2025 Bauder lecture
birding while black
In-Person Lecture, Conversation, and Book Signing with J. Drew lanham
Sunday, April 6, 2025 | 4:00pm EDT
Cranbrook Institute of Science Auditorium
39221 Woodward Avenue
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304
Presented by Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research
J. Drew Lanham, PhD, is a wildlife ecologist and biologist, conservation and cultural ornithologist, writer of poetry and essays, artist and public intellectual, and a passionate birder from South Carolina. He is a professor in the Forestry and Environmental Conservation Department at Clemson University, where his teaching and writing address the confluences of race, place, and nature. A recipient of a 2022 MacArthur “Genius” Grant, his most recent book of poetry and prose, Joy Is the Justice We Give Ourselves (2024), is a lush journey into wildness and Black being. The title of Dr. Lanham’s lecture at Cranbrook, “Birding While Black,” takes its name from an essay in his acclaimed 2016 memoir, The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature.
Dr. Lanham’s lecture will be followed by a reception and book signing for Joy Is the Justice We Give Ourselves in the Institute’s West Entrance where selections from the Institute of Science's world-class Ornithology Collection will be on display.
Admission is Free
Seating is Limited; Advance Registration Required
Joy Is the Justice We Give Ourselves Book and Lecture Registration
$17 (plus sales tax) for one Book and one Free Lecture Attendance
Book orders must be received by March 27 to guarantee delivery before the April 6 lecture. Book proceeds support Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research. Additional book details are noted below.
MORE about the speaker
J. Drew Lanham, PhD, is a native of Edgefield, South Carolina, and the author of Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts. He is a birder, naturalist, and hunter-conservationist who has published essays and poetry in publications including Orion, Audubon, Flycatcher, and Wilderness, and in several anthologies, including The Colors of Nature, State of the Heart, Bartram’s Living Legacy, and Carolina Writers at Home. Dr. Lanham is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow.
Dr. Lanham’s 2016 book, The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature received the Reed Award from the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Southern Book Prize and was a finalist for the John Burroughs Medal.
An Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Master Teacher at Clemson University, Dr. Lanham and his family live in the Upstate of South Carolina, “a soaring hawk’s downhill glide from the southern Appalachian escarpment that the Cherokee once called the Blue Wall.”
ABOUT THE BOOK
In gorgeous and timely pieces, Joy Is the Justice We Give Ourselves is a lush journey into wildness and Black being. Dr. Lanham notices nature through seasonal shifts, societal unrest, and deeply personal reflection and traces a path from bitter history to the present predicament. Drawing canny connections between the precarity of nature and the long arm of racism, this collection of Dr. Lanham’s signature mix of poetry and prose offers reconciliation and eco-reparation as hopeful destinations from our current climate of division. In Joy is the Justice We Give Ourselves, Dr. Lanham mines the deep connection to ancestors through the living world and tunes his unique voice toward embracing the radical act of joy.
“These poems don’t speak to us as readers alone, though. They feel deeply personal, as if we’re getting a glimpse into Lanham’s journal entries on a morning after he’s been birding. He’s instructing himself, as well. Perhaps these instructions are his way of practicing the justice of joy—how to stay alive and thrive as a Black man in a nation where Black joy has been long fought for centuries.”
—Ciona Rouse, Chapter 16
about the Bauder lecture series
This program represents the ninth installment of the Center's annual Lillian and Donald Bauder Lecture. Established in 2016 through a generous gift from Cranbrook President Emerita Dr. Lillian Bauder and her late husband Donald Bauder, this endowed lecture series allows the Center to bring to campus speakers of national significance whose work intersects with the history, collections, and legacy of Cranbrook and the work of Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.
- 2017: The Revenge of the Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter (2016). David Sax (Author, Journalist).
- 2018: Unpacking Frank Lloyd Wright's Archive and Career. Barry Bergdoll (Columbia University Professor of Art History and MoMA Curator).
- 2019: Conservation Matters: The Work of the Getty Conservation Institute. Tim Whalen (Director of the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles).
- 2020: "Cars: Accelerating the Modern World." Brendan Cormier (Senior Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum). The Center's first virtual lecture, available here.
- 2021: Unsettling Landscapes at Cranbrook: Histories of Indigenous Communities, the Japanese Experience, and Suburban Segregation. Sarah Anthony, Bonnie Clark, Gregory Fioritto, Eric Hemenway, Mika Kennedy, John Powes, and Thomas Sugrue. Virtual lectures are available to watch here.
- 2022: Complicating Collections at Cranbrook: Representations of a Confederate General, The Crusades, and Native Americans. Ned Blackhawk, Jennifer Borland, Mark Crain, and Alex von Tunzelmann. Virtual lectures are available to watch here.
- 2023: Experiencing Olmstead: The Enduring Legacy of Frederick Law Olmstead's North American Landscapes. Charles Birnbaum (President, CEO, and Founder of The Cultural Landscape Foundation in Washington, D.C.).
- 2024: Building a Social Contract: Modern Workers' Houses in Early Twentieth-Century Detroit. Michael McCulloch (Associate Professor of Architecture at Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan).
A visionary leader, Dr. Lillian Bauder served as Cranbrook's President and Chief Executive Officer from 1983 to 1996, a period during which she not only developed Cranbrook's first communitywide strategic plans but also created a master plan that ultimately led to the building of the Vlasic Early Childhood Center, the Williams Natatorium, the Academy of Art's New Studios Building, and the expansion of the Institute of Science. In 1996, Dr. Bauder became Vice President of Masco Corporation, a position she held until she retired in 2007. A 2014 recipient of Cranbrook's prestigious Founder's Award, Dr. Bauder now resides in Columbia, Maryland.
LECTURE LOCATION AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Cranbrook Institute of Science is located at the center of Cranbrook’s campus and accessed through Cranbrook’s main entrance at 39221 Woodward Avenue. Free parking is available in the Institute’s spacious parking deck on the south side of the complex.
Cranbrook Institute of Science, including the Auditorium and West Entrance, are barrier-free and accessible to all visitors.
For additional information in advance of the lecture, please call the Center at 248.645.3307. For information and assistance on the afternoon of the lecture, please call the Institute of Science’s Front Desk at 248.645.3200.
BOOK AND PICK UP INFORMATION
The “Free Lecture Registration and Pre-Paid Book” option ($17, plus sales tax) includes free registration for one lecture attendee and one pre-paid copy of the book Joy Is the Justice We Give Ourselves.
The book will be available for pick up at the lecture on Sunday, April 6. The Center will not be selling additional copies of the book at the lecture; the book must be ordered and pre-paid in advance. Regretfully, shipping the book is not available through the Center. If you cannot attend the lecture, signed copies of books ordered in advance will be available for pick up after the lecture at Cranbrook House. Book proceeds support the programs of Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research.
SERVICE ANIMAL POLICY
Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research is glad to accommodate visitors accompanied by service animals, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), on its tours and at its lectures, including those in Cranbrook Institute of Science. Under the ADA, a “service animal” is defined as a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. The task(s) performed by the dog must be directly related to the person’s disability. Regretfully, we cannot accommodate visitors accompanied by emotional support animals or pets.
Visitors who will be accompanied by service animals are welcome to call the Center at 248.645.3307 in advance of their scheduled tour so that we may address any questions or concerns.
PHOTO CREDITS
Banner image: Dr. J. Drew Lanham. Photography Courtesy of John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Joy is the Justice We Give Ourselves Book Cover. Photography Courtesy of Hub City Press.
Dr. J. Drew Lanham. Photgraphy Courtesy of John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature Book Cover. Photography Courtesy of Milkweed Editions.
Dr. Lillian Bauder. Photography Courtesy of Howard Community College Website.
Cranbrook Institute of Science Ornithology Collection. Photography Courtesy of Cranbrook Institute of Science.