Adventures by Ali:Life as an Outdoorsy Woman

Originally published in the Mazama Bulletin—view the full June/July 2020 issue.

The outdoors are for everyone. This is a phrase we in the outdoor community hear regularly. Nature is often thought of as the great equalizer, that public lands are there for all to enjoy, and that spending time outdoors can let us forget all our “real world” problems, at least temporarily.

Today, a global pandemic is running like wildfire across the country and around the world, hitting Black and communities of color especially hard. Protests, police brutality, and Black Lives Matter are dominating the news. These inequalities and injustices bring focus to the phrase “the outdoors are for everyone,” which ignores the fact that hard work must still be done to truly make the outdoors for everyone. We must redefine “everyone.”

If I ask you to think of a climber, a skier, a runner, or a cyclist, who do you picture? Most likely the answer is a young, white man, probably stereotypically attractive. Maybe some of you pictured a white woman or a middle-aged white man. The simple fact that you probably didn’t imagine a person of color, an elderly person, or someone who is plus-sized goes a long way in showing why the social construct of who can be an outdoor recreationalist needs to change.

Even if we agree that the outdoors are truly for everyone, we need to acknowledge that not everyone experiences the outdoors in the same way, that many experience hatred or outright violence when trying to enjoy these spaces. As a white person, I need to acknowledge the privileges that have helped me in my outdoor pursuits, even if I wasn’t aware of them. While I may take risks in the mountains, I don’t bear the additional psychological damage of fearing for my safety every single day of my life. I’ve lived my life believing that I can dream of anything and try to achieve it, without the bounds of social constructs and systems of institutionalized oppression to hold me back. My middle-class upbringing introduced me to the outdoors at a young age, and I continue to have the time and financial means to spend my free time (also a privilege) in nature.

The more we as individuals can open our minds to what “everyone” actually means, and put our time, our money, and our votes towards amplifying BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and LGBTQIA+ voices, the more the outdoors will actually be able to benefit everyone in the multitude of ways we know it can.

In this time of Black Lives Matter, the following is a list of books and organizations that deserve our attention. Please join me in reading, following, learning, and possibly donating to do our part in redefining everyone.

Books

• A Beautiful Work in Progress
  • By Mirna Valerio
  • In this prejudice-busting, body-positive memoir told with raw honesty, an adventurous spirit, and a sharp sense of humor, Valerio takes readers along on her journey from first-time racer to ultramarathoner and proves that anyone can become a successful athlete.
• The Adventure Gap: Changing the Face of the Outdoors
  • By James Edward Mills
  • A chronicle of the first all-African American summit attempt on Denali, the highest point in North America, The Adventure Gap is part adventure story, part history, and part argument for the importance of inspiring future generations to value nature.
• Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors
  • By Carolyn Finney
  • In this thought-provoking study, Carolyn Finney looks beyond the discourse of the environmental justice movement to examine how the natural environment has been understood, commodified, and represented by both white and black Americans.
• Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry
  • By Camille T. Dungy (Editor)
  • Black Nature is the first anthology to focus on nature writing by African American poets, a genre that until now has not commonly been counted as one in which African American poets have participated.
• The Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity, and the Natural World
  • By Alison Hawthorne Deming, Lauret Savoy (Editor)
  • From African American to Asian American, indigenous to immigrant, “multiracial” to “mixedblood,” the stories in The Colors of Nature provide an antidote to the despair so often accompanying the intersection of cultural diversity and ecological awareness.
• The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature
  • By J. Drew Lanham
  • By turns angry, funny, elegiac, and heartbreaking, The Home Place is a remarkable meditation on nature and belonging, at once a deeply moving memoir and riveting exploration of the contradictions of black identity in the rural South—and in America today.
• Smith Blue
  • By Camille T. Dungy
  • In Smith Blue, Camille T. Dungy offers a survival guide for the modern heart as she takes on twenty-first-century questions of love, loss, and nature. From a myriad of lenses, these poems examine the human capability for perseverance.
• Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape
  • By Lauret Savoy
  • In this provocative and powerful mosaic of personal journeys and historical inquiry across a continent and time, Savoy explores how the country’s still unfolding history, and ideas of “race,” have marked her and the land.

Organizations

• Adventures Without Limits
  • awloutdoors.org
  • Adventures Without Limits, based in Forest Grove, provides access to outdoor adventure to all people, regardless of their ability level, socio-economic status, gender, ethnicity, or age.
• Betties360
  • betties360.org
  • Betties360 provides under-served girls in the Portland community access to outdoor activities and life-skill training for free. Their mission is to inspire confidence, well-being, and community in girls through action sports, outdoor adventure, and life-skill education.
• Big City Mountaineers
  • bigcitymountaineers.org
  • Big City Mountaineers instills critical life skills in under-resourced youth through transformative wilderness mentoring experiences.
• Black Girls Trekkin’
  • blackgirlstrekkin.com
  • Black Girls Trekkin’ focuses on inspiring and empowering black women to spend time outdoors, appreciate nature, and protect it. They hope to build a community that will show the world that women of color are a strong and present force in the outdoors.
• Black Outside
  • blackoutside.org
  • Black Outside, Inc. has one simple mission: reconnect Black/African-American youth to the outdoors through culturally-relevant outdoor experiences.
• Brooklyn Boulders Foundation
  • bkbf.org
  • Brooklyn Boulders Foundation envisions a world where all youth and adults, regardless of their ability, feel empowered to climb. They seek to eliminate real or perceived barriers to, and create more opportunities within, the rock climbing community.
• Brothers of Climbing
  • facebook.com/official.boccrew
  • Brothers of Climbing seeks to reach, represent, and inspire underrepresented groups within the climbing community.
• The Brown Ascenders
  • thebrownascenders.org
  • The Brown Ascenders aims to increase the accessibility of outdoor spaces, outdoor-related education, and recreation for BIPOC adults and youths while cultivating outlets for community, representation, and growth.
• Brown Girls Climb
  • browngirlsclimb.com
  • Brown Girls Climb aims to promote and increase the visibility of diversity in climbing by encouraging leadership opportunities for self-identified women climbers of color and by creating inclusive opportunities to climb and explore for underrepresented communities.
• Color Outside
  • coloroutside.org
  • Color Outside helps women of color harness the power of the outdoors to create the joy-filled, balanced lives they crave through coaching, workshops, and one-of-a-kind retreats.
• GirlTrek
  • girltrek.org
  • In the footsteps of a civil rights legacy, GirlTrek is a national health movement that activates thousands of Black women to be change-makers in their lives and communities—through walking.
• Melanin Base Camp
  • melaninbasecamp.com
  • Melanin Base Camp’s purpose is to inspire, with weekly content from Black, Brown, Asian, Indigenous, and Queer People of Color who love the outdoors.
• National Brotherhood of Skiers
  • nbs.org
  • The National Brotherhood of Skiers aims to identify, develop, and support athletes of color who will win Olympic and international winter sports competitions representing the USA.
• Outdoor Afro
  • outdoorafro.com
  • Outdoor Afro is one of the nation’s leading, cutting-edge networks that celebrates and inspires Black connections and leadership in nature.
• PDX Climbers of Color
  • facebook.com/pdxclimbersofcolor
  • A non-profit organization supporting POC climbers in PDX and the PNW, with the goal of cultivating access to climbing and the outdoors.
• PGM One
  • pgmone.org
  • PGM ONE (People of the Global Majority in the Outdoors, Nature, and Environment) envisions a world that centers, values, uplifts, and empowers those who are most impacted by environmental harm and climate change—and in particular black, indigenous, and people of color/of the global majority—to lead the way toward environmental justice and collective liberation.
• Sending in Color
  • sendingincolor.com
  • Sending in Color is a climbing organization that aims to foster a diverse and inclusive community by breaking down barriers of accessibility whether cultural and/or economic to connect and introduce climbers of color to each other and the sport.
• SoulTrak
  • soultrak.com
  • SoulTrak Outdoors is a nonprofit organization that connects communities of color to outdoor spaces while also building a coalition of diverse outdoor leaders.
• Urban Nature Partners PDX
  • urban-nature-partners.org
  • Urban Nature Partners PDX empowers youth from historically marginalized Portland communities through long-term, one-on-one mentoring relationships and access to meaningful outdoor experiences.

Numerous other books, articles, organizations, social media accounts, and inspiring individuals showcasing Black, Indigenous, Latinx, POC, LGBTQIA+, women, and other historically marginalized communities in the outdoors can be found online.