The Earth in Her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants

Notice Regarding Tomorrow’s Lecture with Jennifer Jewell and Jamaica Kincaid

The safety of everyone at The New York Botanical Garden is always our top priority. As information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to rapidly evolve, we want to keep our community apprised of developments that affect NYBG.

We have made the decision to film tomorrow’s talk without an audience, in lieu of holding an in-person gathering.

If you registered for this event, we will email a private link of the conversation to by early next week.

Delve into the many ways in which women in horticulture—from botanists and landscape architects to artists and activists—profoundly impact the world today. Popular public radio host Jennifer Jewell shares stories about the paradigm-shifting women she profiles in The Earth in Her Hands, including celebrated author and avid gardener Jamaica Kincaid who calls memory part of “the gardener’s real palette.”

Don’t miss a rare opportunity to hear one of our finest writers talk about one of her greatest loves, when Kincaid joins public radio host Jennifer Jewell for a penetrating conversation about gardens, the plants that fill them, and the persons who tend them.

Jennifer Jewell is creator, writer, and host of public radio’s Cultivating Place. In her new book, The Earth in Her Hands (Timber Press, 2020), she includes Jamaica Kincaid in her profiles of 75 accomplished women—from a wide range of ages, background, and careers—who have all made lasting contributions in the wide world of plants.

Jamaica Kincaid is an award-winning Caribbean-American writer best known for her evocative portrayals of family relationships, interwoven with themes of the colonial legacy, gender, race, and class. But she is also a passionate and perceptive gardener, who has expanded the scope of garden writing in her essays and memoirs, including My Garden (Book) and Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya.

(Last updated March 12, 2020)