The Art of Foraging with
Alexis Nikole Nelson

Thu, April 10th | 7PM

Celebrate Earth Month with BlackForager, Alexis Nikole Nelson. A forager, outdoor educator, chef, and influencer based in Ohio, Nelson uses her platforms to yell, sing and celebrate all the edible plants hiding in plain sight. She invites all to come on her foraging journey with her via @alexisnikole (TikTok) and @blackforager (Instagram). Through her search for freely accessible edible plants, she peels back historical layers on African American and Indigenous food traditions that have traditionally been repressed and empowers those living in food deserts with greater self- sufficiency.

Register at: https://bit.ly/ILP_AlexisNikoleNelson

Nelson has also cooked up quite a few awards, receiving the James Beard Award for “Best Social Media” 2022, being chosen as a ‘TikTok Tastemaker’ for Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and honored as part of Fortune Magazine’s Creator 25 in 2021. With 5 million followers joining, Alexis takes audiences into the woods and to the oceans in search of edible plants and tasty recipes to enrich their palates and the planet. As Alexis would say, happy snacking, don’t die!

Nelson will be joined in conversation by Natalie Evans, a wild edible foods instructor based in Chicago. 

Art and Adventures with
Author/Illustrator Dan Santat

Sat, May 3rd | 2PM

Join bestselling author and illustrator Dan Santat for an afternoon event all about books and art with friend and collaborator, author Minh Lê.

Dan Santat is the author and illustrator of over a hundred books for young people! Many of his books are New York Times-bestsellers, including The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, Are We There Yet?, and After the Fall (How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again). His latest works include the best-selling graphic novels, The Aquanaut and A First Time for Everything. He is also the creator of the Disney animated hit, The Replacements. 

Register for this virtual event at:
https://bit.ly/ILP_DanSantat

Santat won the Caldecott Medal for most distinguished picture book in 2015, the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in 2023 and Golden Kite Award for Middle Grade Fiction in 2024.

Minh Lê is the award-winning author of picture books including Drawn Together (winner of the 2019 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature), The Blur (with Dan Sanat!), Real to Me, Lift, and graphic novels such as Green Lantern: Legacy and Enlighten Me. In addition to writing books, Dan serves on the board of We Need Diverse Books, and has been a contributor to a variety of national publications, including NPR, HuffPost, and the New York Times. 

Poverty: A Disscussion with
Matthew Desmond

Tue, May 13th | 7PM

Join us to close out our fourth season with bestselling author Matthew Desmond in conversation with award-winning journalist, Natalie Moore.

Register at: https://bit.ly/ILP_MatthewDesmond

Desmond is a professor of sociology at Princeton University and author of the award-winning book, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. The recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, Desmond was named one of “fifty people across the country who are most influencing the national political debate” by Politico 50 in 2016. His research focuses on poverty in the United States, city life, housing insecurity, public policy, racial inequality, and ethnography.

Natalie Moore is an award-winning journalist based in Chicago, whose reporting tackles race, housing, economic development, food injustice and violence. She is the author of the acclaimed The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation and co-author of The Almighty Black P Stone Nation: The Rise, Fall and Resurgence of an American Gang. Moore is the recipient of Chicago Library Foundation’s 21st Century Award and a Studs Terkel Community Media Award among many others. Her work has helped shift the way Chicagoans today think about segregation in the region.