'A Darker Wilderness' explores the natural world from a Black American perspective

CATHY WURZER: Here in Minnesota, we've got famously abundant lakes, the headwaters of a major river, bird migrations, wide open prairies, beautiful forests. There are so many ways to connect with the natural world. But social issues and personal experiences can shape people's relationships to nature. Racial inequities especially have made it harder for some folks to access green space, and fears can make someone feel less safe in the outdoors.

In spite of these challenges, there are rich histories within BIPOC communities of people connecting with nature in a lot of different ways. Our next guest has spent a lot of time digging into these stories. Erin Sharkey is a Minneapolis-based writer, organizer, and filmmaker. She's the editor of a new essay collection called A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars. And she's with us to talk about it. Erin, thanks for being on the program.

ERIN SHARKEY: Thank you so much for having me.

CATHY WURZER: You write in the intro that nature writing is dominated by White cisgender men with access to resources. Why do you think that's true for that genre in particular?

ERIN SHARKEY: Well, I think that nature writing is similar to other sorts of nature-based companies and businesses, right? So things like companies that have gear that is specific in the fashion of the sort of fields. I think that nature is all tied to sort of forward expansion and westward expansion in the United States. It's not sort of separate from the ways that the American experiment has been about colonization. And that has been dominated by White cis men as well and continues to be.

CATHY WURZER: So what's missing from that view of nature writing is just the full picture, as we've seen in throughout history?

ERIN SHARKEY: Yeah. I think sometimes, we think of nature as a sort of neutral space, a non-political space. But if you think about the history of this country, think about redlining, think about Jim Crow laws, of Sundowner towns, those things affected the ways that we interact with nature, even to today. The ways that cities are made up, where green space is allocated, and how that green space is maintained. And so I think it's important for us to think about nature as a political thing.

CATHY WURZER: What do you think stops many Black people from doing the things outdoor writers write about.

ERIN SHARKEY: Well, I think that sometimes, we think of nature as a place that's far away that you have to go, that you like conquer a space that hasn't been conquered before. You climb a mountain that hasn't been mounted before. But I think that nature could be something that you find in your neighborhood, in your house, and your space.

But I think that sometimes, the lack of safety comes from unfamiliarness with rural spaces, which is often where we go to find nature. I know that I'm part of an organization called Root Springs. We have a retreat center in Central Minnesota. And we ask our community to be with us in that journey to take over stewarding of Root Springs. And we asked them to take the journey out there. And they talked about some things around like public displays of political opinions that maybe were threatening to them, if that makes sense.

CATHY WURZER: So yes, signs. Political signs. Flags, that kind of thing.

ERIN SHARKEY: Yeah. Yeah. But those sort of signaled other things around whether or not they felt safe in rural spaces. So it's important for us to create a space where that was really centering people of color and queer folks.

CATHY WURZER: So I want to ask about the book. I love how objects from the writer's personal archives, or a grandpa's fishing tackle box, or a newspaper photograph are used to reflect and how nature has influenced the lives of Black folks over time. The inspiration is lovely. Why did you decide to look at objects and records from garden clubs and farmers almanacs, that kind of thing?

ERIN SHARKEY: Sure. Yeah. The inspiration for the collection actually was born at the Anderson Library at the University of Minnesota. I was granted a residency in the Gibbons Collection there, which is a collection of African-American literature and other ephemera. And I stumbled on an ex-slave narrative, which is part of the Federal Writers' Project in that collection and was really fascinated by the way that the formerly enslaved person was describing their relationship with a garden.

And that just led me down this incredible research rabbit hole to find lots of other evidence of the relationship of Black folks to nature and the actual opportunity for Black folks to feel autonomy and pride in an oppressive situation where that wasn't possible. So the design of the book is each of the essays are connected to an archival object. One that's either of personal significance to the writer or something that was in their personal private collection, their family collection. Or it was something that was found in research in the archives. And that's a way to sort of actually infuse into the historical narrative our own personal stories, to fill in the holes that are sort of inevitable because in the same way that nature isn't neutral, the archive is not neutral.

CATHY WURZER: Tell me about your essay. You write about a mathematician named Benjamin Banneker. Tell our listeners who he was.

ERIN SHARKEY: Well, I'm a huge Benjamin Banneker fan. I don't think he gets enough attention. I think we should be celebrating his contributions. He was a watchmaker, a mathematician. He also was a farmer. And he's famous because he worked with the Ellicotts, who were responsible for the city planning of Washington, DC, but also the city of Buffalo, which is a place that I live for almost a decade, living on an urban farm.

And so I was trying to think of a way to talk about my time on the farm. And spending time with Benjamin Banneker, I was able to celebrate lots of things. He was somebody who tracked the 17-year cicada. And he had these gorgeous almanacs that had a feature called the Best Days calendar. And that's something you can find in other farmers almanacs, but I love the Best Days calendar. It's an advice that takes into account long observations from farmers and astronomical phenomena to tell you the best day to cut your hair, or shear a sheep, or repay a debt to a neighbor.

And so I started to think about whether an urban place also has that same sort of natural rhythm. Something that you could observe that has to do with both the way that people are interacting with plants and animals, but also the way they're interacting with each other. Because I think that we are all natural too.

CATHY WURZER: I love that. I love that. Say, I want it, before I go here, in your intro, you also mention nature's capacity to teach, which is absolutely true. So can you share something with me that nature has taught you, about nature, about yourself?

ERIN SHARKEY: Yeah. I think that nature has taught me the power of observation. The power of staying still in a place and seeing it change in front of you. The things that I'm not even affecting. I think that it's valuable to see the way that it fits together and that you can see micro changes in the seasons, micro changes in the environment if you're just able to slow down enough to watch. And I think that's true in other parts of my life too.

CATHY WURZER: It's just hard to slow down. I bet you probably do slow down when you're in nature. You have to.

ERIN SHARKEY: I try to. Yeah. And that's part of our relationship with Root Springs. The retreat center is really wanting to emphasize the importance of rest, the importance of respite, and planning, and incubating ideas. And so I spent some time out there, and I definitely feel right away that my body slows down. My brain slows down. And that's when the good thoughts come, I think.

CATHY WURZER: That's a gift. Erin, thank you so much for your time, and thank you for the gift of your collection of essays.

ERIN SHARKEY: Thank you, Cathy. It was great to be here.

CATHY WURZER: Erin Sharkey is the editor of the new anthology, A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars.