*Virtual* EX LIBRIS: Congress of the Birds

The EX LIBRIS program series from the Providence Athenæum features an array of humanities scholars, authors, historians, and thought leaders, illuminating fascinating topics and inspiring the intellectually curious. EX LIBRIS programs take place at the Athenæum in front of a live studio audience and are simulcast via Zoom, as well as recorded. This is the VIRTUAL event. Members can purchase $5 in-person tickets here.

Artist and wildlife rehabilitator Sheida Soleimani is the Executive Director of Congress of the Birds, Rhode Island’s only avian-specific wildlife rehabilitation center with an onsite release facility. Soleimani will discuss what wildlife rehabilitation entails—from emergency triage and medical care to the ethical responsibility of preparing animals for successful release—and how these practices guide the organization’s 24-hour triage clinic in Providence and its rehabilitation and release center in Chepachet, where over 1,000 avian patients are treated annually. Drawing on her background as an artist, Soleimani will also explore how Congress of the Birds integrates art, education, and advocacy as tools for community engagement, ecological awareness, and reimagining our interdependence with the natural world.

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Sheida Soleimani is an Iranian-American artist, educator, activist, and federally and state-licensed migratory bird rehabilitator. She specializes in the care of all species of wild birds, and has rehabilitated thousands of patients over the past decade. Soleimani founded Congress of the Birds in the basement of her home, slowly growing it into a small but vital rehabilitation clinic; in 2024, it formally became a nonprofit dedicated to providing medical treatment, rehabilitation, and safe release for injured wild birds.

Her artistic practice runs alongside this work of care. The daughter of political refugees who fled Iran in the early 1980s, Soleimani uses photography, sculpture, and installation to examine the intertwined histories of violence linking Iran, the United States, and the broader Middle East. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the MIT List Visual Arts Center, and Kadist Paris. She is also an Associate Professor of Studio Art at Brandeis University.

The Athenæum's Spring 2026 Season is generously sponsored by the following friends and partners: