Reading for Change is a free virtual monthly book club. Our book selections are pulled from Stowe Prize shortlist and winners; works which engage with social justice, tell honest histories, and model how we can all be part of change for good.
Join Catherine Coleman Flowers and Jennyfer Holmes in a community conversation on Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope!
- Free and open to the public
- Zoom! Invite your friends across the country!
- 6:00 – 7:15 PM EST
- Riverbend Bookshop: Get a 10% discount our Stowe Prize books! Mention us at check-out or use STOWEFORCHANGE for online purchases.
An inspiring collection of essays, personal and political, from the leading environmental justice activist of our time, that frames the challenges we face as a society and—with grace, generosity, and hope—charts the way toward equity, respect, and a brighter future.
Described by Bryan Stevenson as “the center of the quest for environmental justice in America,” Catherine Coleman Flowers has dedicated her life to fighting for the most vulnerable communities—rural, poor, of color—who have been deprived of the basic civil right to a clean, safe, and sustainable environment. Both deeply personal and urgently political, the essays in Holy Ground draw on history to illuminate and contextualize the most pressing issues of this moment: from climate change to human rights, from rural poverty to reproductive justice, from the notorious history of Lowndes County, Alabama, to the broader crisis of racialized disinvestment in the South. Flowers maps the distance and direction toward justice, examining her own diverse ancestry as evidence of our interconnectedness. She reflects on trailblazers who have fought for social and environmental justice. She writes about her mother, a civil rights activist who lost her life to gun violence, and her own deeply personal experience with reproductive justice. And in a remarkably candid and moving piece, she writes about a traumatic attack that occurred at a moment of collective triumph, in which she weighs her fight for the common good against her own well-being. Flowers’s faith shines throughout the collection, guiding her work and inspiring her vision of our responsibility to one another and to our shared home
Facilitators
Catherine Coleman Flowers is an internationally recognized environmental justice activist and founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice (CREEJ). A MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, Flowers sits on the board of directors of the Climate Reality Project, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and RMI. She has served as the co-vice chair of the inaugural White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and is a practitioner-in-residence at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. Flowers is the author of Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret and has written for the New York Review of Books and the New York Times, among other publications. In 2023, she was recognized as one of the TIME 100 most influential people in the world and one of the Forbes 50 Over 50.
Jennyfer A. Holmes is Senior Development Officer of Greater Hartford Gives Foundation (formerly Hartford Foundation for Public Giving). She initiates and cultivates meaningful relationships with donors who hope to support and secure a vibrant future for our community, helping to fulfill the philanthropic intentions of trusting donors. She is a 21/64 Certified Advisor with deep knowledge of multigenerational family philanthropy and next generation engagement. Jennyfer was most recently responsible for scholarship funds that support more than 600 students in greater Hartford, working with scholars, parents, counselors and generous donors to help students achieve a college education. In 2019, she earned a Principles of Fundraising Certificate from the Association of Fundraising Professional, Connecticut Chapter. Prior to joining Greater Hartford Gives Foundation, she was a manager of INROADS New England Region, securing student internships with corporate sponsors. As a proud INROADS alumna, she secured new corporate clients and helped students launch their professional careers. Before INROADS, she worked in underwriting for Chubb Insurance, earning a well-deserved promotion to Assistant Vice President at a relatively young age. An active community volunteer, Jennyfer served as Secretary on the Board of the American School for the Deaf and the Board of Aurora Women and Girls Foundation. She was Grants Committee Chair and Secretary of the Junior League of Hartford, Inc.; she is currently a Sustainer. A historiophile since 5th grade, she serves as Chair of the Historical Ministry of her church and as Historian of the New Haven Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. Jennyfer serves as Vice President of the Farmington Valley (CT) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated; on the Board of the Directors of the Connecticut Women’s Council and Board of Trustees of the Stowe Center for Literary Activism.
