Diversity

5Point to MountainFilm Tour, Diversity / 11.05.2012

  “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” ~T.S. Eliot author of “The Wasteland” This morning I ate cereal on same breakfast table where I used to do my homework. The Joy Trip has brought back to where it all began for me at my mom and dad’s house in South Central Los Angeles. After 27 years very little has changed. And even though my 86-year-old parents required the...

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5Point to MountainFilm Tour, Adventure Activism, Adventure Media Review, Diversity, Expedition Denali / 07.05.2012

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” ~ Chinese philosopher Laozi (c 604 bc - c 531 bc) Our journey to the highest peak in North America technically began months ago. During the past several weeks a flurry of emails and text messages across the Internet pulled together a cadre of disassociated adventurers to share a common dream. And over a weekend in May we took the first actual steps toward our goal. In a remote lodge on a ridge above Lake Tahoe our team...

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Adventure Media Review, Business, Diversity, Kids in Nature, Outdoor Recreation / 05.04.2012

Recently outdoor shoemaker KEEN Footwear launched an ad meant to appeal to people who seldom see themselves depicted in nature. And in doing so the company made a rare overture of welcome to a much-underrepresented segment of our population committed to playtime outside, the African-American Family. As part of its campaign called “Recess is Back”, KEEN aims to encourage people from all walks of life to remember the importance of play. In a strategy designed to be as diverse as possible the new ad includes a black couple with...

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Adventure Media Review, Diversity, Expedition Denali, Guest Contributor, National Parks / 12.03.2012

“Artists have gone with us into the Arctic and I have heard them rave over the wonderful beauties of the scene, and I have seen them at work trying to reproduce some of it, with good results but with nothing like the effect of the original…”it is color run riot”’ ----from A Black Explorer at the North Pole, pg. 67, by Matthew A. Henson African Americans have been explorers and adventurers from the very beginnings of our republic.  People of African descent accompanied many of the earliest Spanish explorers including...

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Adventure Media Review, Climbing, Commentary, Diversity, Expedition Denali / 07.03.2012

[caption id="attachment_6951" align="aligncenter" width="541"] Cheleas Griffie on Separate Reality, Yosemite Valley (photo by Greg Epperson)[/caption] When it comes to diversity in outdoor recreation it seems there are simply those who don’t care. After 400 years of racial strife and oppression throughout American history I’m sure we’d all like to put it behind us. In fact most of us likely spend time outside to get away from all the socially charged bickering back and forth between one ethnic group or another. I get that. But please, don’t tell me, a...

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Climbing, Diversity, Expedition Denali, Expedition News / 24.02.2012

[caption id="attachment_6921" align="alignleft" width="300"] NOLS Denali Expedition participants Aparna Rajagopal-Durbin, Chelesea Griffie, Philip Henderson, James Mills & Stephen Shobe[/caption] For the first time a team of African-American climbers is assembling to make a bid for the summit of the tallest peak in North America, Mount Denali. To be lead by the National Outdoor Leadership School in 2013 this expedition aims to encourage minority youth to enjoy outdoor recreation as part of an active lifestyle as well as create a cadre of role models for careers in environmental protection. Also known...

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