In Person Program
Join us for the fourth lecture of the 2022 Compelling Voices season!
In January 2021, Alison Világ set off on a journey charted by The State of the Birds (North American Bird Conservation Initiative), The 500 Most Important Bird Areas in the United States (American Bird Conservancy), and Google Maps’ “avoid highways” option. Rather than amassing a lengthy list, she was more interested in celebrating birds for their essence. Her intent through this was to gather stories for a book about vulnerable bird species and their vital places.
Alison traveled alone for much of the year, sleeping most nights in the back of her Toyota Tacoma. As the year progressed, Alison’s experiences with her own vulnerability as a woman alone on the road melded into her accumulating body of work. She’ll be sharing scenes from the human and natural–and the inner–landscapes traveled: Mountain Quail reclaiming a logging road never completed because it desecrated sacred Yurok land. Passing the dark hours of Louisiana nights by surveying for Yellow and Black Rails in saltmarsh illumined by natural gas plants and offshore rigs. Being forced off the road by a prairie storm while traveling to a Lesser Prairie-Chicken lek.
All are welcome to attend this free event but RSVP is required.
About the series:
Compelling Voices in Birding and Conservation is a joint program series from Chicago Ornithological Society, Chicago Audubon Society, and Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. Now in it’s fifth year, this special series features unique speakers with very different backgrounds and often under-represented voices. Join us for energizing and engaging presentations from speakers from across the country and spanning expertise throughout the world of bird watching, conservation, and environmental issues.