Ken Ilgunas at LEC | Event
April 22nd, 2022 at 6:30 p.m. at the Helen Rockwell Morley Memorial Music Hall
Lake Erie College and the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics is proud to present Ken Ilgunas, author of Trespassing across America: One Man's Epic, Never-Done-Before (and sort of Illegal) Hike along the Keystone XL Pipeline.
From the Alberta oil sands to the Gulf Coast of Texas, hear about the world's first modern journey across private property, which trespassed over the Great Plains to answer the question: What is our personal responsibility as stewards of the land?
Schedule of Events
In addition to the keynote address at 6:30pm, there will be a series of events during the day that students can participate in.
9:00-11:00 am: Open discussion forum with students, staff, faculty in Dickinson Hall.
11:30-1:00 pm: Lunch at COE
1:00-3:00 pm: Hands-on activities, Q&A in the library
4:30-6:00 pm: Dining in the Library
6:30 pm: Keynote address in Morley Music Hall. Open to the public and will also have a book signing.
About the presentation:
Ken Ilgunas walked 1,700 miles across North America, following the proposed route of the Keystone XL pipeline, from Hardisty, Alberta, to the Gulf Coast of Texas. On his journey Ken encountered stampedes of cows, charging moose, and climate change deniers. Come learn about Ken's adventure, the world's first modern journey across private property, on which he trespassed over one of the most ignored, yet beautiful, regions of our continent–the Great Plains. He'll talk about the people of the heartland, the right to roam, and the stories that form the basis of his book, Trespassing across America.
About the book:
Both a travel memoir and a reflection on climate change, Trespassing Across America is filled with colorful characters, harrowing physical trials, and strange encounters with the weather, terrain, and animals of America’s plains. A tribute to the Great Plains and the people who live there, Ilgunas’s memoir grapples with difficult questions about our place in the world: What is our personal responsibility as stewards of the land? As members of a rapidly warming planet? As mere individuals up against something as powerful as the fossil fuel industry? Ultimately, Trespassing Across America is a call to embrace the belief that a life lived not half wild is a life only half lived.
Trespassing across America is a Winner of the Nebraska Center for the Book Award, Travel, a Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award Notable Book, and Honoree of the Society of Midland Authors Annual Literary Award for Biography/Memoir.
About Ken Ilgunas:
Ken Ilgunas is an author, and journalist. He has hitchhiked ten thousand miles across North America, paddled one thousand miles across Ontario in a birchbark canoe, and walked 1,700 miles across the Great Plains, following the proposed route of the Keystone XL pipeline. He’s written for The New York Times, Time, Backpacker, Smithsonian Magazine, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. His adventures and books have been featured on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The New Yorker, National Geographic, and NPR. He has a B.A. from SUNY Buffalo in history and English, and an M.A. in liberal studies from Duke. He is the author of travel memoirs Walden on Wheels and Trespassing Across America, and advocacy book, This Land Is Our Land. He is from Wheatfield, New York, and is presently living in Scotland.