FEATURE SPOTLIGHT: ”Where Art & Environment Intersect” —
AN INTERVIEW WITH EBONY BLANDING

We are so excited that we were able to interview one of our very own partner artists Ebony Blanding. Ebony
is a writer/director from Atlanta, Georgia whose work seeks to tell stories about Black girls and women
coming-of-age on their own terms. She draws from her southern roots to create original interpretations of
gothic tales, Black folklore and afro-futurism within grounded and supernatural settings. We got a chance
to sit down to chat about her new short film Jordan and how the film explores artistic and environmental
concepts. 

SFI: What inspired you to write Jordan?

EB:  I think the biggest inspiration for Jordan was wanting to create a coming of age story that censored a tween black girl. A lot of my earlier work I talk about a lot of black women of a certain age or coming of age and all the intimacy and exploring your sexuality. As I was looking at the kind of work I was doing , I think I have always been attracted to younger coming of age stories,  so it felt natural. I wanted to get to the roots of who we are from early on especially because a lot of the work I do involves healing and healing from trauma. As we know, childhood issues , a lot of who we are now stems from that. So just really being able to inter-generationally look at the black female experience has been my inspiration. So that's what inspired Jordan.

SFI: What was it so important to highlight environmental issues in Jordan?

EB: I have always grown up around folks  who are conscientious about being good stewards of  the earth. A lot of my family is from Alabama, the Carolinas, they're  just good ‘ol country folk. And so when it comes to certain terms, they  were used a lot,  like recycling and repurposing and all that stuff. I have always seen my family do it in certain respects. This is a funny bit , but even with plastic grocery bags. I've seen that be anything from a conditioning cap in my household to garbage bin liners, to you don't have enough Ziploc bags so you like okay let me put the extra chicken in here, shake it up right quick. So just really being able to see on a very grounded scale how black communities repurpose things. Some of it being because we have to. And being able to honor that as an aspect of environmentalism. I think a lot of times when we hear people talk about environmental matters, it doesn't look like it identifies with things that are more rural , more practiced on the outskirts. It's almost like if you're not making an invention of sorts, so to speak,  you’re really not in the conversation. So really being able to honor black people and how we have always been stewards of the earth. 

SFI: In what ways can Jordan [or art in general] be a catalyst to help the community learn about environmental issues?

EB: I was having a meeting yesterday and I heard an expression from a gentleman that said he appreciated how Jordan “put the medicine inside of the treat”. So being able to nestle environmental matters in worlds where were not so burdened by some of the conflicts. Fantasy allows us to release some of the ills and fantasy allows us to speak to a lot of injustices in a way that presents itself in a way that doesn't feel so heavy or tolling. People like Octavia Butler. Her expansive world that she created, she was talking about some deep stuff. She was talking about environmental matters, sexism, racism, all of those things. But the universes that she was able to nestle it in allowed people from all  backgrounds to be able to sit with it in a way that was an escape. That’s what I want to do with Jordan. From a short aspect and longer episodic aspect. Speak to the matters we are all dealing with , but also leave room for play time. Leave room for exploring how beautiful the relationships we have are despite dealing with the frictions of the world.

SFI: How does environment and art intertwine in your artistic world?

EB: On a day to day basis I'm very fortunate to be able to go around the city and see beautiful murals and the installations. It feels really dope being in the environment and seeing yourself or seeing a face that looks familiar to yours be represented in artistic ways. In regards to the world I try to create, it is inspired by people in real life who are doing wonderful things. I have a lot of friends that are urban gardeners, and a lot of folks who are at the forefront of environmental matters and I look at them like superheroes. I think it's so dope to be able to speak about science, and some of the things that scare me to be honest. Just the visibility of seeing black women, black folks, BIPOC folks in these spaces inspires me and I always want to translate that to in the world that I’m creating.

SFI: Why is sharing Black and indigenous environmental history important to you as an artist?

EB: I'm very fortunate that I have a lot of friends in the West End, westside of Atlanta that work in environmental matters. I spent a lot of time in the gardens and in nature with these people and I really got to see in real time how they were expanding young minds. There's an organization called WAWA, and they were able to take black kids from the schools, bring them out into nature, allow them to have fun and play time. And that whole time that they're having a ball, they're learning about being stewards of the earth. Those are the types of folks who I want to uplift and amplify , who are doing magical things. How they are organizing against gentrification and environmental matters that we may not be aware of that are happening in our own background. We all deserve to learn more about that.