Challenging Disasters Through Black Geographies & Ecologies: Centering the Plot of Resistance in West Baltimore, Maryland, USA

abstract: Hazards and disasters, especially those caused by climate change, disproportionately impact Black communities. To address systemic racism in disaster experiences, we argue that scholars must adopt approaches that center Black experiences and knowledge. This research brings together Black geographies, Black ecologies, and critical disaster studies to support Harlem Park, a predominantly and historically Black community in Baltimore, Maryland, in their goal of responding to neighborhood hazards and creating a community climate resilience program. Using a Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) approach and drawing on Black geographies and ecologies scholarship, community members and stakeholders redefined concepts like "disasters," "environmental hazards," and "disaster preparedness," showing how Black communities resist plantation logics embedded within traditional disasters and hazards work. The article argues for place-based disaster preparedness interventions rooted in the community's lived experiences and knowledge, to reimagine Disaster Preparedness predicated on Black life.