The Colors of Nature

Culture, Identity, and the Natural World

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Edited by Alison H. Deming and Lauret E. Savoy

Milkweed Editions

Due/Published October 2002, 210 pages, paper

ISBN 1571312676

The introduction and 17 essays collected here address the question, "What is the earth to people of color?" Exploring history, displacement, return, and relationship to place, these writers show that the ways Americans have had an impact on nature are inseparable from racism and inequities in economic and political power. Featured contributors include Jamaica Kincaid, bell hooks, Francisco X. Alarcon, Yusef Komunyakaa, Diane Glancy, and others.

Contents

Introduction As Conversation
In History
Reclaiming Ourselves, Reclaiming America
At the End of Ridge Road: From a Nature Journal
Earthbound: On Solid Ground
Sharing Breath: Some Links Between Land, Plants, and People
Confronting Environmental Racism in the Twenty-First Century
Dark Waters
Silent Parrot Blues
Ke Au Long I Kaho'olawe, Ho'i: (The Era of Lono at Kaho'olawe, Returned)
Burning the Shelter
Becoming Metis
Turning Slowly Nature
Hazardous Cargo
Crossing Boundaries
Writing the Diaspora: One Black Writer's Journey from Cultural Isolation to Multicultural Inclusion
Listening for the Ancient Tones, Watching for Sign, Tasting for the Mountain Thyme
Belonging on the Land