Jamaica Kincaid and Kara Walker come together to share their new book, An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children, an inventive and surprising survey about what our gardens reveal. Kincaid offers an ABC of the plants that define our world and reveals the often brutal history behind them. Walker illustrates each entry with provocative, brilliant, enthralling, many-layered watercolors. They’ll speak with New Yorker staff writer and theater critic Hilton Als as part of The Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library's Treasures, which showcases some of the most extraordinary items from the 56 million in our collections. The event will begin with a short talk on The Brownies Book, a children’s magazine published by W.E.B. Du Bois and whose primary intended audience was Black children, and other items reflecting stories of Black childhood by Barrye Brown, the Curator of Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. This event is free to attend but registrants have the option to purchase a copy of An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children with their tickets