Gary Nabhan Lecture – Gila River Festival Goes Virtual

The 16th Annual Gila River Festival will take place online September 18 and 19, 2020 and will explore how we cultivate resilience in our communities and ecological systems in the face of the twin crises of climate change and the global coronavirus pandemic. What lessons have we learned from the pandemic that can inform our response to the climate emergency? How can we create a more just and equitable society and emerge stronger and better from these existential challenges?

We will meet online for an inspiring keynote presentation by ethnobotanist, agricultural ecologist and writer Gary Paul Nabhan. The author of Food From the Radical Center, Growing Food In a Hotter, Drier Land, The Desert Smells Like Rain, and many others, Nabhan will talk about how rural communities in the Southwest borderlands can rebuild their economies using local knowledge and natural resources that simultaneously benefit human health, generate new livelihoods, and restore ecosystems.

Through our state-of-the art online conference platform, participants will be able to watch and interact live throughout the two-day festival. The 16th annual Gila River Festival is an opportunity to learn, collaborate and get energized for the challenges that lie ahead for our community, the Gila River and its watershed.  Registration and full festival schedule will be available August 1, 2020 at www.gilariverfestival.org