Borrowing Paradise: a bird of paradise discussion w/ author Kaja McGowan & illustrator Tara McGowan

Join us for a conversation with the McGowan sisters about their book exploring Hindu cultural traditions surrounding death and​ rebirth in Bali, Indonesia:

https://pegasuspublishers.com/books/all/borrowing-paradise

"There are few resources about Bali available in English for young audiences and none that examine this particular topic from a child's perspective. The emphasis on how children are included in community activities, such as making offerings and preparing the elaborate towers, in Bali offers a unique perspective on this ritual and also builds awareness of how communities can work together to achieve greater environmental sustainability."

Kaja McGowan is associate professor in the History of Art, Archaeology, and Visual Studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Her area of expertise is South and Southeast Asia with emphasis on Indonesia, particularly Java and Bali.

Tara McGowan is an artist and author, who illustrates and performs her own original kamishibai (Japanese paper theater) stories. Both Kaja and Tara grew up in Lyndonville, Vermont, and regularly visited the Fairbanks Museum. Fairbanks’ “cabinet of curiosities” and the display of mounted birds and exotic plumage left a lasting impression on the author. This collaborative book was first conceived while Kaja was doing research in Bali in the 1990s and learned from a high priest and his wife about the Hindu Balinese custom of borrowing a bird-of-paradise for ritual
purposes.

Kaja and Tara dedicate this picture book to their father Dorian
McGowan, a local artist and art teacher whose original watercolors done while on sabbatical in Bali in 1990 inspired aspects of many of the illustrations in this book.

You may also like the following events from Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium:

• This Saturday, 17th May, 05:30 pm, SOLD OUT: Spring Mycology class with Annabelle Langlois in Saint Johnsbury
• Next month, 14th June, 10:00 am, Vermont Center for Ecostudies: Vermont Butterfly Atlas training workshop in Saint Johnsbury
• Next month, 21st June, 05:30 pm, SOLD OUT: Intro to Wild Mushrooms: Ecology, Identification & Foraging Basics class in Saint Johnsbury

Also check out other Arts events in Saint Johnsbury, Literary Art events in Saint Johnsbury, Nonprofit events in Saint Johnsbury.