Camille Dungy is perhaps best known for her remarkable and award winning often environmentally focused poetry and editing of collections of environmentally focused poetry and writing by people of color exploring the intersections of gender, race, art, environment, and culture.
Camille is, as well, a University Distinguished professor at the University of Colorado, and an award winning poet, often referred to as an ecopoet. She has been recognized with fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Cave Canem, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 2021 she received the Academy of American Poets Fellowship in recognition of distinguished poetic achievement. She has more than 9 books of prose and poetry to her name. Her latest Soil, the Story of a Black Mother’s Garden was published by Simon & Schuster on May 2, 2023.
In honor of the great and biodiverse exuberance that is May and upcoming mother’s day celebrations, we welcome Camille back to Cultivating Place.
Images courtesy of Camille Dungy, all rights reserved.
You can follow Camilla's work on-line at: camilledungy.com, and on Instagram: @camilledungy/
HERE IS THIS WEEK'S TRANSCRIPT by Doulos Transcription Service:
IF YOU LIKE THIS PROGAM,
you might also enjoy these Best of CP programs in our archive:
JOIN US again next week, when we continue our mother’s day theme in conversation once again with Deb Prinzing, founder of the Slow Flowers Movement, co-founder of Bloom! Imprint press, and flower lover. Cause…well flowers and mother’s day (and BOOKS) go together, Right? Listen in!
Cultivating Place is made possible in part by listeners like you and by generous support from
supporting initiatives that empower women and help preserve the planet through the intersection of environmental advocacy, social justice, and creativity.
Cultivating Place is also made possible through support from
Fueling America’s passion for gardens, the Garden Conservancy's Open Days program is a nationwide community of gardeners and garden enthusiasts teaching and inspiring each other. Since 1995, Open Days has welcomed over a million visitors into thousands of private landscapes—from urban rooftops to organic farms, historic estates to innovative suburban lots—in 41 states. This year the
program is opening a variety of private landscapes to the public in 18 states, including new Open Days in Ohio’s Portage County and Vashon Island in Washington, as well as new and returning gardens in Colorado, Missouri, and Texas, as well as expanding in mainstays like New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maine, and Wisconsin. Check out Garden Conservancy.org for more information on becoming a member, gifting a membership, and getting tickets to open day’s fun near you.
Thinking out loud this week:
So one of the things from this conversation with Camille that has really landed with me is the idea of Complicated blessings -and how our gardens and our gardening impulses sit and grow within this concept. So many complicated blessings around which the texture of our lives is heightened and the importance of how we harness our agency is implicit….
Thoughts on this anyone?
Riffing off the idea of complexity, the other idea from this conversation that I cannot shake is that of resilience and resistance.
When we consider the many many challenges our world faces at this exact moment, those troubles that keep us up at night, that hobble us with doubt and grief, I ask myself – through the lens of my garden: what have I not sufficiently resisted? Where have I resisted and proven once again that the garden life from a garden culture of care is one nexxus of resilience for our world. There is more we can more sufficiently resist. We’ll each have our own list to make.
That’s the kind of things gardening mother’s on this mothering planet do….
what’s on your list of resistance?
WAYS TO SUPPORT CULTIVATING PLACE
SHARE the podcast with friends: If you enjoy these conversations about these things we love and which connect us, please share them forward with others. Thank you in advance!
RATE the podcast on iTunes: Or wherever you get your podcast feed: Please submit a ranking and a review of the program on Itunes! To do so follow this link: iTunes Review and Rate (once there, click View In Itunes and go to Ratings and Reviews)
DONATE: Cultivating Place is a listener-supported co-production of North State Public Radio. To make your listener contribution – please click the donate button below. Thank you in advance for your help making these valuable conversations grow.
Or, make checks payable to: Jennifer Jewell - Cultivating Place
and mail to: Cultivating Place
PO Box 37
Durham, CA 95938