The convergence of art and the environment has the power to inspire attitudes of respect, admiration, conservation, and pride. Nature and climate artists and their work play an important role in helping develop climate literacy and awareness while motivating people toward civic engagement. Yet mainstream recognition of artists, storytellers, and writers in this area of expression is still playing catchup when it comes to inclusivity. Inspired by “Black Artists and Storytellers on the Climate Crisis,” written by Thomas Peterson and published on the Artists and Climate Change website, we’re taking the opportunity to embrace the 2024 Black History Month theme “African Americans and the Arts” and connections to the environment.

In support of the 2024 Black History Month theme “African Americans and the Arts,” we’ve gathered below a (noncomprehensive) list of Black and African American artists creating an impact through words, songs, and visual creations. We invite you to explore the resources and share suggestions of your own! 

Poetry

• Ross Gay→ An author, professor, and editor who scours life for its joy and wonderment has been recognized for works such as Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (2020), which chronicles the everyday joys of nature’s intricacies and the world around us. 
• J. Drew Lanham→ Dr. Lanham has combined his career as a wildlife biologist with poetic and literary artistry in works such as Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts (Hub City Press, 2021) and The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature (Milkweed Editions, 2017).
• Wanda Coleman→ A lifelong contributor to the Los Angeles poetry scene, Coleman’s poem “Requiem for a Nest” achingly speaks to the complexities of urban life through the determined acts of a winged protagonist.
• Alexis Pauline Gumbs → A self-described “Queer Black Troublemaker” and “Black Feminist Love Evangelist,“ Gumbs offers M Archive: After the End of the World and Undrowned, serene reflections of our existence through the lens of nature, and marine mammals in particular. 
• Camille T. Dungy → Dungy’s overlapping passions for environmental action, poetry, and culture have led to the creation of poems like “The Blue” and the novel Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden.
• Latasha N. Nevada Diggs → A poet and sound artist, many of Diggs’ pieces are best known aurally, including “My First Black Nature Poem” from the 2013 book, TWERK. 

Dance

• The power of dance can impact the climate justice movement. Olivia Kick provides well-researched examples of how the intersection of art and science do just that in “Dance As an Approach to Climate Injustice.”     
• View Arzcan Askir’s TEDx talk, “Using the Power of Dance to Address Climate Change.” 
• Josephine Baker → In “The Beauty of African Environmental Dance” by Alyisia Spaulding, Baker is recognized as one of the most successful African American performers, and a storyteller who uses environmental dance to illustrate social issues and the world around a person.
• Briana Imani Blakey → A professional counselor, movement therapist, and dance instructor, Blakey identifies the value of connecting with nature to heal through movement in “Patterns in Wild Places: Approaching Dance/Movement Therapy Through the Lens of Ecopsychology.”
• Davalois Fearon →  Fearon, a dancer and choreographer known to unapologetically confront difficult topics, is highlighted in the article “These Choreographers Are Using Dance to Fight for Climate Action” for her creative performances to drive change.

Music

Inspiration comes in all forms—music certainly being a major source to move people towards caring and even action. Over the years, various musical artists have drawn inspiration for their songs from the world around them, the state of our planet, climate change, and the wonder of nature. Check out some tunes that may inspire you:

• Playlist by Sierra Club (2023)
• Compilation by Listen to the Earth (2021)

Added listening: 

• Stevie Wonder - Secret Life of Plants
• The O Jays - This Air I Breathe
• Gil Scott Heron - We Almost Lost Detroit
• Michael Jackson - Earth Song
• Mos Def - New World Water
• D’Angelo - Till It’s Done (Tutu)

Fiction and nonfiction

Nonfiction

• Carolyn Finney → Finney’s 2014 book, Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors, addresses the relationship between the African American community and nature and the environmental movement. 
• Dianne D. Glave → Glave intertwines the Black experience and environmental history in Rooted in the Earth: Reclaiming the African American Environmental Heritage. 
• James Edward Mills → Journalist, author, and outdoorist, Mills recognized the need for greater representation in the outdoor industry, compelling him to write The Adventure Gap: Changing the Face of the Outdoors.
• Ayana Elizabeth Johnson → Published in 2020 and edited by Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson, All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis is an anthology of writing by women climate leaders. 
• Leah Thomas → In her book, The Intersectional Environmentalist, Thomas speaks to the truth that we cannot save the planet without uplifting the voices of its people, specifically those unfairly impacted by climate injustice. 
• Robert Bullard → Known as a founding figure in the environmental justice movement, Dr. Bullard’s book Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality details the major economic, social, and psychological impacts of pollution and how they have ultimately caused mobilization in the African American community.
• Tony Hillery → In Harlem Grown: How One Big Idea Transformed a Neighborhood, Hillery writes about his real-life experience bringing students together to turn an abandoned lot into a neighborhood-feeding garden.

Fiction

• Tiya Miles → An author of fictional works such as All That She Carried and nonfiction collection Wild Girls, Miles threads history, hope, nature, and community into her works. 
• Lauret Savoy →  In Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape, Savoy incorporates human stories of migration, silence, and displacement, as epic as the continent they survey, with uplifted mountains, braided streams, and eroded canyons.
• Mélina Mangal→ Mangal authored the children’s book Jayden's Impossible Garden in which Jayden invites community friends to help create a garden in his urban neighborhood.
• Sherri L. Smith → Young adult fiction and nonfiction author Smith writes about protagonist Fen’s experience navigating a climate change-impacted world where health and safety are at risk in Orleans.
• Tochi Onyebuchi → War Girls is a young adult fantasy fiction series by Onyebuchi in which a pair of sisters work to survive in a world ravaged by climate change and nuclear disaster. 

Visual Art

• Carol Rashawnna Williams → Williams uses visual art to confront the intersection of climate change and racial injustice. In this South Seattle Emerald article, Williams describes how she incorporates this concept into an installation at Seattle University's Hedreen Gallery 
• Tavares Strachan → Strachan has been described as a “contemporary conceptual artist whose practice examines the intersection of art, science, and the environment,” particularly focusing on the Arctic region. He uses aeronautical and extreme environments as the basis of much of his visual work, as shown at the Perrotin Gallery.