Episode 28: Poet Ann E. Wallace, Choreographer Samuel Pott, Author N. West Moss and Landscape Architect Larry Weaner

Welcome to Season 4 of the WildStory! We have a wonderful, jam-packed season opener, and we hope you enjoy all that we have in store for you this episode! To open, Award winning poet James Crews (0:3:15), author of the forthcoming book Breathing Room (Battenkill Books, March 17th), and our featured poet in Episode 19, is back! This time as our guest host, speaking with Ann E. Wallace about her new poetry collection Keeping Room, out this month from Nixes Mate Books. James and Ann have a lovely conversation about holding space—for pain and disruption, but also nature, love, and unexpected joy.In Ask Randi, Randi Eckel (0:28:47), owner of Toadshade Wildflower Farm, spills some inside details about the NPSNJ Annual Meeting on March 7th—and trust us, you won’t want to miss what she’s teasing. Then she jumps into listener questions, breaking down the mysteries of native seed stratification.We’re joined by Samuel Pott (0:39:27), Founding Artistic Director of Nimbus Dance, to explore ANIMA, a powerful new trilogy confronting environmental crisis and reimagining our place in the natural world. There will be a special performance on Friday, February 27, at 8 pm at the Bickford Theatre at the Morris Museum in Morristown, New Jersey.We catch up with N. West Moss (0:49:51) to talk about her new middle-grade novel Birdy (Christy Ottaviano Books/Little, Brown, Feb. 17), the story of an 11-year-old girl who, after her mother’s death, spends a summer in the country where the natural world helps her protect her little brother, heal her grief, and discover that family and belonging can take root in unexpected places.We wrap the episode with legendary ecological landscape designer Larry Weaner (1:14:47), founder of Larry Weaner Landscape Associates and New Directions in the American Landscape (NDAL) and keynote speaker for NPSNJ’s Planning for the Unplanned, where ecological restoration meets bold landscape design. For tickets visit NPSNJ.orgQuestions or guest ideas: Email Thewildstory@npsnj.org