Black Nature : : Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry

Locations
Call Number: 808.81 Bl, Black Studies 808.81 Bl
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	808.81 Bl	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Black Studies 808.81 Bl	4-week checkout	Due 05-19-2024

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Read this! submitted by redwood on August 3, 2019, 9:25pm Fascinating, meticulously arranged anthology. Great poems and great short essays introducing each themed section.

Wonderful Poetry submitted by Meginator on July 25, 2022, 11:23am This poetry anthology covers a broad range of authors, topics, and eras, making for a wonderful and continuously surprising reading experience. Camille T. Dungy has arranged these poems into ten broad thematic categories, introduced at length in her introduction and by a brief prose essay at the beginning of each section. These themes call attention to particular aspects of Black history and Black culture that inform the authors while inviting the reader to dig deeper into specific poems and consider how they relate to, and differ from, their anthology neighbors. Though each of the poems does incorporate elements of the natural world in some way, Dungy’s understanding of the concept is a broad and inclusive one, encompassing everything from the typical trees and flowers to urban landscapes that seem to be (but, as these poets show, are not) entirely divorced from what we normally consider to be “natural”. Likewise, the thematic organization places poetry constructed with rigid structures alongside modern free verse, forcing the reader to slow down and savor each individual work; the effect is excellent and fitting, given how many of these poems overtly revolve around observation and reflection. As with all anthologies, some of the pieces resonated more with me than others, but I found the majority to be accessible and interesting with a few standouts that have remained with me since I encountered them. This is a wonderful introduction to Black poetry with an expansive understanding of both the art form and of the natural world that these writers embrace.