A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars

Summary

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 woman during a civil rights demonstration in Alabama. And so on with wide-ranging contributions unearthing evidence of the ways Black people's relationship to the natural world has persevered through colonialism, slavery, violence, and structurally racist policies.

A scrapbook, a family chest, a quilt—a work of historical engagement and literary accomplishment—A Darker Wilderness is a collection brimming with abundance and insight.