Braiding Sweetgrass

Announcing our First Summer Cottonwood Reads! Book: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Braiding SweetgrassAs part of our school-wide initiative to incorporate Indigenous perspective and experience across our curriculum, our staff will be reading the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. We invite our families and other community members to read along with us this summer as part of our first Cottonwood Reads! program.

 

A team of teachers who have led the work on this initiative read Braiding Sweetgrass as a book club and have been deeply inspired by its teachings. The author is a botanist and Indigenous woman whose beautifully written book has the potential to change the way we think about our relationship to the Earth. Her insights inspire joy, grief, humility, appreciation, and ultimately, love for the world. Her words also offer us concrete ways to decolonize our minds and hearts and move towards a more just and sustainable future. We are thrilled to share this text with the extended community as a catalyst for discussion and deeper thought on the transformation of education.

 

Through our grant funding from the Gray Family Foundation, we were able to purchase 15 extra copies of the book for people who would like to check out a copy. If you would like to borrow a book, please contact Amanda at amandamcadoo [at] thecottonwoodschool.org to arrange picking up a copy at school between the dates of June 22nd and 26th. The audiobook version is also available through Multnomah County Library. Please click here for a copy of questions to consider before and during reading. For more information about Kimmerer and the book, click here.

 

We plan to offer remote book discussion groups in September for all who would like to attend. Happy reading and we hope to talk more about this wonderful book in the fall!

 

For more about the book, check out this sites:

 

GFF Grant Lead Team
Sarah Anderson  sarahanderson [at] thecottonwoodschool.org
Morgen Kelm morgenkelm [at] thecottonwoodschool.org
Emily Conner  emilyconner [at] thecottonwoodschool.org
Fawn Morosky  fawnmorosky [at] thecottonwoodschool.org

 

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