Soil & Light

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

A POETRY READING AT THE FARMINARY

WITH SUPPORT FROM

TONIGHT'S PROGRAM OPENING REMARKS

Rev. Dr. Nathan Stucky Director of the Farminary Project at Princeton Theological Seminary READING & DISCUSSION Camille T. Dungy Author of Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden Tess Taylor Author of LeaningToward Light: Poems for Gardens and the Hands That Tend Them Jason Myers Executive Director, EcoTheo Collective BOOK SIGNING & RECEPTION

Complimentary treats and beverages are available

If you enjoyed tonight’s event, subscribe to the Farminary newsletter featuring monthly meditations, updates on events and classes, and curated resources for the theologically, ecologically minded.

Go to bit.ly/farminarynewsletter or scan the QR code.

TONIGHT'S GUESTS CAMILLE T. DUNGY

Camille T. Dungy is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Trophic Cascade (Wesleyan UP, 2017), winner of the Colorado Book Award. She is also the author of the essay collection Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden (Simon & Schuster, 2023) and Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood and History (W.W. Norton, 2017), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Dungy has also edited anthologies including Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry and From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great.

A 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, her honors include NEA Fellowships in poetry (2003) and prose (2018), an American Book Award, two NAACP Image Award nominations, and two Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominations. Dungy’s poems have been published in Best American Poetry, The 100 Best African American Poems, the Pushcart Anthology, Best American Travel Writing, and over thirty other anthologies.

She is University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University.

TESS TAYLOR

Tess Taylor’s poems have received wide national and international acclaim. The author of four collections, her most recent, Rift Zone was hailed by Stephanie Danler as “brilliant” in the LA Times, and Naomi Shihab Nye called it “stunning” in The New York Times. Rift Zone was also named one of the best books of 2020 by The Boston Globe. In her new book, Leaning Toward Light: Poems For Gardens & the Hands That Tend Them, Taylor has assembled the brightest voices in contemporary poetry – including Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Ada Limon, Ross Gay, and Pádraig Ó Tuama – to sing of flowers and failures in and beyond the garden.

In addition to her life as a poet, Taylor is a nationally known critic; she has spent 10 years as the poetry reviewer for NPR’s All Things Considered. She is currently on the faculty of Ashland University’s Low-Res MFA.

JASON MYERS

Jason Myers is the Executive Director of EcoTheo Collective and serves as editor-inchief of the EcoTheo Review. He is the author of Maker of Heaven & (Belle Point Press) and A Place for the Genuine (Eerdmans). He also serves as a curate at Holy Family HTX Episcopal Church. He lives with his family in Houston. The EcoTheo Collective is a non-profit celebrating wonder, enlivening conversations, and inspiring commitments to ecology, spirituality, and art.

THE FARMINARY PROJECT AT PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

The Farminary is a place where theological education is integrated with small-scale regenerative agriculture to train faith leaders who are conversant in the areas of ecology, sustainability, and food justice. It is designed to train students to challenge society’s 24–7 culture of productivity by following a different rhythm, one that is governed by the seasons and Sabbath. Formerly a Christmas tree farm and sod farm, the Farminary overlooks a pond and includes a 200-foot by 100-foot garden plot and a barn that is used for discussion and a place for sharing meals.

For more information, visit bit.ly/farminary