Art as counternarratives: a/r/tographic understandings of black youth’s conceptualizations of nature

Abstract

ABSTRACT Like race, ‘nature’ is a social construct with meanings and conceptualizations that shift with time, context, and power. Dominant ideas of nature in the U.S. are often centred around whiteness and white preferences are normalized. To make these ‘invisible’ white preferences opaque, I (Alayna) use nature (with strikethrough) to indicate placing the concept of ‘nature’ under erasure and create openings for alternative meanings. Using a/r/tography, Black Feminist Theory, and Critical Race Theory, I asked Black 1 youth in Asheville, North Carolina to create and share their artful counterstories of nature in our city. In my role of researcher-as-curator, I gathered and organized youth’s art into a public art zine which challenges viewers to consider how racial identities can influence the ways we each conceptualize nature.