A darker wilderness : Black nature writing from soil to stars / edited by Erin Sharkey.
Material type:
TextPublisher: Minneapolis, Minnesota : Milkweed Editions, 2023Copyright date: ©2023Edition: First editionDescription: 287 pages : illustrations ; 22 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781571313904
- 1571313907
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | NonFiction | 814.608 D219 | Available | 33111010971204 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2023
A Library Journal Recommended Read for 2023
A Ms. Magazine Most Anticipated Book of 2023
A vibrant collection of personal and lyric essays in conversation with archival objects of Black history and memory.
What are the politics of nature? Who owns it, where is it, what role does it play in our lives? Does it need to be tamed? Are we ourselves natural? In A Darker Wilderness , a constellation of luminary writers reflect on the significance of nature in their lived experience and on the role of nature in the lives of Black folks in the United States. Each of these essays engages with a single archival object, whether directly or obliquely, exploring stories spanning hundreds of years and thousands of miles, traveling from roots to space and finding rich Blackness everywhere.
Erin Sharkey considers Benjamin Banneker's 1795 almanac, as she follows the passing of seasons in an urban garden in Buffalo. Naima Penniman reflects on a statue of Haitian revolutionary François Makandal, within her own pursuit of environmental justice. Ama Codjoe meditates on rain, hair, protest, and freedom via a photo of a young woman during a civil rights demonstration in Alabama. And so on--with wide-ranging contributions from Carolyn Finney, Ronald Greer II, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Sean Hill, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Glynn Pogue, Katie Robinson, and Lauret Savoy--unearthing evidence of the ways Black people's relationship to the natural world has persevered through colonialism, slavery, state-sponsored violence, and structurally racist policies like Jim Crow and redlining.
A scrapbook, a family chest, a quilt--and an astounding work of historical engagement and literary accomplishment-- A Darker Wilderness is a collection brimming with abundance and insight.
Includes bibliographical references.
Foreword. Memory divine / Carolyn Finney -- Introduction. More to be shaped by / Erin Sharkey -- An aspect of freedom / Ama Codjoe -- A family vacation / Glynn Pogue -- This land is my land / Sean Hill -- Confronting the names on this land / Lauret Savoy -- An urban farmer's almanac : a twenty-first-century reflection on Benjamin Banneker's Almanacs and other astronomical phenomena / Erin Sharkey -- Magic alley / Ronald L. Greer II -- Concentric memory : re-membering our way into the future / Naima Penniman -- There was a tremendous softness / Michael Kleber-Diggs -- Water and stone : a ceremony for Audre Lorde in three parts / Alexis Pauline Gumbs -- Here's how I let them come close / katie robinson.
"A vibrant collection of personal and lyric essays in conversation with archival objects of Black history and memory"-- Provided by publisher.