Tending the Vines

Black Abundance in Eight Plants
This standout creative nonfiction debut explores the lives and histories of various plants considered nonnative or invasive as metaphors for the Black experience and the concept of belonging in America.

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 u