NPR's Book of the Day

In 'Soil,' Camille Dungy weaves together gardening, race and motherhood

May 9, 2024

Poet Camille Dungy discusses her book 'Soil' which explores gardening, race, and motherhood. She reflects on diversifying her garden in a white town, highlighting the intersections of land and race in the US. Camille shares her journey and insights on environmental justice, community interdependence, and political engagement.

09:25

Creator website

Episode guests

Camille Dungy

AI Summary

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Gardening can shift perspectives on race and environment, encouraging diversity in landscapes.

Embracing motherhood and community in environmental discussions promotes inclusive and sustainable solutions.

Deep dives

The Transformative Power of Gardens

Gardens have the ability to change people, anchoring them in a community, fostering growth, and sparking imagination. Poet Camille Dungy's book, 'Soil, the story of a Black Mother's Garden,' explores the profound impact of nature on individuals, touching on how factors like race and gender influence and are influenced by the natural world. Dungy's journey in cultivating her garden reflects her poetic endeavor to create a space that invites others to connect with nature and embrace growth.

The Problem with Historical Nature Writing and Importance of Community

02:16

Introduction

2min

Diverse Gardening Tales

4min

Exploring Diversity in Nature Writing and Landscaping

2min

Reflections on Motherhood, Sustainability, and Nature in a Suburban Landscape

2min

Exploring the Beauty of Gardening and Nature

3min

For poet Camille Dungy, environmental justice, community interdependence and political engagement go hand in hand. She explores those relationships in her book, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden. In it, she details how her experience trying to diversify the species growing in her yard, in a predominantly white town in Colorado, reflects larger themes of how we talk about land and race in the U.S. In today's episode, she tells NPR's Melissa Block about the journey that gardening put her on, and what it's revealed about who gets to write about the environment.

To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts

Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.

NPR's Book of the Day

In 'Soil,' Camille Dungy weaves together gardening, race and motherhood

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

The Transformative Power of Gardens

Diversifying Landscapes and Literary Canon

The Problem with Historical Nature Writing and Importance of Community

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts