SOIL: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden

Diversity is important. Whether you're referring to the employees of a business, the leaders of a country, or even the types of books you read. It's important to learn from people with different perspectives to provide variety in the world. Poet, scholar and podcaster Camille T. Dungy is publishing a new book called SOIL: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden. In this book the author recounts the seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden in the predominantly white community of Fort Collins, Colorado. When she first moved to Fort Collins, she learned that her community had strict rules about what residents could and couldn't plant in their home gardens. Dungy didn't want to limit the possibilities of her garden, so she decided that she would plant a wide variety of plants, herbs, vegetables, and flowers in her garden. Her reasoning for implementing diversity in her planting strategy is eventually used as a metaphor in her book to point out how homogeneity threatens the future of the planet, and how important it is to cultivate diversity in the discourse about the environment as a means of protecting it. Dungy also goes on to share her experiences with parenthood, marriage, and adjusting to a new city.

SOIL: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden will be available for purchase on May 2, 2023!