than words. He yarns with people, looking for ways to connect images and stories with place and relationship to create a coherent world view, and he uses sand talk, the Aboriginal custom of drawing images on the ground to convey knowledge. In Sand Talk, he provides a new model for our everyday lives. Rich in ideas and inspiration, it explains how lines and symbols and shapes can help us make sense of the world. It’s about how we learn and how we remember. It’s about talking to everyone and listening carefully. It’s about finding different ways to look at things. Most of all it’s about a very special way of thinking, of learning to see from a native perspective, one that is spiritually and physically tied to the earth around us, and how it can save our world. Sand Talk include 22 black-and-white illustrations that add depth to the text.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Rising Elizabeth Rush, 2018-06-12 A Pulitzer Prize Finalist, this powerful elegy for our disappearing coast “captures nature with precise words that almost amount to poetry” (The New York Times). Hailed as “the book on climate change and sea levels that was missing” (Chicago Tribune), Rising is both a highly original work of lyric reportage and a haunting meditation on how to let go of the places we love. With every record-breaking hurricane, it grows clearer that climate change is neither imagined nor distant—and that rising seas are transforming the coastline of the United States in irrevocable ways. In Rising, Elizabeth Rush guides readers through these dramatic changes, from the Gulf Coast to Miami, and from New York City to the Bay Area. For many of the plants, animals, and humans in these places, the options are stark: retreat or perish. Rush sheds light on the unfolding crises through firsthand testimonials—a Staten Islander who lost her father during Sandy, the remaining holdouts of a Native American community on a drowning Isle de Jean Charles, a neighborhood in Pensacola settled by escaped slaves hundreds of years ago—woven together with profiles of wildlife biologists, activists, and other members of these vulnerable communities. A Guardian, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal Best Book Of 2018 Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award A Chicago Tribune Top Ten Book of 2018
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: This Is a School John Schu, 2022-03-29 Poster included on reverse side of jacket!--Jacket.
  braiding sweetgrass discussion questions: Moon of the Crusted Snow Waubgeshig Rice, 2018-10-02 2023 Canada Reads Longlist Selection National Bestseller Winner of the 2019 OLA Forest of Reading Evergreen Award Shortlisted for the 2019 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Shortlisted for the 2019/20 First Nation Communities READ Indigenous Literature Award 2020 Burlington Library Selection; 2020 Hamilton Reads One Book One Community Selection; 2020 Region of Waterloo One Book One Community Selection; 2019 Ontario Library Association Ontario Together We Read Program Selection; 2019 Women’s National Book Association’s Great Group Reads; 2019 Amnesty International Book Club Pick January 2020 Reddit r/bookclub pick of the month “This slow-burning thriller is also a powerful story of survival and will leave readers breathless.” — Publishers Weekly “Rice seamlessly injects Anishinaabe language into the dialogue and creates a beautiful rendering of the natural world … This title will appeal to fans of literary science-fiction akin to Cormac McCarthy as well as to readers looking for a fresh voice in indigenous fiction.” — Booklist A daring post-apocalyptic novel from a powerful rising literary voice With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds as the food supply dwindles. While the band council and a pocket of community members struggle to maintain order, an unexpected visitor arrives, escaping the crumbling society to the south. Soon after, others follow. The community leadership loses its grip on power as the visitors manipulate the tired and hungry to take control of the reserve. Tensions rise and, as the months pass, so does the death toll due to sickness and despair. Frustrated by the building chaos, a group of young friends and their families turn to the land and Anishinaabe tradition in hopes of helping their community thrive again. Guided through the chaos by an unlikely leader named Evan Whitesky, they endeavor to restore order while grappling with a grave decision. Blending action and allegory, Moon of the Crusted Snow upends our expectations. Out of catastrophe comes resilience. And as one society collapses, another is reborn.
Braiding Sweetgrass - Discussion & Question Guide
The significance of braiding plaits of sweetgrass into three strands is symbolic of the philosophy and spirituality of the indigenous people. Sweetgrass is a sacred, healing plant to the …

Braiding Sweetgrass Discussion Guide - Jackson County …
In her nonfiction book Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer lays out her philosophy regarding humanity’s relationship with the earth and how humans can work together to avoid a …

Discussion Questions - Milkweed Editions
Based upon the central themes in Braiding Sweetgrass, explain the diferences between reciproc-ity and the current ecological movement known as sustainability. Can you think of other …

Discussion Questions Braiding Sweetgrass - Sawyer Free Library
Discussion Questions Braiding Sweetgrass 1 . T h e b o o k l e n d s i t s t i t l e f r o m t h e sw e e t g r a ss t h a t i s su ch a m a i n st a y o f i n d i g e n o u s t r a d i t i o n .

Book Club in a Bag Discussion Questions - cplma.ca
The book lends its title from the sweetgrass that is such a mainstay of Indigenous tradition. In what ways does sweetgrass represent the author’s beliefs about ecology

Discussion Guide for Braiding Sweetgrass - NNLM
With informative sidebars, reflection questions, and art from illustrator Nicole Neidhardt, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults brings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons …

Study Guide - Wisconsin Conference UCC
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass” is such a tremendously rich text that it would be impossible to suggest all the possible avenues for discussion. From among many possible …

Microsoft Word - Braiding Sweetgrass Discussion Questions
Throughout Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer writes about how her experiences in traditional academic settings has been influenced by her knowledge and Potawatomi heritage. Have you …

Braiding Sweetgrass Club Questions - centerforhealthyhousing
accompany her grandmother for the first time to harvest sweetgrass for basket making musquon must overcome her impatience while learning to distinguish sweetgrass from other salt marsh …

Braiding Sweetgrass - lpl.ca
Braiding Sweetgrass and what lesson did you learn from it? 2. Is there a plant like the fragrant “wiingashk” that is as special to you or holds value for you?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS - ahml.info
“Skywoman Falling” is an Indigenous story of Creation. How would you compare and contrast this story to the account of Creation told in Genesis? Do you agree with the author that Eve “got the …

Introduction to This Guide - sneucc.org
questions that I have provided are questions that Kimmerer herself asks within the chapters, responses to certain prominent quotations, and questions around themes in these sections.

Braiding Sweetgrass - Innisfil ideaLab
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants …

BRAIDING SWEETGRASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS1
The significance of braiding plaits of sweetgrass into three strands is symbolic of the philosophy and spirituality of the indigenous people.

EN 10 Braiding Sweetgrass Book Club Questions - GCcollab
Did this book inspire you to take action or change a specific action you already engage in?

NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH BOOKTALKS Braiding …
Discussion Questions • In her book Kimmerer expressed frustration and anger that her family could not speak the Potawatomi language or use the true names that were lost to them.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (2013) Prepared …
What is sweetgrass – Hierochloe odorata – wiingaashk? Robin Wall Kimmerer provides the reader with the definition and explanation of the significance of sweetgrass’s scientific name, …

Book Club in a Bag Discussion Guide - cplma.ca
The above questions were taken from https://www.sawyerfreelibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Discussion-Questions-Sweetgrass.pdf to enhance your discussion of …

MEET SWEETGRASS - The Lerner Blog
With informative sidebars, reflection questions, and art from illustrator Nicole Neidhardt, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults brings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons …

Discussion And Question Guide Braiding Sweetgrass
Discussion and Question Guide Braiding Sweetgrass The Longwood Gardens Library and Archives staff invites you to use the following guide to discuss the various themes of our 2015 …

Braiding Sweetgrass - Discussion & Question Guide
The significance of braiding plaits of sweetgrass into three strands is symbolic of the philosophy and spirituality of the indigenous people. Sweetgrass is a sacred, healing plant to the …

Braiding Sweetgrass Discussion Guide - Jackson County …
In her nonfiction book Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer lays out her philosophy regarding humanity’s relationship with the earth and how humans can work together to avoid a …

Discussion Questions - Milkweed Editions
Based upon the central themes in Braiding Sweetgrass, explain the diferences between reciproc-ity and the current ecological movement known as sustainability. Can you think of other …

Discussion Questions Braiding Sweetgrass - Sawyer Free …
Discussion Questions Braiding Sweetgrass 1 . T h e b o o k l e n d s i t s t i t l e f r o m t h e sw e e t g r a ss t h a t i s su ch a m a i n st a y o f i n d i g e n o u s t r a d i t i o n .

Book Club in a Bag Discussion Questions - cplma.ca
The book lends its title from the sweetgrass that is such a mainstay of Indigenous tradition. In what ways does sweetgrass represent the author’s beliefs about ecology

Discussion Guide for Braiding Sweetgrass - NNLM
With informative sidebars, reflection questions, and art from illustrator Nicole Neidhardt, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults brings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons …

Study Guide - Wisconsin Conference UCC
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass” is such a tremendously rich text that it would be impossible to suggest all the possible avenues for discussion. From among many possible …

Microsoft Word - Braiding Sweetgrass Discussion Questions
Throughout Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer writes about how her experiences in traditional academic settings has been influenced by her knowledge and Potawatomi heritage. Have you …

Braiding Sweetgrass Club Questions
accompany her grandmother for the first time to harvest sweetgrass for basket making musquon must overcome her impatience while learning to distinguish sweetgrass from other salt marsh …

Braiding Sweetgrass - lpl.ca
Braiding Sweetgrass and what lesson did you learn from it? 2. Is there a plant like the fragrant “wiingashk” that is as special to you or holds value for you?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS - ahml.info
“Skywoman Falling” is an Indigenous story of Creation. How would you compare and contrast this story to the account of Creation told in Genesis? Do you agree with the author that Eve “got …

Introduction to This Guide - sneucc.org
questions that I have provided are questions that Kimmerer herself asks within the chapters, responses to certain prominent quotations, and questions around themes in these sections.

Braiding Sweetgrass - Innisfil ideaLab
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants …

BRAIDING SWEETGRASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS1
The significance of braiding plaits of sweetgrass into three strands is symbolic of the philosophy and spirituality of the indigenous people.

EN 10 Braiding Sweetgrass Book Club Questions - GCcollab
Did this book inspire you to take action or change a specific action you already engage in?

NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH BOOKTALKS Braiding …
Discussion Questions • In her book Kimmerer expressed frustration and anger that her family could not speak the Potawatomi language or use the true names that were lost to them.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (2013) …
What is sweetgrass – Hierochloe odorata – wiingaashk? Robin Wall Kimmerer provides the reader with the definition and explanation of the significance of sweetgrass’s scientific name, …

Book Club in a Bag Discussion Guide - cplma.ca
The above questions were taken from https://www.sawyerfreelibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Discussion-Questions-Sweetgrass.pdf to enhance your discussion of …

MEET SWEETGRASS - The Lerner Blog
With informative sidebars, reflection questions, and art from illustrator Nicole Neidhardt, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults brings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons …