Narratives of nature often leave out and lack BIPOC voices and perspectives. This project responds to that gap and starts with a question. What does nature mean to you? Our team asked Baltimore-based author and artist Kondwani Fidel that question. His answer was the poem To The Jungles That Be. Working collaboratively with a creative team from Baltimore, including BIPOC muralist and visual storyteller, Saba Hamidi, animator, Bronson Hoover, producer, Dave Cooper, and Black-owned web design team Noisy Tenants, the Nature Conservancy’s Baltimore Program created the To The Jungles That Be campaign. This initiative aims to leverage the power of art to initiate authentic dialogue around nature and trees in urban and underserved areas in Maryland with the ultimate goal of helping bring the benefits of the State’s Tree Solutions Now Act to the public.

With funding from the U.S. Forest Service and other partners, TNC’s Baltimore Program will co-host a series of workshop watch parties in the summer of 2024 and 2025 with local partners, bringing the To The Jungles That Be experience to communities in the concrete jungle. Together with our partners, we will listen and learn - first from the words and images of To The Jungles That Be - and then through personal and group explorations. Through this call and response, we will develop new narratives of nature that are inclusive of a diversity of voices and perspectives, which we will synthesize using art and science. We will share lessons learned from this immersive, art-based engagement initiative with our partners locally, in Maryland, and nationally to guide equitable urban forestry strategies and actions. We invite you to reach out, share, and participate!