Tending the Vines: Black Abundance in Eight Plants

Tending the Vines

$30.00
Sale price  $30.00 Regular price 
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Tending the Vines: Black Abundance in Eight Plants

Tending the Vines

$30.00
Sale price  $30.00 Regular price 
Unit price $30.00 each
This standout creative nonfiction debut explores the lives and histories of plants considered nonnative or invasive as metaphors for the Black experience in America.

In Tending the Vines, Ashia S. Ajani illuminates how eight unique plants tell the story of the Black diaspora in America. Each chapter is a deep dive into one plant--including eucalyptus, passionflower, wild mustard, and kudzu--exploring their significance in African tradition, their role through the Middle Passage and Chattel Slavery, and their enduring importance in modern households and communities.

Tending the Vines unpacks the complex rhetorical lives of these plants, most of which have been used as both ugly metaphors for Black incursion as well as powerful symbols for Black liberation. It also highlights the ethnobotanical uses that have sustained displaced populations for centuries. Throughout, Ajani complicates our notions of "invasive" and belonging, by contextualizing how plants move, are moved, and, of course, move us.

Book Details

ISBN
9781643264769
Binding
Hardcover
Authors
Ashia S Ajani
Publisher
Timber Press (OR)
Published Date
September 15, 2026
Language
English
Pages
272
Physical Info
0.93 in H x 8.5 in L x 5.75 in W

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