Welcome to the Inaugural Edition of the Outdoor Afro Blog Carnival!
Wooo hooo….confetti falls…
So what is a Blog Carnival anyway? Well, I learned it is a terrific way to spread your blog wings into new topics, while connecting with more people. And that’s all I needed to know before signing up!  But I also recognized the term ‘carnival’ has a cultural meaning for some that is different than the experience of a spin on the ol’ ferris wheel. So I decided to honor the festive connotation of another kind of Carnival …

….to register for camp!
Whether it be a family camp, like Oakland’s Feather River Camp in Northern California, or Camp Atwater on the East Coast, there are many opportunities to connect with the outdoors that require you to act now as spaces are already filling up!
Check out this neat Family Camp PSA:

Also consider making reservations now for your favorite campsite for tent camping. For example, popular Samuel P. Taylor State Park’s reservation line is red-hot during the winter months that fill the camp solidly after Memorial Day weekend through early Fall.
So …

People ask me all the time: “How did Outdoor Afro begin?”

Quite frankly, it began in the pages of a diary I wrote up when I was about 9,  and continued sporadically into other diaries over the years, until I became a young adult, where I discovered newsgroups, email lists, then finally blogs.
Here is the start of an entry that painstakingly detailed a Girl Scout camping trip at Hidden Villa Ranch, captured in vivid (albeit prepubescent) detail after arriving home:

I wrote, “It was so fun. It was the very first camping …

Rubén and a watershed model
Like many others around the country, this year I spent the Martin Luther King Day Holiday in service of my local community. I chose to do restoration at the aptly named Martin Luther King shoreline in Oakland, California. The area is located just a stones throw away from a congested freeway and sports complex, and is a gorgeous natural environment teeming with local birds and other wildlife that connects to the beautiful San Francisco Bay.
Sunset at the MLK Shoreline Courtesy of the EBRP District …

I have to disclose up front that I am pretty biased about these three book recommendations because I am privileged to know each of the authors as partners through the development of Outdoor Afro and our shared passion for people of color and the outdoors. But aside from my excitement and gratitude for these folks, they have each produced some pretty extraordinary work well worth buying for your loved ones this holiday season.
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As many of you know, Frank and Audrey Peterman have been at the …

The Tennessee Aquatic Project is a youth organization that engages at-risk and inner city youth with a wide range of outdoor and civic activities to enhance personal development.

After meeting up at the Breaking the Color Barrier Conference last September, Ken Stewart of the Tennessee Aquatic Project (TAP) and Jerry Bransford, a Mammoth Cave National Park guide, decided to join forces and send over sixty youth on a trek up to the Caves. The youth were able to hear first hand the intriguing story of Bransford’s slave ancestors who were important …

Clothesline Photo: Renee Gunter
I was going to write about sustainable landscaping – and I still will, but something else came up:
The Laundry.
Washing clothes is actually my least favorite chore right along with mopping the floor, taking out dripping trash, and investigating that “noise” in the middle of the night. Thus, I view the laundry task through a ‘necessary evil’ lens. But I like when it’s done. The problem is, it’s never done! I think I handle laundry fairly well for a household of four, but every time I get the …

Some folks my age think Halloween is radically different now than when we were kids, but it really isn’t. Kids still love and anticipate dressing up, getting a ton of free candy, and a sanctioned roam of the streets after nightfall. For me and my friends, it’s one of those childhood activities that keep evolving over time, with more elaborate parties to attend and more decadent costumes to fuss over as adults.
As a child, I actually don’t recall my parents ever dressing up, maybe it was a generational thing, or …

Chelsea Griffie
I took a climbing trip with Outward Bound in my early 20’s, and it changed my life. It was a physical accomplishment I did not think I was capable of achieving – and my awareness of possibility and faith from that successful experience remains with me today.
Chelsea Griffie was similarly inspired by rock climbing and the outdoors. Her Chicago parents were not campers, so she climbed for the first time as a young adult on a trip to Brazil, and was hooked. In the years since, Chelsea’s skills …

Each 1970’s and early 80’s summer in Oakland, California meant freedom. Summer meant my friends and I left our houses as early as we could, and dreaded the sight of flickering street lamps in the evening. We sometimes spent an entire day riding our bikes to the nearest convenience store 5 miles away, or roaming the neighborhood by roller skate or “tennis” shoe.
We had little knowledge or regard for the true meaning of property lines or value. Undeveloped spaces (like our infamous Dead End of the block) were claimed exclusively …