Tuesdays, FEB 2 - MAR 2. 4:30-6:00pm Discussion Sessions + culminating Field Day

This Agrarian Voices Study explores how The Berry Center puts Wendell Berry’s writing to work to advocate for farmers, land-conserving communities, and healthy regional economies. Participants consider how “writing for the farm” helps answer critical questions:

What will it take for farmers to be able to afford to farm well?

How do we become a culture that supports good farming and land use?

In addition to studying essays, fiction, and poetry by Wendell Berry, participants also read and ruminate on great agrarian writers such as bell hooks, Aldo Leopold, Crystal Wilkinson, Grace Olmstead, and Jason Peters. Through carefully curated materials, the course covers themes of community membership, valuing and preserving local knowledge, and keeping farmers on the land–all topics introduced in The Berry Center’s Agrarian Voices Distinguished Lecture Series.

Participants complete the majority of the self-paced coursework at home, on their own time. They expand their learning through opportunities for group discussions, online response posts, public lectures, and a humanities field day at The Berry Center Farm in Henry County, Kentucky.