Black 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 essay engages with a single archival object, exploring stories spanning hundreds of years and thousands of miles. 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 Fran ois 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, as authors unearth 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.
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