Fall Listening Circle

Friday, October 23
6 – 7:30pm
Free; capacity is limited, and registration is encouraged.

Inspired by Indigenous talking circles, the Listening Circles series offers a space for reflection, dialogue, and deep listening. Led by Denise Dunkley, master artisan, educator, and member of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation, each gathering creates opportunities for intergenerational exchange and shared learning through stories, lived experiences, and collective conversation.

Our fall session features Ciara Williams, a PhD candidate in history at Harvard University and the Lenape Research Fellow at Bartram’s Garden in Southeast Philadelphia. Her research explores how rivers shape patterns of settlement and commerce and how environments affect negotiations and conflicts over space. At Bartram’s Garden, Williams is researching the early colonial history of Lenapehoking, working with the staff and the Lenape Advisory Panel to broaden the garden’s story and situate it within the larger context of Native history.

Together, Dunkley and Williams invite us to reflect on the histories embedded in the landscapes around us and consider how our understanding of place changes when we make space for multiple perspectives. Drawing on Williams’s research and work at Bartram’s Garden, the conversation explores how landscapes hold layers of history, memory, and connection, and how looking closely at rivers, land, and the places we inhabit can reveal overlooked histories.

Location: Calder Gardens Disc (outdoor area near main entrance). If weather conditions require, the program will move indoors.

Born in the southernmost tidewaters of Lenapehoking, Denise Bright Dove Ashton-Dunkley is a master artisan, educator, public speaker, tribal councilwoman, and citizen of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation of New Jersey. For over 25 years, she has used art to carry forward ancestral knowledge, guided by her grandmothers. Holding a Master of Legal Studies in Indigenous peoples law, Dunkley pairs art and advocacy to advance Indigenous rights, climate justice, and MMIW awareness, with work exhibited internationally.

Ciara Williams is a PhD candidate in history at Harvard University with experience in environmental justice organizing, nonprofit management, and facilitation. The principles of environmental justice have guided her work from the start, first as a youth organizer in her hometown of Chester, Pennsylvania, to the present, as an environmental historian of the colonial-era United States. She is currently the Lenape Research Fellow at Bartram’s Garden, where she is highlighting the garden’s role within broader regional Indigenous histories and how these histories can inform on-site storytelling, education, and land stewardship.

Listening Circles take inspiration from Indigenous círculos de la palabra, creating a space for dialogue, attentiveness, and shared reflection. The series fosters deep listening, intergenerational exchange, and the sharing of lived experiences across cultures.

Programming at Calder Gardens is generously supported by Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz; The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston; Donna Green; Michael Sternberg; and the Friends of Calder Gardens.