“Ancient Witness” will be an informal gathering to pay homage to the oldest tree in Buffalo. After briefly speaking about the tree’s history and its importance in our community, we will spend some time in quiet meditation with the tree, then converse about our reflections and what the tree means to us. Trees are some of our oldest non-human neighbors, experiencing time on a longer, slower scale than we do, and communicating in ways we are just beginning to understand. The great sycamore on Franklin Street is close to 310 years old and has witnessed the radical transformation of this landscape from forests and fields tended by the Seneca into the mostly deforested industrial city it is today. Let us gather to bear witness to its presence and transformation, however briefly, in return.