As part of Cry Joy Park–Gardens of Dark and Light, artist Jennifer Wen Ma invites the public to a series of lunchtime conversations dealing with exhibition themes. Bring a bag lunch and break bread with the artist as well as your fellow community members in the Halsey galleries. Each event will feature a collaborative performance by a musician, dancer, or poet relating to the theme. This luncheon will address land issues facing the Lowcountry.

Without land, we would not have trees, gardens, or vegetation of any sort, the basis of a paradise. Everything under the sun has a right to live and to lay its head on the earth to rest, be it an ant, elephant or human. But the politics of land has put the world in a critical state; Charleston’s local issues are reflections of the global condition. Habitat loss, homelessness, and gentrification have made land ownership/stewardship not just a human rights problem, but also an animal rights and environmental crisis.