Diversity Tag

Adventure Activism, Camping, Diversity, Environmental Justice, Environmental Protection, National Parks, Outdoor Recreation, Special Events, Yosemite / 13.06.2014

In the fading light of a late spring evening, gospel singer Sista Monica Parker sat humming on a bench at the Yellow Pines Campground in Yosemite National Park. There she waited patiently for others to gather. Quiet at first, her melodic voice gained strength as she swayed to the rhythm of a hymn perhaps not heard in the Valley for more than a century. The sound slowly swelled into a powerful chorus that echoed off the granite walls of El Capitan and Half Dome. Even the birds fell...

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Adventure Activism, Camping, Diversity, Environmental Justice, National Parks, Outdoor Recreation, Yosemite / 09.06.2014

  The outdoor industry has enjoyed a long history of diversity across a wide variety of people from many different backgrounds. Over the weekend a group of African-American outdoor enthusiasts made the long journey from the Presidio in San Francisco to Yosemite Valley in order retrace the path the Buffalo Soldiers took in 1903 to take up their duty station as defenders of the first National Parks. The enduring legacy of their efforts more than 100 years ago is reflected in the faces of those who love the outdoors...

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Adventure Media Review, Climbing, Diversity, Environmental Journalism, Environmental Justice, Expedition Denali / 04.06.2014

Just about anyone who writes for a living will be compelled eventually to write a book. Personally, I tried to put it off as long as possible. I simply didn’t have anything truly relevant to say or share on the scale of a 50,000-word manuscript. As it happens though that all changed in the fall of 2011 when I was invited by the National Outdoor Leadership School to take part in the first African-American team ascent of Denali, the highest peak in North America. Although I was not on...

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Adventure Activism, Adventure Media Review, Diversity, Expedition Denali, Expedition News, Life Out Loud / 28.06.2013

After 19 days of climbing over ice and snow to the highest peak in North America the journey is small consolation when all you ever wanted was the destination. Clichés be damned. When your ambitions go unfilled it’s hard not to indulge in petulance like a child, kicking and screaming on the floor in the fit of a full blown tantrum. But in the latest dispatch from the mountain Erica Wynn delivered the unfortunate news of the team's aborted summit bid with the calm resolve of a champion. "We're...

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Adventure Activism, Adventure Media Review, Climbing, Diversity, Expedition Denali, Life Out Loud / 03.06.2013

Sunday mornings after yoga Shamane and I typically head to the grocery store. This week instead of a big shopping we went to Woodman’s on the Westside of Madison just to pick up a few odds and ends. My wife would be eating dinner alone with our two dogs over the next few weeks as I was heading for a month-long assignment in Alaska. As a freelance journalist I have been given the rare privilege of writing a book and documentary film script to chronicle the first all-African-American...

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Adventure Activism, Commentary, Cool on Kickstarter, Diversity, Expedition Denali, Magazines, National Geographic / 10.05.2013

I've been told it shouldn't matter. But as one in a handful of black professionals in the outdoor recreation industry I can't help being wildly excited. In June the first team of African-American climbers will attempt to reach the summit of Alaska's Mount McKinley, the tallest peak in North America. Also known as Denali at 20,328 feet this mountain is literally the highest physical point anyone can achieve in the United States. And as metaphors go it is the ultimate realization of the dream Martin Luther King Jr....

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