Mapping Meaning, the Journal (Issue No. 1)

Identity, Narrative, and Miseducation in a More-Than-Human World
Toni Wynn and Rae Wynn-Grant
We see the world and the way the world
functions as perfect and complete, especially
in the absence of humans and human
modification.
Rae Wynn-Grant and Toni Wynn
Daughter and mother, environmental
scientist and poet, educator and
educator, nature enthusiast and nature
enthusiast, museum worker and
museum worker, write about the ways
nature impacts them as they live and
work — as interdisciplinary influencers
and just as humans — in a “more than
human world.”
A through-line of flashpoints — identity,
narrative, and miseducation — are
amplified where the two voices intersect.
Excerpts from Toni’s nature poetry
balance and interrogate Rae’s deep dives
into conservation science.
Toni Wynn: Much of my connection to
nature now that I’ve moved to New York
City comes from memory, buffeting winds,
grey skies, and infrequent travel to wilder,
natural spaces.
At home in coastal Virginia I grew vegetables
and herbs in my giant backyard. Five years
of arugula with flavor! Then Rae sent me
video of the dire-climate-change address
John Kerry delivered across the river at Old
Dominion University when he was Secretary
of State. Next, links to reports from Rae’s
associates at the pre-45 EPA. My son Asa
phoned in his entreaties. I visited a friend in
Norfolk whose neighbors had raised their
homes on stilts. I’d lost a Toyota to a flash
flood in 2003, and was regularly bailing or
pumping out water that seeped through the
floor of my basement during storms that
coincided with high tides. There’s no denying
water when you’re in it — in time, my house
would be under it. I prepared to move.
Rae Wynn-Grant: Nature was first
introduced to me as in-crisis. Fear tactics
exploded around this elementary-schooler
in the early 1990s. I was equally terrified
about being arrested for littering as I was
about my Halloween candy being poisoned,
or getting shot for wearing red in a blue
gang zone. I have memories of crying
hysterically over the extent of air and water
pollution and not understanding why society
would allow it to continue. The plight of
endangered species was, apparently, too
much to handle, and twenty years later I’ve
found myself in a career dedicated to saving
them from extinction.
jagged top-to-bottom scar of lightning
over the river. sheets of rain, but
before, that slate grey sky. pages of
clouds turn from north to east. bright,
cowed southern sky helpless in its
advance. severe now, weather and the
toppled expectation of yellow gingko or
orange sugar maple leaves. now with
warning labels.
30 September 2011 from “Solo Novo
122 days”
Rae Wynn-Grant: Through academia, I
studied nature, the natural world, and
Issue N o 1
57