Six Bridges Book Festival: Beronda Montgomery / David Haskell

Moderated by Karama Neal

Six Bridges Book Festival presents Beronda Montgomery (When Trees Testify) and David Haskell (How Flowers Made Our World). Moderated by Karama Neal.

Beronda Montgomery

Beronda L. Montgomery is writer, science communicator, and plant biologist. She was named one of the journal Cell’s Inspiring Black Scientists in America and awarded the 2021 Cynthia Westcott Scientific Writing Award, the 2022 Adolph E. Gude, Jr. Award for outstanding service to the science of plant biology, and the 2023 Hutchinson Medal of the Chicago Horticultural Society. Montgomery is author of Lessons from Plants. 
 
In When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America’s Black Botanical Legacy, 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 beginning. 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. 

David Haskell

David George Haskell is a writer and biologist acclaimed for his lyrical explorations of the living world. Haskell is a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, and his other literary awards include an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, a Guggenheim Fellow, and an adjunct professor of environmental sciences at Emory University. 
 
Described as “a work of real passion” by the New York Times and a “seamless melding of poetry and science” by the Wall Street Journal, How Flowers Made Our World explores and celebrates the creative powers of flowers. It combines lyrical writing, sensual exploration, and the latest in scientific research to explore some of the most consequential life forms ever to have evolved, showing how our planet came to be and how it thrives today. 

ASL interpretation will be provided for all Six Bridges sessions held in CALS Ron Robinson Theater. ASL interpretation for sessions at other CALS locations and Six Bridges venues (including CALS Main Library) will be provided by request. To request ASL interpretation, please submit an ASL Interpretation Request form.

CALS will validate parking in the CALS Library Square surface lot and the CALS Parking Deck. The entrance to the surface lot is located on 2nd Street near River Market Ave. The entrance to the parking deck is located on Rock Street and can be accessed from President Clinton Ave. Street parking is also available throughout the River Market District (free after 6pm and on weekends).