Invitation to Listen

A celebration of the voices of nature and the languages of life, this slim volume delivers both prose and downloadable music. The words of beloved author of Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer, prompt us to slow down, listen, and take notice of our surroundings. A side-by-side translation of Kimmerer's text into the Potawatomi language shares what Kimmerer has called the "grammar of animacy." Including access to the album Plain, Air, a work of contemporary classical music by acclaimed composer Tonia Ko and performed by Spektral Quartet, this book offers a feast for the senses.

In the spirit of a chapbook, this work emerges from a call and response between people and place, between music and text. Amidst the music of Plain, Air, Kimmerer's writing invites us to connect with the vibrant world around us: waters coursing through rivers and streams, birds soaring overhead, and crickets calling in our neighborhoods. Justin Neely, Potawatomi Language Director for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, offers Kimmerer's words translated into Potawatomi, the living language of the landscape. The afterword shares a conversation among author Robin Wall Kimmerer, composer Tonia Ko, and musicians from Spektral Quartet.

With pages for listening notes, this field guide-sized book can easily travel with the reader, serving as a tool for wonder and attention. A link inside the book guides readers to the album stream and download. Read and listen with #1 New York Times bestselling author Robin Wall Kimmerer, 2018 Guggenheim Fellow and composer Tonia Ko, and three-time Grammy-nominated Spektral Quartet.

True to the intention of a gift economy, Robin Wall Kimmerer has donated first-run royalties of this book to the Center for Humans & Nature to support ecological restoration of the 50 acres of land that the Center calls home. In this place, the Center for Humans & Nature has wholeheartedly accepted Robin's "Invitation to Listen" to the land and to care deeply for the land in response.