Join Atlanta Audubon Society and author Dr. J. Drew Lanham on Sunday, May 21 at Manuel’s Tavern from 3:30 to 5:30 PM for the Closing Celebration of Atlanta Bird Fest 2017. Author of the book The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature, Drew Lanham fascinates readers with the connection of freedom and nature and the contraction of being black in the rural south even up to modern times. An Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Master Teacher at Clemson University, Dr. Lanham defines himself as a birder, a naturalist, and a hunter-conservationist. This event is free and open to the public.

Drew Lanham is a South Carolina native through and through, growing up in Edgefield and currently residing in upstate South Carolina. “In me, there is the red of miry clay, the brown of spring floods, the gold of ripening tobacco. I am, in the deepest sense, colored.” From these fertile soils—of love, land, identity, family, and race—emerges The Home Place, a big-hearted, unforgettable memoir. Lanham’s family has roots dating back to the era of slavery in Edgefield County, South Carolina. The Home Place, brings readers face-to-face with the inhabitants of this small town, including Drew himself, in the 1970s and follows their footsteps as they fall in love with nature. As this love grows, Drew finds himself debating the meaning of finding such happiness and freedom in the same land his ancestors were enslaved and exploited. By contrasting the feelings of belonging in nature to the feelings of black identity in the rural South, Lanham spins a captivating introspective narrative guided by a love for the natural world.

The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature will be available for purchase at the event, and Drew Lanham will be available for signings, discussion of his novel, and to share in the passion of birding and nature.

The Closing Celebration is free to attend, but registration is requested for planning purposes.

Registration + Information