October 10th: Carl Safina in Conversation with Paul Greenberg

Presented by 192 Books and Paula Cooper Gallery, Carl Safina will discuss his new book Alfie & Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe with Paul Greenberg.

This event will take place live at 192 Books at 192 10th Avenue, between 21st and 22nd avenue, on Tuesday, October 10th at 7:30 PM ET. Seating is on a first come, first served basis.

Alfie & Me (Published by W.W. Norton, 2023)

When ecologist Carl Safina and his wife, Patricia, took in a near-death baby owl, they expected that, like other wild orphans they’d rescued, she’d be a temporary presence. But Alfie’s feathers were not growing correctly, requiring prolonged care. As Alfie grew and gained strength, she became a part of the family, joining a menagerie of dogs and chickens and making a home for herself in the backyard. Carl and Patricia began to realize that the healing was mutual; Alfie had been braided into their world, and was now pulling them into hers.

Alfie & Me is the story of the remarkable impact this little owl would have on their lives. The continuing bond of trust following her freedom—and her raising of her own wild brood—coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a year in which Carl and Patricia were forced to spend time at home without the normal obligations of work and travel. Witnessing all the fine details of their feathered friend’s life offered Carl and Patricia a view of existence from Alfie’s perspective.

One can travel the world and go nowhere; one can be stuck keeping the faith at home and discover a new world. Safina’s relationship with an owl made him want to better understand how people have viewed humanity’s relationship with nature across cultures and throughout history. Interwoven with Safina’s keen observations, insight, and reflections, Alfie & Me is a work of profound beauties and magical timing harbored within one upended year.

Carl Safina (born May 23, 1955) is an American ecologist and author of books and other writings about the human relationship with the natural world. His books include Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace; Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel; Song for the Blue Ocean; Eye of the Albatross; The View From Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World; and others. He is the founding president of the Safina Center, and is inaugural holder of the Carl Safina Endowed Chair for Nature and Humanity at Stony Brook University. Safina hosted the PBS series Saving the Ocean with Carl Safina.

Paul Greenberg is the author of six books including the New York Times bestseller Four Fish and, most recently, The Climate Diet. A regular contributor to the New York Times and a frequent guest on national television and radio including Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Mr. Greenberg lectures widely at institutions ranging from TED to Harvard University to the U.S. Supreme Court. His PBS Frontline documentary The Fish on My Plate was among the most viewed Frontline films of the last few years. Mr. Greenberg teaches in New York University’s Animal Studies graduate program and lives at Ground Zero in Manhattan, where he produces (to his knowledge) the only wine grown and bottled south of 14th Street.