Shelter in a Sense of Place Reading Group
Finding our Place Through Literature
The Shelter in a Sense of Place reading group met for 100 weeks discussing essays, podcasts, videos, books, and more that helped us navigate uncertain times during COVID. The group was designed to help us feel connected as a community and to the earth, and to help us learn how to cultivate more reciprocal relationships.
Reading selections have been curated from, but not limited to, authors who have visited Severson Dells Nature Center over the years, such as Robin Wall Kimmerer, Terry Tempest Williams, J. Drew Lanham, Brian Doyle, Scott Russell Sanders, Vandana Shiva, Kathleen Dean Moore, Robert Michael Pyle, and more.
The reading group now meets twice a month (once for reading discussion, once to socialize) and discusses both fiction and nonfiction books focused on natural sciences or the environment. If you are interested in participating in the reading group, please fill out the form at the bottom of the page.
Previous Selections
Week One: Scott Russell Sanders
Week Two: Robin Wall Kimmerer
“Maple Nation: A Citizenship Guide”
Week Three: David James Duncan
Week Four: Terry Tempest Williams
“A Love That is Wild” Bioneers
Week Five: David Abram
“In the Ground of Our Unknowing”
Week Six: Joanna Macy
“A Wild Love for the World” Inverview on On Being
Week Seven: Camille Dungy
Week Eight: Natural Histories Project
Here is the initial video of the project: https://vimeo.com/27077957
Focus on the following pieces:
An Exciting Time to be a Naturalist
Falling in Love
Common Ground
Week Nine: Henry David Thoreau
Where I Lived and What I Lived For (you can start at paragraph 13)
"Lessons in Constructive Solitude from Thoreau"
Week Ten: Marcia Bjornerud
“How Geology Can Ease Your Mind”
Week Eleven: J. Drew Lanham
Week Twelve: Winona LaDuke (and others)
“How To Be Better Ancestors” Click here
Also, choose another selection from the responses to this question located here
Week Thirteen: Continued “How To Be Better Ancestors”
What Is Your Rice? Click here
Out of the Head, Into the Heart Click here
Ancestors, A Shared Song Click here
Week Fourteen: Scott Russell Sanders & Margo Klass
Scott Russell Sanders: Buckeye
Week Fifteen: Chuck Wemstrom & Unsprawl
Unsprawl - Peruse the various revisions of community living
Week Sixteen: Thomas Berry
“The Meadow Across the Creek” from The Great Work
Week Seventeen: Thomas Lowe Fleischner
"An Invitation to Attentiveness and Imagination"
"Natural History as a Practice of Kinship"
Week Eighteen: by Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder
Week Nineteen: Charles Eisenstein
Video Interview for Living the Change
Week Twenty: John Francis
Yes! Magazine “My Walking Pilgrimage”
Week Twenty-One: Bill McKibben
An Interview with Bill McKibben in YaleEnvironment360 (interviewed by Elizabeth Kolbert)
"How Hot Will the Future Feel" (New Yorker Climate Crisis essay)
"What Can I Do About Climate Change?" (Short video)
Week Twenty-Two: Manulani Aluli Meyer
Main selection: Hooulu Our Time of Becoming
There is also an interesting interview with Manulani Aluli Meyer that you can watch if you have time
Week Twenty-Three: Gary Snyder and Julian Hoffman
Listen to Gary Snyder’s poem, “Wildfire News”
Read Julian Hoffman’s “Groves of Old Knowing
Week Twenty-Four: Juan Rulfo
Week Twenty-Five: Geoffrey Garver and Zaria Howell
Humans & Nature: The Right Relationship by Geoffrey Garver
My Pursuit of Happiness in Afro-Environmentalism by Zaria Howell
Week Twenty-Six: American Environmentalism, Race and John Muir
“American environmentalism’s racist roots have shaped global thinking about conservation”
“John Muir and race: Biographer argues for nuanced view of the environmentalist”
“Save the Redwoods” by John Muir
Reading Twenty-Seven: Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva interview from Greens/EFA from 2017's International Women's Day
Vandana Shiva in Yes! Magazine
Vandana Shiva Interview in Feminism India
Week Twenty-Eight: Paul Hawken
“How to Remake the World” from Orion Magazine
Week Twenty-Nine: Regenerative Agriculture
Week Thirty: Indigenous Peoples Day
This week, we are going to look at the remarkable poetry of some Indigenous women.
Lyla June "Wake Up Time" Click here for her Biography
...
Linda Hogan "When the Body" Click here for her Biography
...
Louise Erdrich "Jacklight" Click here for her Biography
...
Please also take a look at the interactive map that illustrates native lands, treaties and languages: http://native-land.ca/
Week Thirty-One: Gretel Van Wieren
“Ecological Restoration as a Public Spiritual Practice”
-also-
Rewild to Mitigate the Climate Crisis Warn Scientists (The Guardian)
Week Thirty-Two: E.O. Wilson (biography)
"Half-Earth" by E.O. Wilson, edited by Pam Weintraub
There is also this wonderful Half-Earth website with all kinds of resources - the interactive maps are really cool. Check it out if you have time. (Optional)
Finally, here is an article about Rewilding that we will discuss as well.
Week Thirty-Three: Patrick Shea and Cara Kuruvilla
“Rethinking Our Human Footprint” by Patrick Shea on Native News Online (shared by Chris Mann)
“2020 Feels Like an Apocalypse Because It Is One” by Cara Kuruvilla on Huffington Post (Shared by Michael O. Simmons)
Week Thirty-Four: Geneen Marie Haugen
“Council of the Wild Gods” by Geneen Marie Haugen in Kosmos
“A Definition for Wildness” by Lawrence J. Cooksen in Ecopsychology
Week Thirty-Five: Thomas Merton
Week Thirty-Six: Heather Swan
Kinship with Ash poetry reading
Week Thirty-Seven: Hermann Hesse
“Hermann Hesse on What Trees Teach Us About Belonging and Life” on Brainpickings
Week Thirty-Eight: Agustin Fuentes
“This Species Moment” Interview on On Being
Week Thirty-Nine: Ferris Jabr and Rumi
For this week, we will read and discuss the New York Times Magazine interactive article “The Social Life of Forests” by Ferris Jabr.
We also shared some Rumi poems
Week Forty: Annie Dillard
Annie Dillard on the Winter Solstice (Brainpickings)
Week Forty-One: Liam Heneghan
Week Forty-Two: Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance
Week Forty-Three: Don Miller
The Inner Eye, from Life Afloat
Week Forty-Four: Carolyn Finney
- Ode to New York: A Performance Piece by Carolyn Finney
- Carolyn is also giving a Zoom talk on February 17th through Chicago Wilderness.
- A conversation about economics between Charles Eisenstein and Carolyn Finney on Sacred Economics. The conversation begins at 45 minutes in.
Week Forty-Five: Edward Abbey
1. Edward Abbey: Read Freedom and Wilderness, Wilderness and Freedom.
Or listen to Abbey read it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8ikhzYX1nY)
2. Wendell Berry: "A Few Words in Favor of Edward Abbey" (1985)
Note: this essay is in response to a critique of Abbey's "Down the River with Henry Thoreau"
* Extra: Edward Abbey documentary: A Voice in the Wilderness (About 27 minutes)
* Extra: Edward Abbey on Brainpickings
Week Forty-Six: Alexis White
The Inward Migration in Apocalyptic Times (read or listen)
Week Forty-Seven: Barbara Kingsolver
“Water is Life”
Week Forty-Eight: Naomi Klein
Week Forty-Nine: J. Drew Lanham
Week Fifty: Alison Luterman & Kathleen Dean Moore
Week Fifty-One: Linda Hogan and Octavia Butler
(Michael’s selections)
Here and Now episode about Octavia Butler (beginning at 26:10)
Week Fifty-Two: Bill McKibben (Chuck’s selections)
1.
Bill McKibben's review of Kim Stanley Robinson's anti-dystopian novel from the New York Review.
2.
Meara Sharma's Washington Post review of Bill McKibben's book Falter
3. Jack Ewing piece in The New York Times: "The City Where Cars are Not Welcome"
Week Fifty-Three: Paul Erlich (Chris’ selection)
Conversation with Paul Erlich: Population Bomb 50 Years Later.
Smithsonian article that puts the book The Population Bomb in more context of its effects on the world.
Week Fifty-four: Michael Mead
Week Fifty-five: The Earth Charter
Week Fifty-six: Trebbe Johnson
Week Fifty-seven: Kimberly Blaser
Week Fifty-eight: Rebecca Wildbear and Ambika Chawla
Rebecca Wildbear - "Prayers in the Dark: Acknowledging Eco-grief" (Kosmos)
Ambika Chawla - "A Denver Neighborhood Creates Greenspace to Improve Community Health" (Carol’s selection)
Week Fifty-nine: Malene Rydahl
Week Sixty: Paul Holmbeck
“Greenwashing on Food Products”
Week Sixty-one : Denmark Conversations
Week Sixty-two: Todd Fink
Week Sixty-three: Gopal Dayaneni
Interview with Gopal on For the Wild
Week Sixty-four: Heather Swan
Week Sixty-five: Brian Doyle
“WHAT IS THE SINGLE GREATEST VIRTUE OF OUR SPECIES?”
Week Sixty-six: N. Scott Momaday and Brian Doyle
-also-
Brian Doyle’s “Joyas Voladoras”
Week Sixty-seven: Bayo Akomolafe
“When You Meet the Monster, Anoint Its Feet”
Week Sixty-eight: Dekila Chungyalpa
“At the Center of All Things is Interdependence”
Week Sixty-nine and Seventy: The Chicago River
99 Percent Invisible about the Chicago River reversal
There is also this short WTTW animation of the river's reversal to watch
Let's also see if we can dig into this NRDC proposal for re-envisioning the Chicago River.
Week Seventy-One through Week Seventy-Three
Book: Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan
October 4: Section One (Chapters 1-3)
October 11: Section Two (Chapters 4-8)
October 18: Section Three (Chapters 9-10)
Week Seventy-Four: Catherine Bush
Invasives: Unknitting Despair in a Tangled Landscape
Week Seventy-Five: Diane Wilson
Week Seventy-Six: Dara McAnulty
Finding Joy in the Unknown, a podcast interview with Dara McAnulty, a teenaged naturalist and writer with autism. This interview is featured on Emergence Magazine.
Week Seventy-Seven: Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder and Jeremy Seifert
They Carried Us With Them: The Great Tree Migration, a multi-media essay by Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder and Jeremy Seifert on Emergence Magazine.
Week Seventy-Eight and Seventy-Nine: Indigenous Writers
Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address
Indigenize the Law: Tribal Rights of Nature Movements with Casey Camp-Horinek | Part 1
Week Eighty: Nadia Owusu
Week Eighty-One
TED Talk by Sister True Dedication
Week Eighty-Two and Eighty-Three: bell hooks
Toward a Worldwide Culture of Love
Week Eighty-Four: Tom Lovejoy and E.O. Wilson
New Yorker Article: Honoring the Legacy of EO Wilson and Tom Lovejoy
Opinion: The Road to Climate Recovery Goes Through the Wild Woods by Tom Lovejoy and John Reid
Bill Moyer’s Interview with E.O. Wilson
Week 85 and 86: Soundscape Ecology
“On the Persistent Influence of Place on Sound” by Lisa Wells
Podcast: Invisibilia - The Last Sound
One Square Inch of Silence (listen to recording and explore website)
Time Magazine: Underwater Noise Pollution
Going deeper:
Soundscape Ecology: The Science of Sound in the Landscape
Week 87: David Abram
The Ecology of Perception, an interview on Emergence
Magic and the Machine, an Essay on Emergence
Week 88 - Craig Campbell
Discussion on Meditation - Craig Campbell
Video resources
Mindfulness and Climate Change
Optional resource: Transcendental Meditation and the Environment
Week 89: Rights of Nature, conversation with Bill Price
Week 90: Thich Nhat Hanh
“Ten Love Letters to the Earth” (Essay in Emergence Magazine)
A Cloud Never Dies (video with subtitles)
“Beyond Environment: Falling Back in Love with Mother Earth” (Interview in The Guardian)
Week 91: Barry Lopez
"Love in a Time of Terror" by Barry Lopez (Essay)
"An Unbroken Grace" by Fred Bahnson (An essay about Barry Lopez)
Week 92: Diana Beresford-Kroeger
Using Science and Celtic Wisdom to Save Trees (and Souls) (New York Times article)
Interview on For the Wild, Part 1
Green Machines
Week 93: Robin Wall Kimmerer
Corn Tastes Better on the Honor System
Week 94: Shrinking the Gulf Dead Zone
The Pulitzer Center did a series on Shrinking the Dead Zone in 2019 and 2020 that examines the many stakeholders that are contributing to and affected by this Dead Zone. For focus on
this specific article about farmers that are working to limit their impact
If the group is feeling ambitious, we can talk about the other articles in the project that can be found
here
For the data and map nerds among us, here is a link to the EPA's Hypoxia Zone maps
Week 95: Alice Waters
Eating Real Food is Not a Trend
Week 96: Michael Pollan
OnBeing Interview with Michael Pollan
Week 97: Nick Hunt
Week 98: Michael Meade
Climate Change and Mythic Imagination (Part 1: Beginning to 48:30 min)
Week 99: Michael Meade
Climate Change and Mythic Imagination (Part 2: 48:30 minute mark to end)
Week 100: Best of!
Contact Us
Our Mission: To link people to nature through education and research, in the northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin area. We promote awareness of the natural world, fostering respect, enjoyment, and preservation now and in the future.
Contact us
8786 Montague Rd.
Rockford, IL 61102
Business Hours
- Mon - Sat
- -
- Sunday
- Closed
The Grove Nature Playscape and the trails
are open from sunrise to sunset.
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