Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden
by Camille T. Dungy
Buy on AmazonA seminal work that expands how we talk about the natural world and the environment as National Book Critics Circle Criticism finalist Camille T. Dungy diversifies her garden to reflect her heritage. In Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden, poet and scholar Camille T. Dungy recounts the seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden in the predominately white community of Fort Collins, Colorado. When she moved there in 2013, with her husband and daughter, the community held strict restrictions about what residents could and could not plant in their gardens.…
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"Poet Camille Dungy writes about her efforts to transform her suburban yard in predominantly white Fort Collins, Colo., into a wilder, natural garden full of native plants. By turns a memoir of family life during the pandemic, a meditation on – and contribution to – American nature writing, and an exploration of the historical effect of segregation on not just where people of color have lived but how they engage with the natural world, this book is wide – ranging. Dungy is so expressive, exploratory and engaging that you definitely want to go along for the ride with her."
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