Events

    2023 Nov 18

    Water Stories with the Artist Evelyn Rydz

    1:00pm to 3:00pm

    Location: 

    Johnson-Kulukundis Family Gallery, Byerly Hall, 8 Garden St., Cambridge

    Join the artist and educator Evelyn Rydz for an afternoon of conversation and collective artmaking within the exhibition Water Stories: River Goddesses, Ancestral Rites, and Climate Crisis, on view September 18–December 16, 2023.

    The exhibition presents artworks that tell alternative stories of water experience in the context of climate change, while encouraging viewers to appreciate the multivalent meaning of water and their own relationship to it. Rydz has repeatedly observed the increasing impacts on natural and cultural ecosystems throughout her various field...

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    2023 Sep 14

    Sylvester Baxter Lecture: Kongjian Yu

    6:30pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium (48 Quincy St. Cambridge)

    Join the Harvard Graduate School of Design for a Sylvester Baxter Lecture featuring Kongjian Yu.

    Kongjian Yu, DDes '95, is Professor and founding dean of Peking University College of Architecture and Landscape, and founder and design principal of Turenscape. Yu’s guiding design principles are the appreciation of the ordinary and a deep embrace of nature—even of its potentially destructive aspects, such as flooding. His projects have won numerous international design awards, including 14 ASLA Excellence...

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    2023 Apr 04

    Music in a Burning World

    4:00pm

    Location: 

    Online or at Knafel Center, 10 Garden St., Cambridge

    The 2023 Kim and Judy Davis Dean's Lecture in the Arts will feature the Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning composer John Luther Adams. Motivated by a deep concern for the state of the earth and the future of humanity, he brings the sense of wonder we experience outdoors into the concert hall with the hope, and belief, that music can do more than politics to change the world.

    Learn more...

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    2023 Feb 09

    Ana María Durán Calisto, "The Deep History of Amazonian Agroecological Urban Forests: Why Do They Matter Today?"

    6:30pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium (48 Quincy St., Cambridge)

    In this talk, Ana María Durán Calisto will discuss the design principles of ancient Amazonian agroecological urban constellations; the ways in which colonialism disrupted (and continues to disrupt) Amazonian patterns of inhabitation and habitat construction; and the visions Amazonian urban history offers to inform our ability to reimagine future urban ecologies.

    ...

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    2022 Dec 03

    Birds & Blooms

    11:00am to 3:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge

    Did you know that many of the birds in the Northeastern United States spend the winter in Latin America socializing and eating among tropical trees and flowers? Explore the lives and behaviors of these birds in our Birds of the World gallery and learn about flowers from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico in the Blaschka Glass Flowers gallery. Try some hands-on activities led by Hear Me Out/Escúchame teens, see their newest mini exhibit, decorate a bird or flower mask, and brighten the dark season!

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    2022 Oct 18

    Ana María Durán Calisto, "The Deep History of Amazonian Agroecological Urban Forests: Why Do They Matter Today?"

    6:30pm to 8:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium (48 Quincy St., Cambridge)

    In this talk, Ana María Durán Calisto will discuss the design principles of ancient Amazonian agroecological urban constellations; the ways in which colonialism disrupted (and continues to disrupt) Amazonian patterns of inhabitation and habitat construction; and the visions Amazonian urban history offers to inform our ability to reimagine future urban ecologies.

    ...

    Read more about Ana María Durán Calisto, "The Deep History of Amazonian Agroecological Urban Forests: Why Do They Matter Today?"
    2022 Feb 23

    Lessons from Plants

    6:00pm to 7:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museum of Natural History—Online

    Plants are essential to humans and the environment: they provide food, absorb carbon dioxide, produce oxygen, serve multiple ecosystem functions, and beautify landscapes. In Lessons from Plants (Harvard University Press, 2021) Beronda Montgomery invites us to appreciate our interdependence with plants and the many lessons that can be gained from a better understanding of the ways in which plants grow, adapt, and thrive.

    In this conversation with Brenda Tindal, she will address what plants can teach us about relating to one another, building diverse communities and...

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    2021 Nov 13

    Harvard Dance Center Showing: Initiation – In Love Solidarity

    4:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Dance Center—Online or in-person

    Initiation – In Love Solidarity is a choreographic narrative exploring the embodiment of the Middle Passage, and the resilience and evolving identities of women in the African diaspora. A film component of the work was created at historic sites in New England related to the transatlantic slave trade and emancipation. The imagery of the cowrie shell is present throughout, chosen as an emblem of the transformative identity of the Black female body.

    Saturday, November 13, 4pm & 7pm: ...

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    2021 Oct 23

    The Art and Science of Frogs

    10:30am to 12:30pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Museums of Science & Culture—Online

    Explore the rich diversity of frogs by observing and sketching 3D models printed from Harvard’s research collections. Artist and educator, Erica Beade, will introduce techniques for achieving accurate shapes and capturing volume in your drawings, while herpetologist and researcher, Dr. Mara Laslo, will explain how evolution has generated their amazing diversity. Groups will be limited to twelve, allowing ample time for questions and discussion.

    Cost: $40 for members, $45 for nonmembers.

    ...

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    2020 Dec 01

    Painting Edo at the Arnold Arboretum: Japanese Black Pine

    2:00pm to 3:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Art Museums—Online

    Painting Edo at the Arnold Arboretum is a collaboration between the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and the Harvard Art Museums, inspired by the exhibition Painting Edo: Japanese Art from the Feinberg Collection. Observing artworks from the exhibition alongside the living collections of the Arnold Arboretum, we invite you to marvel at the remarkable accuracy and spirit with which artists of the Edo period (1615–1868) rendered their botanical...

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    2020 Sep 10

    Linda Shi, "Green Infrastructure Beyond Flood Risk Reduction"

    7:30pm to 9:00pm

    Location: 

    Online Event, Graduate School of Design

    This lecture explores whether it is possible to achieve both social justice and environmental sustainability in efforts to mitigate urban flood risk. The expanding scale of urban flooding under climate change has renewed interest in large-scale restoration projects that make room for water in metro centers. However, ecologically functioning green infrastructure – unleashed rivers, sprawling wetlands – is inconsistent with the current governance landscape of fragmented local governments seeking to maximize local land values and minimize affordable housing. Moreover, even...

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    2019 Feb 20

    The Amazonian Travels of Richard Evans Schultes

    6:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge

    Richard Evans Schultes—ethnobotanist, taxonomist, writer, photographer, and Harvard professor—is regarded as one of the most important plant explorers of the twentieth century. In 1941, Schultes traveled to the Amazon rainforest on a mission to study how Indigenous peoples used plants for medicinal, ritual, and practical purposes. A new interactive online map, produced by the Amazon Conservation Team, traces the landscapes and cultures that Schultes explored in the Colombian Amazon. Plotkin and Hettler will share this map and discuss the relevance of Schultes’ travels and...

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    2018 Oct 16

    Nature vs. Fiction in Sci-Fi Movies

    6:00pm

    Location: 

    Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA

    Miaki Ishii, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University

    Recent volcanic eruptions in Hawaii and Guatemala remind us of how devastating these geological eruptions can be. Popular culture depictions of volcanic disasters found in movies like Dante’s Peak and Volcano can strongly distort the public’s understanding of volcanic activity and its immediate effects. As with many science-fiction films, Hollywood depictions of natural phenomena don’t always align with the scientific facts. Seismologist Miaki...

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    2018 Mar 02

    Mark Joseph and Amy Khare, "Succeeding Where Mixed-Income Transformation Falls Short: A Path to Equity and Inclusion in Our Cities

    12:00pm to 2:00pm

    Location: 

    Harvard Graduate School of Design, Gund Hall, Stubbins Room 112, 48 Quincy St., Cambridge

    Drawing on their work examining the costs and consequences of racial segregation and the concentration of poverty and affluence as well as the... Read more about Mark Joseph and Amy Khare, "Succeeding Where Mixed-Income Transformation Falls Short: A Path to Equity and Inclusion in Our Cities