Pioneer of Local Food Movement Guest in The Green Room

Gary Paul Nabhan. Courtesy photo.

The Merwin Conservancy presents local food movement and celebrated nature writer Gary Paul Nabhan in The Green Room, on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2016 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s McCoy Studio Theater. The event begins at 7 p.m.

The event is being held in conjunction with the Indigenous Crop Biodiversity Festival and the IUCN World Conservation Congress to be held in Hawaiʻi in September.

Nahban is an internationally-celebrated nature writer, seed saver, ethnobotanist and sustainable agriculture activist who is considered a pioneer of the “local food movement.” His studies of indigenous farming, wild-food gathering, and land management focus on preserving ancient cultural traditions and conserving the links between biodiversity and cultural diversity.

Gary Paul Nabhan. Courtesy photo.

Nabhan’s work offers important insights into the relationship between culture and land, especially with respect to the constraints of limited, natural resources that all societies eventually face.

The evening includes:

• a series of readings of poetry and short fiction by Gary Paul Nabhan
• a Q&A session with Nabhan,
• and a reception with champagne, dessert, live music, book signing, and book fair

For his creative writing and its influence on community-based conservation, he has been honored with a MacArthur “genius” award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a Southwest Book Award, the John Burroughs Medal for nature writing, the Vavilov Medal, and several honorary degrees and lifetime achievement awards.

“It is perfectly fitting that someone like Gary, whose work literally lives at theintersection of art and nature, will be with us in The Green Room, especially during the week of the Indigenous Crop Biodiversity Festival,” said Merwin Conservancy Executive Director Jason Denhart. “Maui is in for a real treat.”

Tickets are $25 per person (with a $10 student rate available with student I.D.) and are available at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Box Office, by calling (808) 242-SHOW or by purchasing online. All ticket sales benefit local non-profit The Merwin Conservancy.