ROWAN JACK FREEMAN

EARTH SONG


Exhibition design for Earth Song: A Black Nature Walk in the Nichols Arboretum




Ann Arbor, Michigan


Exhibition design work while working as the research assistant for the Black Ecologies Project, led by Professor Bénédicte Boisseron, chair of the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan. “Earth Song, A Black Nature Walk” is on display this fall in the Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum. 

Black ecology is the study of Black people in relation to their environment and nature. In 2022, poet and scholar Joshua Bennett curated an outdoor exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden guided by the work of Black poets. Two years later, we recreated a similar experience in the Arb with a selection of poems from Camille T. Dungy’s anthology, Black Nature. 

Through our work and the contributions of students from AAS 498, we’ve created an immersive exhibit that includes a selection of poems with a wide variety of interpretations and themes, including slavery, racism, capitalism, discrimination, and oppression, but also beauty and joy. 

Check out our website: www.blackecologiesproject.com

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