

Art installation uses poetry to explore the emotional side of plants
鈥淗ear Nature Cleansing.鈥 These words are the first thing visitors see when they cross the bridge from the Visitor Center at the 91短视频 this summer. The prominent display on Bird Island prompts questions and reflection from the outset.
That reaction is at the heart of the art installation Of Earth and Sky, created by poet Keli Stewart and artist Luke Jerram for Flourish: The Garden at 50, the Garden鈥檚 50th birthday celebration that runs through September 25. The words are actually poetry excerpts that aim to evoke the emotional connections we all form with the natural world鈥攖hrough our memories, our families, and our day-to-day experiences鈥攁s well as the role nature plays in helping communities thrive.
Stewart hopes that when visitors encounter Of Earth and Sky, they will stop and absorb the phrases and then carry the themes throughout their time at the Garden. 鈥淚 want them to breathe,鈥 Stewart said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of forcing people to pause. To take a moment to be in nature. To just exist, and to celebrate the space that the 91短视频 has created over the last 50 years.鈥
Stewart curated the excerpts, selecting them from poetry written by youth and staff from Windy City Harvest, the Garden鈥檚 urban agriculture initiative.
During two virtual poetry workshops with staff and youth participants at the Farm on Ogden, the Windy City Harvest hub in Chicago鈥檚 Lawndale neighborhood, Stewart led an exploration into personal narratives around plants, food, and farming. They used a variety of writing prompts to dive into their poems, like writing from the point of view of something that doesn鈥檛 have a voice鈥攕uch as soil, or the koi fish in Farm on Ogden鈥檚 aquaponics system. Stewart also asked workshop attendees to use their poems to travel to a space in nature where they feel a powerful connection.
鈥淲e were really immersed in our memories,鈥 said Ketaurah James, the manager for Windy City Harvest鈥檚 VeggieRx program, who helped coordinate the staff workshop. 鈥淗earing other staff stories鈥攊t was really emotional.鈥 Ketaurah wrote about a Father鈥檚 Day family barbecue in a park when her dad was still alive. 鈥淩eminiscing was so vivid,鈥 she said.
And as for the youth participants, 鈥淭hey put a lot of their farm work into their poetry,鈥 said Iririan Francisco, VeggieRx coordinator, who attended the youth workshop. 鈥淚t was a way to express themselves and get them out of their shells a little bit.鈥

After the workshops, Stewart took all the poetry and laid it out alongside images of the Garden鈥檚 physical spaces for the installation. From there, she excerpted lines that she felt spoke to the experience of the writer and drew a clear connection with the land. She aimed for each line to offer 鈥渁 nugget, something we can carry with us that offers hope but also centers memory and nature.鈥
UK-based artist Luke Jerram then transformed the words into installations, now displayed on Bird Island, the Esplanade, and the walkway toward the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden at the 91短视频. Stewart will provide new excerpts for the Esplanade as the grass grows and is mowed, celebrating the same themes and creating an evolving experience.
Of Earth and Sky is also on display at Farm on Ogden, with an excerpt on its inner wall overlooking its community market and the word 鈥淔lourish鈥 in the parking lot.
鈥淚 thought the word [Flourish] speaks so highly of not only what nature does, but what people do, and what we hope neighborhoods will do鈥攆lourish and thrive,鈥 Stewart said. 鈥淚t all points to the cultivation of a neighborhood, a space, that the youth will inherit. Thinking about the future of not only the Garden, but [the Lawndale] neighborhood.鈥
The artwork鈥檚 community connections are personal for Stewart. Her family migrated to Lawndale from Mississippi in the 1950s, and she is the third generation to call it home; she grew up there and in the Austin neighborhood. She鈥檚 now the founder of the West Side鈥檚 Front Porch Arts Center and last year published a book of poetry, Small Altars. Stewart said the project with the Garden and Windy City Harvest felt like a natural fit.
鈥淪o much of my own personal story and history is tied to Lawndale in particular, to a site right across from Farm on Ogden,鈥 Stewart said. 鈥淢y family鈥檚 church [was there], my daycare, and my grandma was a cook in that daycare. So much of my life happened in that basement kitchen.鈥
Stewart credits one particular garden with helping her flourish: her grandmother鈥檚 garden in Lawndale, where she spent childhood afternoons picking flowers to adorn her hair and relaxing next to the fountain. 鈥淭hat space evoked a sense of magic in me very early on,鈥 Stewart said. 鈥淚t was such a space of solitude in the middle of the city.鈥
That is the power of gardens and plants. Of Earth and Sky is a meditation on that sense of magic, inviting viewers to welcome it into their 91短视频 experience and their lives.