Kate Brown with Kenda Mutongi: Tiny Gardens Everywhere

Join us at Brookline Booksmith to celebrate the release of Tiny Gardens Everywhere with author Kate Brown, in conversation with Kenda Mutongi.

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EVENT ATTENDEES: Preorder your copy of Tiny Gardens Everywhere through this page. Books will also be available for purchase at the event. Books can be picked up 30 minutes before the event in the event space.

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Tiny Gardens Everywhere: The Past, Present, and Future of the Self-Provisioning City

From the eighteenth century to the twenty–first, the surprising history and inspiring contemporary panorama of urban gardening: nurturing health, hope, and community.

Nurturing health, hope, and community, gardeners in cities and suburbs are reclaiming lost commons, transforming vacant lots into vibrant plots, turning waste into compost, and recreating what was once the most productive agriculture in recorded human history.

In a history that has been hidden in plain sight, working-class gardeners have consistently played an outsized role. In London, they devised ways to feed themselves when wage labor fell short. In Paris, a superabundance of horse manure in the streets nourished urban gardens that fed two million residents. In Berlin, gardeners built social safety nets for those marginalized by the state. In Washington, DC, African American migrants brought rural traditions of self-provisioning that were later disrupted by “urban renewal.” In rustbelt Mansfield, Ohio, farming ex-cons grow hope for the city’s future. In post-Soviet Estonia, shared gardens became lifelines for survival amid economic upheaval. And in Amsterdam, activists are reclaiming sustainable farming practices in a sinking landscape oversaturated with fertilizers.

Tilled into this rich history of urban agriculture is an inspiring layer of contemporary activism. Each chapter includes contemporary stories of people from all walks of life who, in their gardens, are continuing a great tradition of mutual aid, political resistance, and bold experiments in sustainability.

A manifesto for the next food revolution, Tiny Gardens Everywhere blends past and present, archive and experience, to offer a truly inspiring vision of the transformative potential of gardening and urban life.

Kate Brown is Distinguished Professor in the History of Science at MIT and author of four previous prize-winning books, including A Manual for Survival, an NBCC Award finalist. She currently plants her gardens in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in Vermont.

Kenda Mutongi teaches a wide range of courses in African history, world history, and gender history. She is the author of two award-winning books: Matatu: A History of Popular Transportation in Nairobi (Chicago UP, 2017) and Worries of the Heart: Widows, Family, and Community in Kenya (Chicago UP, 2007). She has also published several articles in the major African studies journals, and is currently writing a book tentatively titled, Reading Under the Covers, which focuses on the history of secondary schooling in post-colonial Kenya.

Mutongi has been an MLK Visiting Professor of History at MIT, a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard and at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Amsterdam. She has also received grants from the NEH, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.

Mutongi serves on the editorial boards of several journals and book series in African Studies. Before moving to MIT in 2019, Mutongi taught at Williams College for over 22 years, where she served as chair of the Africana Studies and the Africa/Middle Eastern Studies Programs.

Mutongi was born and raised in rural western Kenya, and received her BA from Coe College and her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. She enjoys cooking, sewing, and painting.

About Brookline Booksmith

Brookline Booksmith, thriving in the heart of Coolidge Corner in Brookline, Massachusetts, since 1961, is one of New England’s premier independent bookstores. We offer a vast selection of books, ranging from current bestsellers to the most eclectic titles. We are also known for our beautiful and inspired gifts. Customers buy and sell gently used books in our treasured Used Book Cellar and enjoy our bountiful bargain book selection. We host award-winning events series (including our groundbreaking Transnational Literature Series), offering more than 300 author talks, community conversations, and book clubs annually. Find more at brooklinebooksmith.com!