Synopsis

The Grace A. Tanner Lecture on October 3, 2024, featured Poet Camille Dungy. Her presentation was called, “Soil, African Diaspora, and American Land”.

She has taught many creative writing and poetry workshops and courses, including as a Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Colorado State University. 

She spoke about her most recent book, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden, which presents the story of Dungy’s journey to diversify her garden, forging a discussion about how we talk about our natural world, as well as the connection between the people of the African diaspora and the land they reside. 

Dungy began with a story of her grandfather, who left Mississippi during the Great Migration and moved further West, landing in the Midwest, before living out his final years “in the place where some part of him always wanted to be”.

Dungy discussed the idea of her—perhaps genetically—innate desire to be in the American West, with both sides of her family having countless stories of movement, ever West. 

When European settlers moved to North America—Dungy added—they had a choice of where they landed, usually where they were the most comfortable living and growing. Dungy admitted candidly, “I don’t even know where on the enormous continent of Africa my people are from”. She stated that “the first people who became my people in America had no choice where in this country they landed”. She summarized that her people are “the culmination of a century or more’s worth of Westward bound dreams”.

Dungy’s garden “prioritized plants that are native to this place”. She did this intentionally to “welcome the other than human neighbors that are natives of this place”. In her work, Dungy said her goal is to “broaden people’s understanding of what sorts of bodies have a right to live in which landscapes”.

She finished her presentation with two poems, one from Soil, and one unreleased. The event concluded with a Q&A with SUU Director of the Tanner Center and Professor of English, Danielle Dubrasky. Dungy expanded on ideas of place, inclusivity, language, landscape, and recognizing history of place. 
 

Photo Credit: Beowulf Sheehan