GirlTrek Nation!

Are you ready?

The GirlTrek walking season has officially started!Join GirlTrek Co-Founders, Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison, as they chat about the road ahead on a special season kickoff episode. This season we are getting in the best shape of our lives by putting one foot in front of the other. You don’t want to miss this inspiring conversation with our cofounders as they layout the blueprint for walking in the direction of your healthiest, most fulfilled life this year.

Lace up your sneakers, put in your earbuds and let’s walk! 

Join Co-founders Morgan and Vanessa on a Special Edition episode in honor of Harriet Tubman, broadcasting live from the streets of Auburn, NY.

This year we set a goal to take over 1,000 of the Blackest neighborhoods. And we did that! With the help of our entire team. With the help of you! You made the decision to lead women in your neighborhood. You helped them start their own crew. And we want to celebrate every single one of you.

Nominations for the Victory Awards are in! 

Come celebrate with us as we announce our Victory Awards, LIVE! 

Day 21

The Address: The Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma

The Story: "You are a light. You are the light. Never let anyone—any person or any force—dampen, dim or diminish your light.

Study the path of others to make your way easier and more abundant. Lean toward the whispers of your own heart, discover the universal truth, and follow its dictates.

Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge.

Release all bitterness.

Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won.

Choose confrontation wisely, but when it is your time don't be afraid to stand up, speak up, and speak out against injustice. And if you follow your truth down the road to peace and the affirmation of love, if you shine like a beacon for all to see, then the poetry of all the great dreamers and philosophers is yours to manifest in a nation, a world community, and a Beloved Community that is finally at peace with itself. "

Today we step onto hallowed ground. Today we walk in the footsteps of the 600 Black men and women who set out from Brown Chapel AME to march the 54 miles from Selma to Montgomery. Today we tell the story of what happened when they stepped onto the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Day 20

The Address: 16th Street Baptist Church

The Story: Their names were Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins. They were on their way to a basement assembly hall for closing prayers on a Sunday morning.

The explosion occurred around 10:20 a.m. It destroyed the rear end of the building. It injured 20 people, and it killed the four little girls.

The attack was meant to disrupt Black community activists who had been demonstrating for weeks for an end to segregation in the city.

The public funeral for three of the girls attracted over eight thousand people, but not one city or state official attended.

The Birmingham Post-Herald reported a month later that in the aftermath of the bombing, no one had been arrested for the incident itself, but 23 Black people had been arrested for charges ranging from disorderly conduct to "being drunk and loitering," mostly in the vicinity of the church. One black youth was gunned down by police after he threw rocks at passing cars with white passengers.

The four men responsible for the murders were not charged until 45 years later.

But as Dr. King said during the eulogy, "They did not die in vain."

They did not die in vain. The hate that took their lives did not triumph.

Today we tell the story of 16th Street Baptist Church and the faithfulness of the Birmingham community.

Day 19

“The first time I met the blues

The Address: 229 Highway 8, Cleveland, Mississippi.

The Story: It’s called Dockery Farms.

“Farms” is a rebrand.

It was a back-breaking plantation in a small town in Mississippi. It’s walking distance from where Fannie Lou Hamer picked cotton. It's a stone’s throw from “the crossroads,” where a young Robert Johnson was rumored to have sold his soul for an unearthly cool.

There, as the sun kissed the dusty sky goodbye, guitars played, feet stomped, and hips swayed. The long days of work were made magic by the masters of a new American art form called the Blues.

Just one generation after Dockery Farms, hundreds of blues men and women amplified the stories of our people and became the soundtrack of struggle. That real pain was carried in the Great Migration to the blighted streets of the industrial north.

Today, let’s shine a light on the founders of the Blues. Many of them met on this very plantation: Charley Patton, Howlin’ Wolf, and even “Pops” Staples of The Staple Singers worked there.

But this is Black history, and it didn’t just start on this farm. The truth is that the Blues was born in the hearts of the people of Africa. The Blues is their story and rhythms as they were brought to Mississippi. The Blues was therapy for their children on Beale Street in Memphis, and it brought laughter and reprieve to the hike joints of Kansas City, St. Louis, and Chicago. The Blues brought truth to the world.

This episode will be electrifying as we walk and talk about the function of Blues music for Black people.

Day 18

The Address: Congo Square, New Orleans

Come to Congo Square with us.

Come catch the fire.

Come learn of the drums that reverberated through the square, calling for protection from the ancestors and the one’s left back home.

Come learn of the worship that took place here.

Come learn about this place so full of magic -  not at all dark.

Come hear about the celebrations, the dance, the music, the food that united Africans from across the continent in this new place called New Orleans.

Day 17:

Address: 90.0000° N, 135.0000° W

The Story: A Black man was the first American adventurer to reach the North Pole!?

 Say what!?

Call Patagonia, North Face, and Columbia Sportswear and tell them we've BEEN making their clothes look good!

We don’t need a long story today.

Facts are facts.

So pull up.

Because at your next dinner party, when someone brings up the state of such-and-such and the downturn of dis-and-dat, just dazzle them with this Arctic adventure.

…so what about that Matthew Henson?

Real American hero eh?

Let’s move… 

Day 16

The Address: 110 Calhoun Street, Charleston, South Carolina

The Story: Mother Emanuel AME Church is one of the oldest Black churches in the United States, and for 200 years, it functioned as the center for organizing for civil rights.

Its name says it all.

Emanuel

"God with us."

And God has been constant.

Because there’s never been a church that has withstood the reign of terrorism so bravely.

Today, we will explore The Why.

Why was this church targeted?

Why was it necessary?

What kind of spiritual courage was being borne there?

Well, that courage has a name: Denmark Vesey

Today, we learn his story.

The true story of Mother Emanuel’s bravest son.

Don’t miss this ah-ha of history.

Day 15

The Address: 2648 W Grand Blvd, Detroit, Michigan, Hitsville,USA

The Story: We dare you to try and make a top 10 Motown favorites list. We dare you.

You’d have to narrow down Stevie Wonder’s entire catalog.

You’d have to choose between solo Michael or The Jackson Five.

You’d have to debate who was better: Lionel Richie, Marvin Gay, or Smokie Robinson.

You’d have to make some seriously tough choices. There are just too many hits!

We’re talking iconic, era-defining, hits.

What started on Grand Boulevard in Motor City is a legacy that has transformed the world, defined music as we know it today, and given us a list of classics so long that it’s safe to say there will never be another influence as powerful as that of Hitsville, USA.

Leave everything you think you know about this story behind. We’re going deep into the crates for some trivia and shocking facts!