Smell & Tell: Tincturing Memory

When

Wednesday March 21, 2018: 6:30pm to 8:45pm  Add to Calendar /   Add to Google Calendar

Where

Downtown Library: 4th Floor Meeting Room

Description

Tincturing is a process used by healers and perfumers to extract plant essences. It’s also a butterfly net for capturing and preserving memories. This is not the stuff of dreams. Memories define the past, infuse the present and shape our future—and many of them can be bottled.

Imagine having access to olfactory vignettes imbued with themes from your unique life story. Liquid memories that can be summoned and revisited at will. Sounds like magic, but it’s pure science and know-how.

Michelle Krell Kydd will take you on a journey of tinctured materials that bind magic and loss. These tinctures were influenced by: 

·Interactions with incense makers from Catholic monasteries.

·A meeting with the head of Ecumenical Relations for the Greek Orthodox Church that led to a sanctioned revelation of ingredients in Holy Chrism.

·Sensory encounters with Omani frankincense and bakhoor incense from Dubai.

·A spice discovery in Dearborn Michigan that resurrected a precious childhood memory.

 Smell & Tell attendees will learn how to tincture their own memories so they can share them with friends and loved ones. Memory kits will be provided to all attendees.

 The Smell and Tell series of lectures is led by Michelle Krell Kydd, a trained nose in flavors and fragrance who shares her passion for gastronomy and the perfume arts on Glass Petal Smoke. The Smell and Tell series debuted at the Ann Arbor District Library in 2012 and is ongoing.