Plants, Memory, Belonging

8 October 2025 – 4-6pm EDT – Zoom

Presented by the Oak Spring Garden Foundation and Plant Perspectives

Join us for a free virtual program exploring the connections between plants, memory, and belonging. Four speakers will share presentations, followed by a panel discussion bringing their perspectives into conversation.

Presenters:

Maria Thereza Alves, artist, writer and poet
Seeds of Change
I see the earth as histories of site-specific accumulations of interactions between beings. In the process of colonization, histories are removed and some others added. Plants are witnesses to these missing histories. 

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Jessica Lee, author and environmental historian
Plant Biographies
What would it mean to centre plants in our storytelling, and how might that effort allow us to reimagine conventional approaches to writing the more-than-human world? 

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Marcello Di Paola, Philosopher, University of Palermo
This One Is Not For Sale. Particular Plants and Meaning In Life
A Commercial Grower’s Reflection on Memory, Belonging, and Pricelessness

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Goldie Poblador, artist
The Myth Behind
“My research behind the histories and mythology of plants and seeds in the Global South plays its role in my artistic practice and how this can lead to reimagining new approaches to decolonization, conservation and climate justice. I will go through what led me to tackle this subject matter, and how it is addressed by the work.” 

Panel Members:

Annette Arlander
Isis Brook, Plant Perspectives Deputy Editor
Danielle Eady
Susanne Fehlings
Mathew Gandy
Kristan Hanson
Sarah Johnson
John Ryan, Plant Perspectives Editor
Sophie Strand

About Oak Spring Garden Foundation: The Oak Spring Garden Foundation (OSGF) is a philanthropic foundation based at the former primary estate of the late Paul and Rachel Mellon, who were major philanthropists in the U.S. of the arts, humanities, and sciences in the second half of the twentieth century. OSGF is located in the northern Virginia Piedmont and Blue Ridge Mountains region (ca. one-hour drive from Washington, D.C.). Led by Sir Peter Crane, the Foundation’s inaugural President, OSGF provides workshops, short courses and supports residencies for artists and scholars. Its celebrated Library comprises rare books, manuscripts and works of art relating to horticulture, landscape design, botany and natural history. It is becoming a new center of stimulation of all things botanical, from fundamental research in plant evolution and conservation, to horticultural and plant conservation practice, to the history and art of plants, gardens and landscapes.

About Plant Perspectives: Plant Perspectives is an open access, new forum grounded in interdisciplinary plant studies, to explore plant-human interactions in all spatial, temporal and cultural contexts. Plants are the central actors here, and the journal encourages new directions in the study of sensory, instrumental and affective entanglements between human and vegetal spheres.