The late poet and essayist, Reginald Shepherd, in his thought-provoking essay, "The Other's Other," writes "I am just as much a black person when I write about spring snow and narcissus blooms as when I write about the South Bronx or the slave trade, and I am as much not." Poet, essayist, and editor, Camille Dungy, adds, "To bring more voices into the conversation about human interactions with the natural world, we must change the parameters of the conversation."
For centuries, our writing about the living world has been defined by Anglo-American perspectives, though Black and brown poets, writers, artists, and creatives have offered unique perspectives on American social and literary history to broaden our concept of ecocriticism and ecopoetics. In this course, students will consider and examine the approaches to the natural world from the lens of these makers, as well as explore their unique relationships to the living, natural world through their work—poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, art, photography, and hybrid forms.
Students may read and consider the work of Aimee Nezhukumatahil, Jericho Brown, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Arthur Jafa, Jennifer Chang, and Ed Roberson, among others.
This seminar is affiliated with the Environments and Change Learning Collaborative, and as such, students should expect to “study how we can care for each other and our planet, explore how we adapt, and examine how we define a sense of home and embody our place in the world.”
For centuries, our writing about the living world has been defined by Anglo-American perspectives, though Black and brown poets, writers, artists, and creatives have offered unique perspectives on American social and literary history to broaden our concept of ecocriticism and ecopoetics. In this course, students will consider and examine the approaches to the natural world from the lens of these makers, as well as explore their unique relationships to the living, natural world through their work—poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, art, photography, and hybrid forms.
Students may read and consider the work of Aimee Nezhukumatahil, Jericho Brown, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Arthur Jafa, Jennifer Chang, and Ed Roberson, among others.
This seminar is affiliated with the Environments and Change Learning Collaborative, and as such, students should expect to “study how we can care for each other and our planet, explore how we adapt, and examine how we define a sense of home and embody our place in the world.”
- Teacher: Nathan McClain