Natural History: Brandon Kilbourne poetry reading and conversation

Join us for an evening of poetry by Brandon Kilbourne, in celebration of the publication of his new book, Natural History. Kilbourne illuminates the intersections between science and poetry in poems that demonstrate the wonder, curiosity, and precision required by both disciplines. He will be joined by Sushma Reddy, Breckenridge Chair of Ornithology Curator of Birds at the Bell Museum, for a conversation exploring the colonial legacy of museum collections, the importance of biodiversity, the intersection of art and science, and the ways these intersect in Kilbourne’s research and lived experiences, and inform his outlook on life.

Schedule

• Doors open at 6:00 pm.
• Participants will have the opportunity to visit the temporary exhibition Curious Allies. The Bell’s Curiosity Shop will be open, and the University of Minnesota Bookstore will be on hand to sell books. 
• The lecture will begin at 7:00 pm and will be followed by a conversation, audience Q&A, and a book signing.

Brandon Kilbourne is a research biologist, most recently at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin.

His poetry has appeared in Ecotone, Obsidian, Poet Lore, and elsewhere. Natural History is his first poetry collection.

Natural History opens by confronting the hidden histories within the study of biology and its links to colonialism, including the revelation that European scientists used slave ships to transport specimens from Africa and the Americas back to Europe. Across the collection, Kilbourne describes how these histories of exploitation are still reflected in dioramas of elephants, rhinoceroses, and African people displayed in natural history museums. Other poems narrate the intricate work of studying fossils, and a longer sequence recounts an expedition above the Arctic Circle to recover evidence of how a fish’s fins gave rise to the diversity of limbs found among amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Learn more here.

Sushma Reddy is an Associate Professor in Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology at the University of Minnesota, and Breckenridge Chair of Ornithology and Curator of Birds at the University’s Bell Museum. She is an evolutionary biologist focusing on bird diversity, phylogenetics, biogeography, tropics, and natural history collections. 

This free, in-person program is brought to the public by the Bell Museum in partnership with Greywolf Press.

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