Elemental Blackness

Black Liberation and the Natural World
A prize-winning experimental debut that braids poetry, essay, prayer and ritual around the four natural elements to ask what it means to be Black in America, and what it will take to be free.
A powerful meditation on Blackness, ancestry and the natural world.

In Elemental Blackness: Black Liberation and the Natural World, Cherise Morris weaves poetry, memoir, prayer and cultural criticism into a bold, genre-defying exploration of what it means to be Black in America. 

Organised around the four elements of earth, water, fire and air, the book traces the deep connections between racial oppression and environmental destruction. From the legacy of the Middle Passage to the Flint water crisis, from rural Virginia to Detroit’s urban farms, Morris examines how Black communities have been shaped by histories of dispossession, violence and ecological harm, while also reclaiming the natural world as a source of memory, resistance and healing.

Drawing on African diasporic spiritual traditions, ancestral cosmologies and her own lived experience, Morris moves fluidly between lyric essay, ritual, prayer and memoir to ask urgent questions about freedom, belonging and survival in a world marked by climate crisis and racial injustice.

Winner of the inaugural Global Black Women’s Non-Fiction Manuscript Prize, chaired by Bernardine Evaristo, Elemental Blackness announces the arrival of an extraordinary new voice in contemporary nonfiction.

UK Delivery:

• Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
• £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
• UK orders are shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class.

International Delivery:

• Flat rate delivery charges vary by country.

Dispatch and Delivery Times:

• All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK within 48 hours of receipt during working hours.
• UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-5 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
• International estimated delivery times:
• Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
• USA: 7 to 15 working days
• Rest of the World: 9 to 21 working days

View our full delivery infomation here.