Sedona AZ — Keep Sedona Beautiful will hold its next Preserving the Wonder™ Speaker Series event on Wednesday, November 18 at 5:00 pm. This month, Jeffrey Lazos Ferns, Chef and Artist will share “Living Landscapes: Food, Memory and the Sonoran Desert”. As always, this presentation will be free and open to the public, and will be held at the KSB EcoHub, 360 Brewer Road in Sedona. Doors will open at 4:30. Please visit the KSB website, www.keepsedonabeautiful.org for details.
Jeffrey will share how to explore Arizona’s Indigenous Foodways and the Sonoran Desert as a living archive of cultural knowledge, focusing on how Indigenous foodways and ecological relationships have shaped Arizona communities over generations. Through stories of indigenous plants, including the Sonoran Desert tree pantry, Sonoran Desert cactus pantry, and the Sonoran Desert shrub apothecary, the presentation highlights how plant, food, and wildlife traditions are deeply tied to land, identity, and survival. Ferns connects desert ecology to themes of history, migration, and cultural resilience. Audiences will see Arizona’s landscapes not as passive settings but as active forces shaping community life, offering insight into sustainable practices and cultural continuity in the face of environmental change. Note: This presentation will include tasting samples from the Sonoran Desert plant scape. This program is made possible by Arizona Humanities.
Jeffrey Lazos Ferns is an Arizona-based arts and culture professional, educator, and curator whose work centers on Indigenous foodways, Sonoran Desert ecology, and community storytelling. Through interdisciplinary programming and public engagement, he explores how landscapes shape cultural identity, memory, and lived experience in the Southwest. He works with organizations including the Arizona American Indian Tourism Association and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation on Indigenous Food Ways and Sonoran Desert Plant Hikes/Landscape tastings and is the founder and voice behind initiatives such as the Arizona Indigenous Culinary Experience and the Arizona Indigenous Food Symposium. His work brings together chefs, knowledge keepers, artists, and community members to elevate Indigenous perspectives and deepen public understanding of Arizona’s living landscapes.
The Preserving the Wonder Speaker series is held on the third Wednesday of each month. For over 50 years, Keep Sedona Beautiful has been dedicated to protecting and enhancing the scenic beauty and natural environment of Sedona and the Verde Valley. For more information about Keep Sedona Beautiful, please visit www.keepsedonabeautiful.org.
