Essays

Black Lives Matter, Essays, National Geographic, National Monuments, National Parks, Unhidden / 06.04.2023

Our journey through American history is often an exploration that reveals not just the cultural artifacts of the past that have been hidden, but those that have been taken away. On our way to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historic Site, we decided to make a stop in Easton, Maryland. My friend National Geographic photographer Kris Graves and I went searching for the space that was once occupied by the state’s last Confederate Civil War memorial....

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#BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter, Commentary, Essays, National Geographic, National Monuments, National Parks, Public Land, Unhidden, Yellowstone, Yosemite / 13.02.2023

On a recent visit to Yellowstone National Park, I had the chance to see with my own eyes for the first time the inscription carved over the Roosevelt Arch. Previously I had only seen pictures. I have the rare privilege to be among the many writers and scholars who serve as topic experts on National Geographic Expeditions to remote areas around the world. This landmark in particular was a gap in my pedigree that I was very happy to fill. It's in these moments when I am happy...

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#BlackLivesMatter, Adventure Activism, Black Lives Matter, Climbing, Destinations, Diversity, Essays, Everest, Expedition News, Full Circle Everest, Outdoors For All / 11.04.2022

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” ~ Mark TwainThe walk from Phadking to Namche is a six-mile climb up a narrow trail of steep stone steps along a dusty path. Much of my training at 920 feet of above sea level in Wisconsin over the past year had done little to prepare...

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Diversity, Essays, Guest Contributor, National Forests, Outdoors For All, Private Land, Public Land, ReThinkOutside / 09.10.2020

I am African-American.  Feels important that I say that up front.  Born in New York city and raised by black parents on land belonging to a wealthy, Jewish family, I was “homeschooled” emotionally and spiritually on a diet of black power, black striving and black possibility.  I often joke with people that I lived with Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali whose presence my father invoked on a regular basis.  My parents, Henry and Rose, grew up in Floyd, Virginia – poor and black with a high school education. ...

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An American Ascent, Commentary, Diversity, Essays, Grand Canyon, Magazines, National Geographic, National Parks, Public Land, The Adventure Gap, Yosemite / 14.07.2020

  HALFWAY INTO OUR two-week paddling trip through the Grand Canyon, my longtime friend Jim Moss had a sudden realization. After a thrilling day exploring limpid blue pools and towering waterfalls beneath the desert rim, we sat in beach chairs drinking ice-cold beer along the banks of the Colorado River.“You know? I’ve made more than 40 commercial guiding trips through this place,” he said. “In 25 years, I think you’re the first African American I’ve ever seen down here.”There’s a statistical reason for this: Although Black Americans represent 13.4...

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Commentary, Essays, In Memoria, Outdoors For All / 25.05.2020

In late afternoon on July 18, 1863, Sergeant Major William Harvey Carney stood on a beach in South Carolina. Shoulder to shoulder with more than 600 men of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment, this formation of troops on Morris Island near the port city of Charleston, would later be described as “like giant statues of marble”. With sand sifting through their feet Carney and his men marched forward at the command of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. Under a barrage of heavy rifle and cannon fire they quickened their...

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