Yes, Black People like nature!!
We go camping…We go biking…We like to hike and walk trails… We go scuba diving…And we go fishing!! Nature has always been a place of healing and joy for Black communities. This healing has been disrupted with incidents like the killing of jogger Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and the racial targeting of Christian Cooper in Central Park, both of which occured in 2020. However, Black people have made distinctive contributions in the outdoors, while also finding joy. Nature is supposed to be a “great equalizer” whose services are free, universal, and accessible to all humans without discrimination.
Today’s #BlackJoy moment is all about finding Black joy in the great outdoors!! If you are looking for some inspiration or want to find some fellow nature lovers, check out these books and Black nature influencers:
- Nature Swagger: Stories and Visions of Black Joy in the Outdoors ~Rue Mapp
- Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors ~Carolyn Finney
- Rooted in the Earth: Reclaiming the African American Environmental Heritage ~Dianne D. Glave
- Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry ~Camille T. Dungy
- Undercurrents of Power : Aquatic Culture in the African diaspora ~Kevin Dawson
- Outdoor Afro
- GirlTrek
- Black Girls Hike RVA
- The Black Outdoors
- All Mountain Brothers
- Black Outdoor Adventures
- Black Powder Crew
- Outdoorsy Diva
See you outside and See you tomorrow!!
Black Future Feminist 
Awesome! I have been walking for the past 30 days and have truly fallen in love with nature. It is one of the last places I’d thought I’d feel racism but it does tear it’s ugly head often. To unlock a new passion and new fear at all the same time is really something. But I won’t let any of that stop me. I go walking, my mind business and pray over myself and the trail as I go. Good read as always.
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Thank you for sharing!! So important to have those spaces of peace!
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