Celebrate Earth Day with Suzanne Simard and Leading Voices in Ecology, Indigenous Stewardship, Law, Literature, and Music
When: Wednesday, April 22, 2026 | 7:30 PM (doors 6:30 PM)
Where: Chan Centre Concert Hall – 6265 Crescent Rd, Vancouver, BC
Join author and UBC Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Stewardship Professor Suzanne Simard for the launch of her highly anticipated new book, When the Forest Breathes, the follow-up to her bestselling Finding the Mother Tree. This immersive evening combines performance and conversation to explore a pressing question: how can we reimagine our relationship with forests, and with one another, in a time of ecological urgency?
The program opens with T. Patrick Carrabré’s Mother Tree, presented in collaboration with Early Music Vancouver. Performed by the Pacific Baroque Orchestra and soprano Mireille Asselin, the work brings Simard’s groundbreaking ideas about forest networks to life through music.
Next, experience Fungi Kingdom Dance, created by Rande Cook, Kwakwaka’wakw artist and hereditary chief of the Ma’amtagila people, who will also participate in the onstage conversation later in the evening.
The evening concludes with a live panel moderated by CBC’s What on Earth host Laura Lynch, featuring Suzanne Simard; Cree author and Governor General’s Literary Award winner Michelle Good (joining virtually), author of Five Little Indians; Christopher Rusnak, KC, legal scholar and Rights of Nature advocate; and Dr. Teresa Ryan, UBC Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Stewardship scholar. Together, they will explore the future of forests and our shared responsibility to the living world.