Rooted Wisdom: Nature's Role in the Underground Railroad Virtual Premiere

Adkins Arboretum, in partnership with the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitor Center, will commemorate the 200th anniversary of Tubman’s birth with the virtual launch of a guided experience, Rooted Wisdom: Nature’s Role in the Underground Railroad, on Fri., March 11 at 7 p.m. The event includes a short documentary film that will premiere via livestream, hosted by the Avalon Foundation and viewable on the project’s website, naturesrole.org. Following the premiere of the 25-minute film, audiences can watch a panel discussion with historians and the filmmakers and participate in a Q&A with the panel.

Historian and Menare Foundation President Anthony Cohen—who retraced 1,200 miles of this history by foot, boat and rail—guides viewers through the Adkins Arboretum landscape, revealing freedom seekers’ methods for navigation, concealment, evasion and nourishment.

“Beautifully filmed and narrated, Rooted Wisdom reveals the remarkable literacies that self-liberators possessed and used to navigate and sustain themselves during their flights to freedom along the Underground Railroad. This remarkable film confirms freedom seekers and their families as early naturalists with enormous wells of knowledge about the flora and fauna of their worlds and offers us a fresh look at history on landscapes teeming with life. Simply breathtaking!”—Kate Clifford Larson, Historian and Harriet Tubman Biographer

The event is free and open to all, but registration is encouraged. View the trailer below.