Last minute announcement!!!

On Sunday, April 19th @ 2pm, Franklin Park Conservatory will be screening the Documentary 'Taking Root' in the Chihuly Resource Center.
Free with admission to the Conservatory. Please pass this along to others who would like to see this inspiring film this Sunday. *Content of the film is PG13.


Taking Root tells the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy—a movement for which this charismatic woman became an iconic inspiration. For more click the title for a link.

This film will be screened by Deborah Stokes, founder of The Black Oak Project.

Deborah Ellen Stokes

Deborah Ellen Stokes is a true Buckeye whose love of Ohio’s landscape and wildlife finds expression in many of her poems. She has read her work throughout the Miami Valley, and her poetry has appeared in several journals. She serves as the Artist in Residence at the Paul Laurence Dunbar State Memorial House in Dayton, Ohio, advancing Dunbar’s Reputation in a Keynote Address and readings of his poetry. She initiated the conferral of the Doctor of Humane Letters on Dunbar by Wilberforce University in 1999.
Stokes is an Associate Professor of English at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio; and she is also proud Alum of CSU. She received her Masters in English from the University of Dayton in 1987. She is the Director and Founder of the Black Oak Project. She conceived and implemented an ancestral wreath-laying ceremony honoring three leading African Americans buried in Massies Creek Cemetery, Greene County Ohio.
Part of the Black Oak Project is realized through its community partnership with Independent television Services (ITVS) of San Francisco. Stokes serves to screen award winning independent documentary films throughout the Miami Valley and Ohio, encouraging deep and serious dialogue on many complex social issues.
She lives in the Greater Dayton Area where she continues her advorcy work for Animals Rights and Environmental Issues.

Please join me in engaging in this powerful documentary This Sunday at FPC @ 2pm.
Thank you,
Bill