Exploring Ruins and Playing in Waterfalls
Outdoor Afros in Los Angeles explored local African American history and nature over the weekend - read on!
Alisha Pye here, I'm the Outdoor Afro Leader for Los Angeles. This week we decided to celebrate Spring by hiking at Solstice Canyon in Malibu which is located in the Santa Monica Mountains. It's a beautiful hike with flowers in full bloom, waterfalls to enjoy, valleys and canyons to climb and picnic areas. We started on the stairs and continued on a steady incline until we came to an area of ruins that we felt compelled to explore.
If you look closely between the trees you'll see the ruins of a burned out house. It's now a historic park of the Santa Monica National Recreation Area. According to the story this house was built by a renowned African American Architect Paul R.Williams in 1952. The area is susceptible to many fires so Paul designed the home for his clients with a fire protection system that would protect the home against fire damage. The waterfall and pool were designed to pump water in case of fire as a protection to limit damage. Unfortunately after the owners death the pumping system wasn't maintained and the home was damaged by fire in 1982.
The backyard of the home was a beautiful waterfall that was breathtaking. We decided to stay and climb a little. We ended up staying for 45 minutes exploring, climbing and playing in the waterfall. At the very top was an outdoor fireplace the family used.
The view was so amazing we decided to take our group picture there along the rocks. If you look at the picture you'll notice we had a very diverse group ranging from an 11 year old to a grandfather with a cane who served as motivation for us to keep climbing.
Getting to the top we were able to see exactly how far we'd come. It was a great sense of accomplishment to get out explore and enjoy the ruins of the Santa Monica National Area. We plan on doing more exploring in the coming months so join us in our adventures.
Classic Images of African American 4H Youth Enjoying Nature
Our hearts melted when a member of the Outdoor Afro community on Facebook shared a link of photos, like the ones below that show images of black children enjoying and learning in nature in their 4-H camp in North Carolina in the 1940's.
"What is old is new again." one member commented. We could not agree more. Enjoy these timeless images that showcase examples of African American connections to nature over time.
Check out the rest of the images here, Courtesy of North Carolina State University
A Sunday Spring Surf
So glad to spend time once again with my former co-worker and dear friend Manav Thapar to help re-connect my 9 year old son Billy Hunter to the art and fun of surfing!
Read about the last time
I knew Billy Hunter (the deepest sleeper of my brood) was excited when he bounced out of bed early with, "Come one mommy, get up! Today I am surfing remember?"
We could not believe it had been over a year since our last visit to the town of Pacifica, which is only about 30 miles south west of Oakland, 
where we live. I always shake my head when I remember how close such natural beauty is all around us, but in the flow of daily routine, it can seem so far away.
I actually came to the beach with intentions to work. I brought my laptop and portable wi-fi with me along with the stress of looming deadlines, but as soon as I took in the expanse of the ocean; its sound and sights beyond the bobbing waves under the surfers, I had to stop and simply be present to the joy my son was feeling. I mused that I probably should have been out in the water myself.
The water was predictably cold for Northern California, but after almost two hours of the exhilaration from catching and loosing the wave, Billy Hunter decided with chattering teeth it was time to stop, but just for now.
Thank you Nor Cal surf shop for such great equipment support, and especially Manav Thapar, my friend, for your generosity of time, expertise, and resources that leave no doubt of the difference it will make in the life of my child, and his relationship to nature. Next time, I will join in the fun!
Jack and Jill of America Moms Connect with Outdoor Afro!
Recently Outdoor Afro has been delighted to connect with the Jack and Jill community, an historic African American mother’s group designed to promote social, cultural and educational opportunities for youth between the ages of 2 and 19 – and we are glad to add on connections to nature!
We were happy to have the chance to partner this season with a local group on a guided hike by Outdoor Afro leader Zoe Polk in Oakland’s Sibley regional park. Jack and Jill mom, Leslie Hardy Hood, said, “What a great activity, beautiful site and new exposure. Everyone felt good and I think it was a wonderful way to finish off the weekend. Many of the moms wanted to know about getting involved with Outdoor Afro.”
Headquartered in Washington, DC, Jack and Jill of America, Inc. has 230 chapters in 35 states and the District of Columbia, with a membership of over 10,000 mothers and associates and over 30,000 family members.
For more information about the organization, please check out their web page.
John Griffith Can Bust a Move - For Nature
A video of our friend John Griffith of the California Conservation Corp's has gone viral! Check it out!
Yep, John can pop and lock - yet importantly exude a genuine connection and close rapport with Outdoor Afro corps workers Antwon McCoy and Leonard Patton in his workforce development program.
Check out the salmon habitat restoration these amazing people have been up to, and how they are connecting with the mission of the Outdoor Afro community, thanks to John!
Beyond the video, I encourage you to explore John's other contributions that demonstrate his deep commitment to youth and the environment. As an author, he has written a children's book, Totem Magic: Going MAD that combines nature and fantasy told through a multicultural lens. John is also an insightful blogger, and his recent blog re-tells a heart tugging account of what happens when a young person sees a beach for the first time as a corps member.
We applaud and adore John, not only for breaking down a dance move, but for also breaking down barriers between people and our environment! Go John Go!
David Lindo: The Urban Birder
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes - Marcel Proust
David Lindo, also known as The Urban Birder came to the San Francisco Bay Area yesterday to do a talk about his experiences birding around the world in urban centers, most notably in his hometown of London, England, where he is a well-known featured bird expert on television and radio. Lindo spreads the gospel of practical nature. Meaning, you don’t have to travel to exotic locations to find rare and delightful bird species. Instead, birds are wherever you are, and “all you have to do is look up”, he says.
As I briefly stood before the audience to help introduce the program, and looked out into the diverse faces of attendees, it provided a deeply satisfying glimpse into a not-so-distant future Outdoor Afro envisions, where all people engage with the nature all around.
Generously sponsored by Golden Gate Audubon Society , an organization also committed to help more communities connect to conservation, the gathering proved to be a fun, fresh perspective on birding. David shared his personal story of growing up birdy as a youth, begging his working-class mother for his first pair of binoculars. A luxury his family could barely afford. He described the wonder of his special patch of woods, where he spent hours as a child getting to know his local bird species and making up intuitive names for each one. He went on to share through photos, examples of the variety of birds spotted in urban centers. He helped us imagine a skyscraper as a face of a mountain, where one might spot a Peregrine Falcon on its peak, and his humorous use of the Jedi-like “Force” to manifest rare bird species in some of the most improbable places.
Today, I was delighted to take David to see some more of our local birds. The previous day, Audubon staff treated David to a full-day of birding, where he found the male Varied Thrush pictured above, and our famous and rare Clapper Rail. Clay, an Outdoor Afro leader and ecologist joined us on the brief tour of Oakland's Lake Merritt and Middle Shoreline Harbor Park with panoramic views of the San Francisco skyline and bridge.
Hanging with two people who share deep experience observing birds was a kick for an intermediate like me. David and Clay debated the nuances of plumage to determine species. Is that a Golden Bellied Plover, or an American Plover? (they saw both). Yes, these are two black men from different parts of the world having this conversation, I mused.
While David has observed several hundreds of bird species with all types of people from many walks of life, remarkably, he admitted today was the first time he had ever birded with other black people outside of Africa!
It certainly won’t be his last.
Learn more about David Lindo The Urban Birder and Twitter @urbanbirder
We did it again, this time with a challenge...
By Alisha Pye, Los Angeles Outdoor Afro Leader
So we went hiking above the Mountain Gate Country Club again, but this time we decided to mix it up a bit. So we decided to go off the fire trail and hike the hills. This was a great hike although we had fewer people we had a very diverse group, ranging from a mom wearing her 6 month baby, to a 9 year old cross country runner.
This hike was particularly challenging for me because I'm very afraid of heights and cliffs, both of which we encountered. I would love to post pictures of the cliff but I was nearly paralyzed with fear. So here's to embracing fear and moving forward! Because of the challenge that I experienced, I think I enjoyed the hike more.
Overall, we hiked 11.3 miles, every time I even thought about complaining about the distance I looked up and saw this mom wearing her baby, a 9 year old and a grandmother or two chugging along. The diversity in this group was motivating to say the least. We didn't get a chance to stop and take a group picture, but we had a great time. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the weather amazing and the scenery was breathtaking.
An Outdoor Afro Remembers a Visit to Birmingham
My name is Nkrumah Frazier. I am a member of the Outdoor Afro Leadership team. Recently I was perusing some older pictures on my computer and stumbled across some pictures taken back in July of 2007 when my wife (Chelsea) and I reluctantly dropped our kids off at my mother’s house and hit the road headed to Birmingham, AL. We did not have a weekend worth of activities, sites and destinations already planned out. We had only decided to go a few days prior. I won’t attempt to talk about everything that we did on the trip rather I’ll highlight the things that were the most memorable for me. With this month being Black History Month I thought that it would be rather poignant to write about this experience.
On the way to Birmingham we stopped just south of Tuscaloosa, AL at Moundville Archeological Park. 
The Moundville site was once a settlement of Mississippian Indians on the Black Warrior River in central Alabama. At its most glorious, Moundville was a three hundred acre village built on a bluff overlooking the river. It was once a populous town, as well as a political center and a religious center. In size and complexity Moundville was second only to the Cahokia site in Illinois.
Moundville has been well taken care of over the years and was a really cool place to visit. There was an added bonus in the form of a series of nature trails in the form of raised boardwalks through the forests and overlooking the river surrounding the raised mounds. We made our way through the walkways soaking up all that the Alabama wilderness had to offer or as much as could be gleamed from the completely unnatural boardwalks jutting out from the landscape. Regardless of how unnatural the boardwalks were they were well done and lent themselves to a really wonderful time.
Alabama is a land of large beautiful rolling hills. We stopped at a site overlooking a river that displayed some of those beautiful hills and the awesome power that water is capable of producing. From there we drove on in to Birmingham. We found and visited the Vulcan statue; the largest cast iron statue in the world and city symbol of Birmingham. The statue reflects the city’s roots in the iron and steel industry. The 56-foot tall statue depicts the Roman god Vulcan, god of the fire and forge. It was created as Birmingham's entry for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904 World's Fair) in St. Louis, Missouri. It is the seventh-tallest free-standing statue in the United States.
That evening we heard on the radio that the Ebony Black Family Reunion Tour just happened to be Birmingham that weekend. The event was emceed by Tom Joyner Morning Show’s Ms. Dupree. We were blessed to see performances from the likes of Cupid (at the time his song “Cupid Shuffle” was just hitting the airwaves, but we knew nothing about him), Glenn Lewis, Cherrelle, MC Lyte and Whodini free of charge. 
It was a delight getting to see Cherrelle perform after growing up listening to her songs on the radio. At one point she was joined on stage by a young girl of about 8 or 9 from the audience. She talked about and displayed the not so subtle differences in the way the youth of today dance and the way it was done “back in the day”. The young girl danced her heart out and once she was finished Cherrelle attempted to show and explain to the girl and the audience that you don’t have to work so hard when you dance. She said that the way that girls and young ladies bounce and gyrate really hard and fast isn’t necessary. All that’s needed is a subtle and gentle swaying of the hips in tune with the music to achieve the desired effect! 
MC Lyte then took full control of the stage. She came out and put on a display of lyrical prowess, stage presence and hip hop history that the overwhelming majority of the wanna be MCs on the radio today dream that they had and left the audience begging for more. Afterwards, Whodini stepped on stage and tore the proverbial roof off. I don’t feel I need to say anything else about that part of the show because, well…… it was Whodini! For the young people that may read this and wonder who Whodini is; I suggest you go and do a little research and then re-read this part of the story. Growing up poor in rural south Mississippi I was always behind the times when it came to music. Even the radio stations always seemed to be a little behind when it came to playing the latest music. Large musical acts never came to south Mississippi and even if they did I would not have been allowed to go. This concert to me was the embodiment of my childhood love of hip hop that I never got to experience and I’m thankful that I had this opportunity to see some of the greats of the business.
The next morning Chelsea and I woke up and wanted to do a bit more sightseeing before heading home. Chelsea being the history buff had a surprise in store for me. She wanted to see the famed Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. We drove around until we found the church, parked our car got out and walked the grounds. The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was organized as the first black church to organize in Birmingham in 1873. During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the church served as an organizational headquarters, site of mass meetings and rallying point for blacks protesting racism in Birmingham and throughout the South. On Sunday, September 15, 1963, members of the Ku Klux Klan bombed the church killing four young girls–Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair–and injuring 22 others.
Adjacent to the church is a memorial park. This park was a memorial to the first the first American sailor killed in World War I, Mr. Osmond Kelly Ingram. In this park are statues commemorating the sights, sounds and activities of the civil rights movement in Birmingham. There were scenes portraying young black men and women being suppressed. One particular statue was of a young man being “arrested” by a policeman while simultaneously a police dog appears to be ready to bite down into this young man’s flesh.
Another set of statues consisted of police dogs in the act of lunging and barking at an “assailant” on either side of the circular walkway portraying a scene in which the dogs are attacking an invisible assailant standing on the walkway. I walked and stood in the middle of the statue and felt in awe of the power and majesty of the dogs that the statue is portraying. Immediately I began to try to imagine the fear that would undoubtedly arise within me if I were to be put in this situation with live dogs in real life.
There was a set of sculptures portraying a boy and girl being blasted by a water cannon. The sculptures of the boy and girl seem to portray the emotion that must have been experienced during such an event. Other sculptures include one of Dr. Martin Luther King and one of 3 preachers kneeling in prayer; a near by plaque reads “Place of Revolution and Reconciliation”. After leaving this memorial park we got back in our car and started the journey home. On the outskirts of town we looked back to see the Vulcan statue towering over the city bidding us adieu.
Having grown up in south Mississippi, I remember going to stores that wouldn’t allow black people to use the restroom. I remember hearing the “N” word being used in a very derogatory manner. I’ve heard stories and actually seen how ugly hatred based simply on the color of a person’s skin can really be. I remember thinking about the struggles that took place so that I’d be afforded the opportunity to walk among a memorial depicting this not so pretty side of human nature rather than having to live it first hand. I can’t help but think that the younger generations really don’t have a clue what it was like during those struggles.
For that reason I’m proud to be an Outdoor Afro. I’m proud to be an ambassador for my people. I am proud to be a part of the effort to reconnect; and in some cases to connect, black people to the natural world. But in some ways this effort is about more than just connecting black people to nature. This is about removing some of the misunderstanding, the misconceptions that some individuals have about black people. This organization serves to point out that black people are after all just people and in that light Outdoor Afro serves to bring us all closer together by showing us that we are all relatively the same. After all; the conversation we are attempting to have is merely a focused conversation; not an exclusive one.
Additional photos from this trip can be viewed in the Facebook album that was created.
Falling in Love with Lassen!
Lassen Volcanic Park continues to be the hidden gem enjoyed by the Outdoor Afro community. For the second year in a row, we partnered with National Park Service staff to lead a snow shoe walk among in the park’s beautiful red fir forest and for the second year in a row, we had a blast!
When we first arrived, Rangers Chris and Caitlin greeted us and explained the history of snow shoeing, including their use in Native American culture.
After all of us were fitted with our snow shoes, we made our decent in the wilderness where we learned about how the forest’s inhabitants survive in the winter and what humans can learn from them.
For example, Ranger Chris talked about the incredible memories of Steller Jays and Clarks Nutcrackers, who can store their food in several places throughout the season and remember where to find to find it when they return in the winter. All of us felt a sense of awe and warmth learning that we were in the park during the time that Black Bears were giving birth in their dens. In addition, we learned about the Sierra Nevada Snow Shoe hare, which changes its fur from brown to white to camouflage itself in the winter and relies on its large feet to keep from sinking in the deep snow.
There were so many memorable moments during the one and half hours that we all spent together, including shared stories, supporting hands, jokes and a few graceful falls. While the wind picked up from time to time, we were energized and warmed by each other and gave and received smiles throughout the hike. 
One aspect that I will never forget is the enthusiasm of Al, an Outdoor Afro from Tracey. While we were on the snow shoe, he saw a large hill in the distance that he wanted to ascend. While some of us wanted to conserve our energy for the return trek back to the visitor center, Al led a small delegation to the top of that peak. By the look on his face, you can tell he enjoyed that little jaunt!
Before we returned to the visitor center, the Rangers showed us some snow caves that had been dug by some of the school groups that had visited Lassen Volcanic Park. Snow caves are equal parts tunnel and holes dug in the snow for shelter and warmth. Here’s our adventurous Al again checking out the wintry accommodations
For me, the most surprising lesson learned was that Lassen Park, despite being one of the oldest parks in the country is also one of least visited. I encourage more people to take advantage of all the park has to offer. First, on the drive to Lassen, you are treated with an absolutely breathtaking view of Mount Shasta. Moreover, the park offers so much in terms of activity. In addition to snow shoeing, we enjoyed the cross country skiing, sledding and the beautiful and information filled visitor center. Not only were we impressed by the beauty of the forest, we also admired all of the volcanic peaks surrounding the visitor center including Brokeoff Volcano and Prospect Peak. The Rangers invited our group back during the summer for the Lassen Dark Sky festival which will include nightly constellation tours and stargazing. Its just one of the many great reasons to visit the park during any season.
Thanks so much to the Lassen Volcanic Park staff for preserving this sacred space. And special thanks to all of the Outdoor Afros who made this trip so enjoyable!
