A Darker Wilderness Black Nature Writing From Soil To Stars Erin Sharkey Editor by Erin Sharkey (editor) 9781571313904, 1571313907 instant download after payment.

In A Darker Wilderness, a constellation of luminary writers reflect on the significance of nature in their lived experience & 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 & thousands of miles, traveling from roots to space & 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, & 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, & Lauret Savoy--unearthing evidence of the ways Black people's relationship to the natural world has persevered through colonialism, slavery, state-sponsored violence, & structurally racist policies like Jim Crow & redlining. A scrapbook, a family chest, a quilt--and an astounding work of historical engagement & literary accomplishment--A Darker Wilderness is a collection brimming with abundance & insight.