Branch Out with BIPOC Nature Writing

Timber PressTending the Vines explores the lives and histories of eight plants considered nonnative or invasive, using them as metaphors for the Black experience in America. Multi-disciplinary storyteller and environmental educator, Ashia S. Ajani brings a fresh perspective to ecological narratives while unpacking the complex rhetorical lives of plants that have been used as both ugly metaphors for Black incursion as well as powerful symbols for Black liberation. No matter how complicated or confusing your problems may be, answers can always be found in the natural world. Nature writing can teach us something new about science and the plants and animals we encounter every day. But it can also guide us through dark moments and provide a new philosophy for leading a purposeful life. These nonfiction books of BIPOC nature writing focus their attention on a variety of plants, animals, and other environmental subjects, and all of them are sure to shift your perspective. Colonizer logic tells us that nature is for exploiting. Plants, animals, and natural resources are all meant to be plundered for human advancement. Indigenous and diverse perspectives remind us that without our environme...