What We’re Reading + Watching Vol. 3
We’re back with an enthralling edition of Black People with Plants recommendations focused on film and literature. In this installment we’re focusing on four (4) works deeply rooted in gardening for social and environmental justice, healing, inspiration and community. Enjoy! Please comment if you’ve either read or viewed these works.
Camille Dungy, photo credit Bear Gutierrez
Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden by Camille Dungy
Camille Dungy has been featured before here. Her work is heartwarming, informative, and relatable. Pushing back against the deeply embedded English way of garden thinking - cut grass, manicured lawn, etc. is something we strive for in our own yard. We are lucky we don’t live in a neighborhood with a homeowner’s association and our garden is a botanical reflection of who we are. In Soil, Dungy retells her seven year journey to diversify her garden in a predominately white Colorado community. Using ancestral plants, herbs, and flowers Dungy creates a metaphorical landscape that highlights the damage the lack of botanical diversity can have. Further her garden reflects the relationship between people of the African diaspora and nature. Dungy is one of our favorite writers, Soil is filled with garden photographs beautifully corresponding with her words.
Still from A Man Named Pearl documentary.
A Man Named Pearl
“It wasn’t important to me to create a garden. I wanted to create a feeling, so that when you walk through here you feel different than when you came.”
When we are truly inspired by a person, place, or plant we’ll feature it more than once and Pearl Fryar is no exception. Read about our life-changing experience at his topiary garden here. If you are ever able we highly recommend visiting, if not you’re in luck Scott Galloway and Brent Pierson directed an in-depth look into the mind and inspiration of Pearl. A Man Named Pearl is a joyous celebration of one person working with nature to create beauty and uplift humanity. The documentary can be found on multiple streaming networks for your viewing pleasure.
Edna in Garden of Ellerslie Plantation, 1975
The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis
The Grand Dame of Southern cooking Edna Lewis’ classic cookbook The Taste of Country Cooking reads more as an ode to her childhood in Freetown, Virginia. Settled by free Black people, Freetown’s farming community was the catalyst for Miss Lewis’ passion for food. Having spent many years influencing the New York City culinary world, Miss Lewis’ heritage and ancestry was always infused in her cooking. The Taste of Country Cooking is an heirloom piece sharing more than recipes but ways of seasonal living, cooking and growing. A delectable read that inspires us to think more intentionally about what we eat, how we eat, and what we can grow in our own garden.
Ron Finley in his South Central Los Angeles Garden.
Can You Dig This?
“ While set in one of the largest food deserts in the country, this is not another food documentary. This is a story of the human spirit and what happens when you put your hands in the soil.”
Directed by Delila Vallot, Can You Dig This is a 2015 documentary with urban farming in the spotlight. Set in South Central Los Angeles, Vallot returns to her community to find a collective of renegade gardeners. Through the green spaces they’ve cultivated more than just plants but hope, beauty, and uplifting change. The film provides a compassionate real view of life in South Central and the transformation that takes place in and around community green space.
