talks Archives - Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy

“Rural Runners” – Documentary Screening and Discussion with Chloe Maxim & Canyon Woodward

Please join us for our next Bartram Writers Series event including a screening of the documentary Rural Runners at the Cowee School on Saturday, May 20. After the screening, Brent Martin will host a Q&A discussion with its authors, Chloe Maxim and Canyon Woodward.

Rural Runners is a short documentary, 28 minutes, and a labor of love created by Canyon’s brother, Forest. The film follows Chloe and Canyon’s journey as two community organizers. It documents their time on the campaign trail as well as Canyon’s burgeoning rise as a champion ultra-distance runner. The film is about re-humanizing our deeply divided political system, offering hope and path toward a healthier democracy.

Rural Runners is now public! You can see the full film here. It premiered at Mountainfilm in Telluride and is a Vimeo Staff Pick.

About the Authors

Chloe Maxmin
Hailing from rural Maine, Chloe is the youngest woman ever to serve in the Maine State Senate, at 28 years old. She was elected in 2020 after unseating a two-term Republican incumbent and (former) Senate Minority Leader. In 2018, she served in the Maine House of Representatives after becoming the first Democrat to win a rural conservative district. She also received an honors degree from Harvard College, where she co-founded Divest Harvard. Chloe is the recipient of the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes and the Brower Youth Award. She was also named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone. She was named the 2020 Legislator of the Year by the Maine Council on Aging. She is also the Co-Founder/Advisor at JustME for JustUS, a Maine-based organization focus on rural youth civic engagement and climate organizing. She is the Co-Founder, alongside Canyon, of Dirtroad Organizing, a new non-profit dedicated to rural organizing.

Canyon Woodward
Canyon was born, raised, and homeschooled in the Appalachian Mountains of rural North Carolina and the North Cascades of Washington. He was the campaign manager for Chloe Maxmin’s successful 2018 and 2020 campaigns. He was previously regional field director for Bernie Sanders 2016, field director for Jane Hipps for NC Senate, and vice chair of the NC District 11 Democrats. He earned an honors degree in social studies from Harvard College, where the bulk of his education took place outside of the classroom co- coordinating (with Chloe) Divest Harvard, a 70,000+person movement that succeeded in pressuring Harvard to divest its $53 billion endowment from fossil fuels. He is also an avid trail runner. He is the Co-Founder of Dirtroad Organizing, a new non profit dedicated to rural organizing.

Visit their website to learn more about the authors and their book, Dirt Road Revival.

May 21, 2023: The History of Franklinia Alatamaha at Winding Stair Nursery

Brent Martin of the Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy and co-owner of Alarka Expeditions will present The History of Franklinia Alatamaha or Franklin tree, so named after Benjamin Franklin. This event will be held at Winding Stair Nursery in Franklin, NC on Sunday, May 21st. The event starts at 2pm and is free to the public.

William Bartram collected the species in the 1770s and propagated it at Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia. The rare species was extinct in the wild by the early 1800s due to cotton farming and the subsequent introduction of the waterborne disease, phytophthora. The species will no longer grow in its natural habitat but does very well here in southern Appalachia.

Martin will talk about his own success in propagating Franklinia, and there will be specimens available for purchase at the nursery. He will also discuss the other two rare members of the Theaceae family in North America, Stewartia ovata (our native Mountain Camellia) and Stewartia malacodendron (Silky Camellia, found on the coastal plain) and how to also grow them in our southern mountains.

Attendance is free, but please head over to the Winding Stair Farm and Nursery website to register to help with planning for this event: http://windingstairfarm.com/nursery/events/franklintree/

Bartram Writers Series: Coming into Animal Presence – Q&A with John Lane

We’re excited to offer another installment of the Bartram Writers Series! Please join us for this book release discussion and Q&A with John Lane, hosted by Brent Martin. This event will be held at the historic Rickman Store in Cowee Valley on March 15th, from 6-8pm. Light refreshments will be provided. Copies of this book will be on sale at the event and John will be available to sign them.

Please RSVP below to help with planning and refreshments.

In his latest book, Coming into Animal Presence, John Lane continues his exploration of the intersection of the human imagination with the world of other animals in a companion volume to COYOTE SETTLES THE SOUTH (2016) and NEIGHBORHOOD HAWKS (2019). Each of these fifteen pieces–some more formal essays, some journalism, and some stories of Lane’s encounters with wild animals in wild places–explores the diversity and the mystery of what’s often been called “the more than human world.” In each piece there is always animal presence, sometimes central and sometimes peripheral. In one piece the Columbian mammoth comes back to trouble the contemporary political landscape of South Carolina. In another, he ponders the fate of a wing-shot goose finding a last refuge in the Lane family’s tiny frog pond. In another, Lane ventures into an abandoned Zimbabwean gold mine alone to check on the status of a common genet, a shy carnivore.

John Lane is the author of a dozen books of poetry and prose, including The Dead Father Poems. His latest, Anthropocene Blues, was released by Mercer University Press. His Abandoned Quarry: New and Selected Poems won the SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance) Poetry Book of the Year prize in 2012. He was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors in 2014. He co-founded the Hub City Writers Project in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and teaches environmental studies at Wofford College there.

RSVP FORM

William Bartram’s Birthday Celebration and Franklinia Planting

Join us for William Bartram’s birthday celebration and franklinia planting at plant whisperer Jack Johnston’s nursery in Otto, NC for this very special event.

Jack is a propagator extraordinaire of Franklinia, Mountain Camellias, and much, much more. Not only we will learn about the natural history of these species, but plant some in Bartram’s honor!

To make this all the more special, Heather Gladfelter, PhD, whose graduate and current research is on the genetics of Franklinia, and Brad Sanders, author of Guide to William Bartram’s Travels, will be there to lead conversation and discussion.

We meet at Otto, NC post office at 11:30 AM to caravan to Jack’s nearby nursery. Bring lunch, water, weather appropriate clothing, and sense of humor and wonder. We will wrap up between 2 and 3PM.

Please RSVP below to help with planning for this event.

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