Hurricane season grammars: On speaking across Black geographies/Atlantics/ecologies

Abstract

As I reflect on the urgent questions and concerns of the co-authors and collaborators, I think about the institutional terrains that they often find themselves writing within and against, specifically the discursive economies of universities and philanthropic foundations. In response to their desire for more direct and deliberate dialog, I ruminate on the question: What if the Black grammars of survival and regeneration developed during and in the wake of hurricanes Katrina, Maria, and Dorian, shaped and attuned the salient trajectories’ listening practices? Inspired by the collaborative work that anchors many of the co-authors, I engage in a loving act of remembering the political commitments of this cohort of Black geography, Black ecology, and Black Atlantic (geographic) scholar-practitioners. Thus, I reflect on and use the grammars produced by Black earth-workers to remember the ways that we talk when we are with each other attempting to survive multiple storms despite institutional disciplinary mandates attempts to tame Black eco-geographic speech across the Atlantic.