We are thrilled to have Scott Chaskey read from his recent book, “Soil and Spirit, Cultivation and Kinship in the Web of Life,” on Sunday, August 11, at 4 p.m., as part of our current exhibition at The Leiber Collection, "Connie Fox and William King ~ Entangled." Scott will share stories of Connie and William, their life, love, and art.
Soil and Spirit, Cultivation and Kinship in the Web of Life. As a farmer with decades spent working in fields, Scott Chaskey has been shaped by daily attention to the earth. A leader in the international Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement, he has combined a longstanding commitment to food sovereignty and organic farming with a belief that humble attention to microbial life and diversity of species provides invaluable lessons for building healthy human communities. Along the way, even while planning rotations of fields, ordering seeds, tending to crops and their ecosystems, Chaskey was writing. And in this lively collection of essays, he explores the evolution of his perspective – as a farmer and as a poet. Tracing the first stage in his development back to a homestead in Maine, on the ancestral lands of the Abenaki, he recalls learning to cultivate plants and nourish reciprocal relationships among species, even as he was reading Yeats and beginning to write poems. He describes cycling across Ireland, a surprise meeting with Seamus Heaney, and, later, farming in Cornwall’s ancient landscape of granite, bramble, and windswept trees. He travels to China for an international conference on Community supported Agriculture, reading ancient wilderness poetry along the way, and then on to the pueblo of Santa Clara in new Mexico, where he joins a group on Indigenous women harvesting amaranth seeds. Closer to home on the Southfork of Long island, he describes planting redwood saplings and writing verse under the canopy of an American beech. “Enlivened by decades of work in open fields washed by the salt spray of the Atlantic” – words that describe in his prose as well as his vision of connectedness – Scott Chaskey has given us a book for our time. A seed of hope and regeneration.
Also on view at The Leiber Collection, ‘Judith and Gerson Leiber ~ Over The Top’ showcasing over 500 of Judith Leiber's dazzling designs and a selection of Gerson Leiber's fabulous Fashion paintings that were shown and sold in the Judith Leiber Handbags showroom alongside each new line of handbags. Gerson Leiber often said, “Judy shattered glass ceilings before glass ceilings were even a thing.” This exhibition celebrates Judith Leiber's creative genius and unassailable vision.
For a full list of Artist Talks and Events, please check the Leiber Collection website at www.leibercollection.org. The Leiber Collection is located at 446 Old Stone Highway in the East Hampton hamlet of Springs, NY.
The Collection is free and open to the public from 1 pm to 4 pm every Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday, and at other times by appointment. Donations to the Judith and Gerson Leiber Foundation are welcomed but not required.
For more information, visit the website at www.leibercollection.org or email info@leibercollection.org
