LongHouse Reserve Landscape Luncheon

LongHouse Reserve celebrated their biannual Landscape Luncheon with an award to horticulturalist and historian Abra Lee. In her remarkable talk on the contributions of Black Women, from antebellum history to the present day, she explained, “A beautiful thing about Black garden history is that it can’t be separated from Black history, and it can’t be separated from American history”.

The day began with Lee’s lecture, and followed by a ceremony, and luncheon.  From a stage erected in front of Longhouse Reserve’s Fly Eye Dome by Buckminster Fuller, director Carrie Rebora Barratt presented the award to Ms. Lee, declaring “Abra’s research, documenting the invisible Women of color who conquered the soil, breaks new ground in garden history.  Her poignant stories, personal narrative, and deep expertise, bring honor to LongHouse.  She is deserving of this award and much more.”  Joining them on stage was New York Botanical Garden’s Richard Smith.  Both were clearly moved.

Guests were seated at four very long tables, spread with Larsen fabrics, and fall flowers.  In attendance were LongHouse Reserve Board of Trustees and Garden Committee members including Dianne Benson, Louis Bradbury, Ernie Cavallo, Emma Clurman, Sherri Donghia, Anne and Nick Erni, Nina Gillman, Elizabeth Lear, Deborah Nevins, Geoffrey Nimmer, Peter Olsen, Tony Piazza, Gael Towey, Linda Willett, and Jim Zajac, as well as Chantal Bacon, Nina Bransfield, Ronne Fisher, Lee Fryd, Cate Halsey, Alice Hope, and Laurie Lambrecht.

Coming soon, Abra Lee’s book, Black America and the Untold Stories of Our Country’s Gardeners, Farmers, and Growers.