Canadian poet Lisa Richter on channelling the voice of Anna Margolin for her award-winning collection Bookmark Please log in to listen to this story. Also available in French and Mandarin. Log In Create Free Account
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Stéphane Savoie/Handout
At an old monastery in Saskatchewan, home to a writers’ retreat, Toronto poet Lisa Richter began channelling an early 20th century feminist Yiddish poet from what is now Belarus. George Elliott Clarke, a mentor at the Sage Hill Poetry Colloquium, had assigned the group to write two pages of plain verse. “And Anna Margolin,” says Richter, “just popped into my head.”
How the Pandemic Has Changed the Houseplant Industry and Why
Besides being cheerful decor elements, plants are scientifically proven to reduce stress, giving them heightened importance in a tumultuous year.
By Angel Madison Christine Han
When onetime personal plant shopper and aspiring Martha Stewart of Succulents Sonja Detrinidad opened her website, Partly Sunny Projects, in Southern California just weeks into the pandemic, she didn t have high hopes for it. Detrinidad figured people wouldn’t have the expendable income to spend on plants while they were instead scrambling to find groceries and toilet paper. But the opposite happened: She was flooded, shipping out 1,200 orders in June of 2020 alone. In the past year, Detrinidad estimates that she’s sent out more than 70,000 plants. Her success is just one example of increased time at home leading to an explosion in the houseplant industry.
Jewish Ledger
Book of the Year awarded to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks for Morality
NEW YORK, N.Y. – Jewish Book Council announced the winners of the 2020 National Jewish Book Awards, now in its 70th year. The winners include
Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l, which was named the Everett Family Foundation Book of the Year. Rabbi Sacks’s final book draws on his own experiences, as well as texts by Jewish philosophers and scholars, to illustrate the importance of changing our world by shifting our focus to the collective good. This book will help ground Sacks’s legacy as one of the great Jewish thinkers of the 21st century.
The Examiner
The Missouri Department of Conservation is offering both virtual and in-person events and classes this month. Programs are free.
Advance registration is required and can be completed by visiting mdc.mo.gov/events. If you have trouble registering or have other questions, call the host conservation center.
Unless otherwise indicated, in-person programs will be held at the Burr Oak Woods Conservation Nature Center, 1401 N.W. Park Road, Blue Springs, 816-228-3766, or the Anita B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center, 4750 Troost Ave., Kansas City, 816-759-7300.
Masks are required for these in-person programs.
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Discover Nature (Not So) Early Bird Urban Hike: In-person, 9 to 10 a.m. and 2:30 to 3:30 p.m., Jan. 2, Anita B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center. Come explore the area near the Discovery Center. During this two-mile hike, discuss plant and wildlife ID, safety and other great urban hikes in KC. Be sure to dress for the weather. This program is for all ages