Trees for Houston Puts Down Serious Roots, Toasts New Campus and $485K Till at Annual Ball
Mar. 28, 2024
HUNDREDS OF TREE-LOVING Houstonians savored and celebrated the good life at the La Dolce Vita-themed, 30th-annual Root Ball benefiting Trees for Houston.
Fittingly taking place at The Forest Club, the party wasn't hindered by a bit of soggy weather arbor enthusiasts know rain contributes to healthy tree growth, after all!). It took inspiration from the Amalfi Coast, from the breezy-chic attire to bites like prosciutto-wrapped melon and drinks such as Aperol spritzes.There was a lot to recognize on this night: It's the organization's first big bash since moving to its sprawling new Kinder Campus and upping its annual tree-planting numbers to 70,000-plus.
After a cocktail hour spent browsing the wine and spirits pull and a raffle courtesy of Zadok Jewelers, guests moved to the clay court, transformed by a yellow-and-white-draped tent and a canopy of native trees. Dinner was an Italian spread of chicken caprese, gnocchi and more, and a moving video presentation and paddles-up fundraiser had gala-goers buzzing with excitement as they moved onto the dance floor. The Grooves Band entertained for the rest of the night, and upon departure, guests grabbed an olive tree to plant at home.
Kristopher and Christiane Stuart, and Carrie and Jerry Alexander
Sarah Dallimore, Roxy Yeoh
Gary and Debra O’Neil
Lindsey Carlson, John O’Rourke
Kara Przypyl McIver, Kristen Kupperman
Janice Gregory and Marc Tausend
Joey and Maddie Cleary
Brad Trentham, Lindsey Long
Ryan Dumais, Vanessa Ingrassia
Al Ortiz, Brian Blowers, Slgi Jolissaint, Rhiannon Lear
Austin Smith, Ashley Smith
Will Maywald, Lauren Lothringer
Pamela and Garrett Lindsey
Meredith Symonds, Tom Flaherty
Cyrus Jaganathan, Teresa Lopez
Katherine Pulse, Cheryl King
Jonathan and Kasey Scullion
Jennifer and Greg Coleman
Margaret McCarthy, Mark Gress
Jessie and Gloria Bounds
Katie and Tim Yurick
Katelyn and Trevor McIntosh
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- On Main Street, United Nations Unveils First-Ever ‘Ecosystem Restoration’ Mural Designed to Grow More Trees ›
- Nature and Nurture: Nonprofit Toasts 40 Years of Planting and Protecting Trees in Houston, Raises $520K ›
- On the Grow: Trees for Houston Plans New Permanent Campus ›
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Herself with a Moving Backstory, Leah Lax Compiles Those of Houston Immigrants in a New, Must-Read Book
Mar. 28, 2024
A PANICKED MOTHER traveling by foot from El Salvador to reach the U.S.-Mexico border rubs crushed garlic cloves on her skin to ward off the cottonmouth snakes crawling over her legs. A group of half-starved teenage Vietnamese refugees on a boat they hoped would ferry them to safety huddle together as pirates board and steal all their possessions. At a UN Refugee Office, a father of six and a member of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (a minority ethnic group based in southern Nigeria) whose leadership had been executed by a corrupt Nigerian government, is granted emergency refugee status. The interviewer reaches into her pocket and hands him money to smuggle his family out of Nigeria.
These are just a few of the moments of terror, resilience, and grace that fill the pages of Leah Lax’s new book, Not From Here: The Song of America, a collection of first-person accounts by Houston immigrants describing their journey from unendurable circumstances to the United States.
In 2006, Lax was commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera to create a libretto for The Refuge, an opera based on local immigrant experiences. After the opera’s premiere in 2007, and throughout the tumultuous years of the Trump presidency, Lax was compelled to compile the interviews into a book and investigate her repressed family history.
At 16, Lax, then a closeted lesbian, left her childhood home where she’d been abused to join an evangelical Hasidic group, ultimately winding up in one such community in the Fondren area of Houston. She obeyed the sect’s strict interpretation of Jewish law, accepted an arranged marriage at 18, and bore seven children in a 10-year timespan. Lax was 45 when she divorced her husband and began living openly as a secular person and a lesbian (she and her partner have been together for 19 years). But for a long time, Lax felt like a stranger in her own country.
Lax’s initial attempts to gain the trust of people whose survival often depended on not sharing their personal histories were awkward. “It was a delicate approach that I didn’t understand at first,” says Lax, who asked each subject to begin with, “I was born…,” so they could describe a time and place where they felt settled before things changed. As they relaxed, the interviewees were relieved to tell their stories in a safe space. “It was the men who tended to cry.”
At the time of the interviews, Lax had “rigorously rejected” the fundamentalist teachings of Hasidism, but soon discovered religion was a deep part of the ethnic identity of her subjects; each person possessed a kind of faith she had never seen. “It was very open-eyed,” says Lax. “They weren’t in denial.” For Lax, listening is key to her work, and as she listened to people from so many different backgrounds and with many different religious faiths, she began to feel “less like a minority” and more like an American.
Lax also came to realize the determination and creative thinking required to brave the migration to and thrive in a foreign land is the very root of America’s identity, qualities that any Houstonian reading Not From Here will recognize within themselves.
Brazos Bookstore will host Leah Lax in-store on Thursday, April 4 at 6:30 p.m.
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