Grace Anderson is a dreamer, a builder, and a Black queer feminist who writes and imagines futures where choice is a human right. In this conversation we discuss why she loves to giggle and fly downhills on her bike, solo adventures in the outdoors, the importance of journaling, and learning that it's important to build what you're for and not what you're against. Faith and Grace also talk a lot about their identity as Black women, their journeys to develop and exude a strong pride specifically in that identity, and why it feels so important to them to continue to center Black women in so much of the work. This episode includes a pretty incredible reading list too by the end, so make sure to check out the related links.

Connect with Grace via Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/amaze_me_grace/

ALL THE LINKS: 

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein 

Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors by Dr. Carolyn Finney

The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection by Dorceta E. Taylor

How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

won’t you celebrate with me by Lucille Clifton

We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice by Mariama Kaba

The Nap Ministry

Mapping Our Social Change roles in Times of Crisis by Deepa Iyer

MORE LINKS FROM THE DEBRIEF, COMING SOON!

Billie Holiday sings Strange Fruit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHGAMjwr_j8

The Tragic Story Behind Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit"

https://www.biography.com/musicians/billie-holiday-strange-fruit

How white Americans used lynchings to terrorize and control black people, The Guardian (trigger warning: graphic images and stories)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/26/lynchings-memorial-us-south-montgomery-alabama

Jim Crow Laws

https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws

Harriet Tubman, an Unsung Naturalist, Used Owl Calls as a Signal on the Underground Railroad

https://www.audubon.org/news/harriet-tubman-unsung-naturalist-used-owl-calls-signal-underground-railroad

1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

https://www.tulsahistory.org/exhibit/1921-tulsa-race-massacre/ 

Emmett Till

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/emmett-till-1 

Historical Database of Sundown Towns

https://justice.tougaloo.edu/sundown-towns/using-the-sundown-towns-database/state-map/ 

Sundown Town research specific to Oregon, where Faith lives

https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/oregonmulticulturalarchives/2019/06/05/sundown-towns-2019/

The Jim Crow Roots of Loitering Laws

ard.com/2022/05/31/the-jim-crow-roots-of-loitering-laws/">https://the-ard.com/2022/05/31/the-jim-crow-roots-of-loitering-laws/

A Visual History of Loitering Laws

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-21/what-is-loitering-really 

AMERICA RECKONS WITH RACIAL INJUSTICE

Law Professor On Misdemeanor Offenses And Racism In The Criminal System

Heard on All Things Considered, 2020

https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/06/12/876221163/law-professor-on-how-misdemeanors-sweep-blacks-into-the-criminal-system

Sharecropping: Slavery By Another Name

https://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/sharecropping/

Welcome back to Season 3 of The Trail Ahead, hosted by Faith E. Briggs & Addie Thompson.

In this episode they reflect on why bringing together their multiplicities of identity is essential to their theory of change - which is (clumsily) that with a multi-racial dialogue that seeks to amplify the voices on the frontlines of environmental justice they can encourage more people to fall in love with the natural world and aim to protect it. They discuss the potential flaws in this theory, how it has changed, how much they are learning and where they go from here. While Addie and Faith originally met through trailrunning, they bonded through their passions. Faith is a documentary filmmaker with a background in representation and a focus on identity politics. Addie's road to stories is grounded in work that has been a mix of climate policy and environmental grantmaking. It is at this intersection where these conversations live. This episode reflects on previous seasons and gives some sneak peeks on the kind of conversations coming down the road.

Theme music is "All is Forgiven" from the band Alekesam and the Album Sound Proof Heart.

This episode is sponsored by Subaru, learn more on social via @subaru_usa.

Additional music comes from Track Club by Marmoset.

Other links, orgs, and folks mentioned in this episode are:

• Rising Hearts:  An Indigenous led grassroots organization committed to the heart work in elevating indigenous voices, promoting, and supporting intersectional collaborative efforts across all forms of movements in cultivating community with the goals of racial, social, climate and economic justice.
• Rising Hearts' Running on Native Lands  program that aims to make land acknowledgements at trail AND road race events a common and inclusive practice and encourages those who become a partner to go the extra mile by giving back to the communities which the land is borrowed from.
• Runners for Public Lands toolkit
• Dr. Carolyn Finney episode of The Trail Ahead
• Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors by Dr. Carolyn Finney
• Link to This Land
• The Tongass and the fight to protect it from clearcuts
• Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge
• #StopWillow
• Jade Begay, Policy & Advocacy Director at @ndncollective and member of the Enviro Justice Advisory Council at the white house, on TWITTER
• NDN Collective
• Grist Fixers 2022
• Imagine 2200

In January 2021 we sat down for what became a 3 hour conversation with the legendary Selema Masekela. We laughed, we cried, and by the end we realized we were undeniably tethered for life, a beautiful heart tether. We've had many people ask to hear the whole conversation, rather than the more edited 1 hour conversation we put out in April 2021. In this episode we go into beautiful stories about Selema's relationship with his father, the late great Hugh Masekela, and include a deeper conversation around making music himself, and what it meant in 2020 to shout about racial justice (and finally be passed a mic when doing so) in a sport as historically white as surfing. We're so please to present the full episode now. The music you hear at the very beginning is the multitalented and multifaceted Selema himself, with the song "All is Forgiven" from his band Alekesam. 

Additional Links to go deeper!

Check out Selema on Instagram

Listen to Alekesam on Spotify

Listen to the abridged conversation here

Rock out to Hugh Masekela

Learn more about STOKED mentoring

STOKED collaborates with schools, community organizations, and a network of dedicated mentors to bridge the opportunity gap for low-income youth, and prepare them for a vibrant, fulfilled life after high school.

This Land Doc

Kamilah Journét is a long-distance runner, environmentalist, and brand marketing strategist. She discovered her love for running in junior high and continued competing in Cross Country and Track at high school and collegiate levels. She joins The Trail Ahead for a conversation about:

- creating a space of belonging in the outdoors 

- embracing a changing identity as a runner

- not running (imagine that!)

- finding joy through movement 

- taking up space, especially in conversations/decisions making spaces 

Kamilah shares what playing outside means to her and why we as adults need to learn what playing could mean. She discusses why it’s more important than ever to find outlets for joy and play. As an environmentalist and activist, Kamilah shares why it’s so important to be aware of how others around you might process information.

Kamilah discusses her career as a runner, how she began, and where she is with her relationship to the sport today. She talks about the rude awakening and difficult process of finding who she is aside from her identity as a runner, and how therapy ultimately helped her discover herself. This important conversation reminds you about the power of having honest and open conversations. Tune in to this conversation for an important reminder of how our vulnerabilities and the little pieces of our life make us who we are today.

The Debrief features Sarah Jacquette Ray author of A Field Guide To Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Cool on a Warming Planet.

Episode Resources

• Runners for Public Lands: https://runnersforpubliclands.org/
• “Kamilah Journét, a powerful voice for anti-racism in the running and outdoor industries” for Citius Magazinehttps://citiusmag.com/podcast/social-sport-podcast-kamilah-journet/
• Follow Kamilah on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kamilahjournet/
• The Debrief features Sarah Jacquette Ray author of A Field Guide To Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Cool on a Warming Planethttps://sarahjaquetteray.com/

Quote:

“When I look at nature, queerness is everywhere. The flowers in my backyard cannot pollinate each other without bees. So they're multi-species sexual. They literally have carriers that carry their pollen from flower to flower - that is so queer! The more time I spend out in nature, the more I'm reminded at just how natural I am. And that's really reassuring coming from a kid who was told that they were unnatural.”

- Pattie Gonia (she/her)

Time Stamps:

[4:30] How Wyn Wiley aka Pattiegonia grew up in Nebraska and playing outside

[8:00] How everything is drag, including the idea of Outdoor Drag, aesthetics, and performance

[16:00] The need for inclusivity in the outdoors and extended conversation in access

[19:00] Whiteness, Prilege and Perceived “heirarchies of oppression”

[23:00] “Honoring the Try” and Allyship

[24:30] Sustainable Activism & The Outdoorist Oath

[32:00] Cancel Culture, the brutality of social media & Pattie’s learnings and growth

[45:00] Community Agreements & Freedom the learn in Nature

[47:00] The Queerness of Nature

[50:00] The Pansy Dress and The Reclamation of a Slur

[53:00] Using Humor & Drag Culture

[1:00:00] LGBTQ2S+ Representation and Ongoing Homophobia

[1:06:00] What is giving them hope for the future

[1:14:00] The Debrief: The Approach Film & How Privilege Shifts Over Time & Space

Links:

• ●Pattie Gonia Instagram
• ●Mapping Our Social Change Roles in Times of Crisis by Deepa Iyer
• ●The Outdoorist Oath
• ●venn-diagram-1.jpeg">Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson Ven Diagram to Take Action
• ●The Trail Ahead Podcast Website
• ●Brave Trails LGBTQ Summer Camp Organization
• ●Layel Camargo episode of The Trail Ahead
• ●Rae Wynn-Grant Episode of The Trail Ahead
• ●The Approach Film

In today’s episode, Faith is joined by Adam Merry. Adam is an accomplished track and trail runner. He started trail running back in 2017 and has since raced distances, both on road and trail, of up to 100k. In this conversation, Faith and Adam talk about the importance of diversity and representation in running, both in track and trail. 

Adam shares his introduction to running and how he fell in love with the sport. He also shares his experience going from track to trail without much diversity and representation in the field. Adam also talks about his favorite races from his incredible race career so far, finding a good group of people to train with, and honoring the seasons of your training. 

From Adam’s goal of becoming the first Black man to podium at Western States, to how racism generally makes us all perform worse, this conversation is an eye-opener in the world of running. Tune in to hear all about Adam’s experience as an elite and lifelong athlete on a mission to increase representation and diversity in ultrarunning.

As the summer comes to a close we are excited to share a few updates. Tune in to learn about all that's taking place with us, why Faith isn't in this episode and what's to come in the coming weeks.

We always appreciate each of our listeners for continuing to support us and are happy to share some amazing life updates. We hop you'll take the time to binge some past episodes as we take some time to relax and enjoy this new season in life.

If you'd like to send happy wishes to Faith (tune in to find out why) feel free to shoot her a message on our Instagram @Thetrailahead_podcast