What is time?
      The present of before 




This retelling of the Anthropocene narrative operates on polychronic time that is shaped like a spiral. Everything happens at the same time, past and future intersecting within the present which creates a malleable reality. In this Black Anthropocene, polychronic time helps to make sense of the oppression and hardship Black people experience as well as our joy and triumph. We can see more clearly how specifically cotton, clay, and water function within this Black Anthropocene, but also how other systems function to build this world. In the same way that we can see how this Anthropocene has been constructed, we can also deconstruct it and reconstruct it for our benefit. This retelling acknowledges a dark, harmful, complex, hopeful, bright, and beautiful past, present, and future. 

This retelling also contends with the idea of a start date for this Black Anthropocene. Like Davis and Todd, this project agrees that the Anthropocene cannot start in the 20th century, that rather if a start date was to be chosen, it would begin with when the very first ship docked in the port of no return. This retelling details the outward ripples caused by the centuries of displacement and enslavement of Black people in the Americas. It centers the lives of Black people and their experiences, hopes, and dreams that have long been ignored to construct other Anthropocene narratives.