The Eames House, Southern California
I spent the brief plane ride to Los Angeles last week drooling over a copy of Dwell, a forward looking magazine of modern design, and when I arrived at my friend’s  Hollywood bungalow, she pointed out that the house behind hers was the Freeman House, a Frank Lloyd Wright. So Mid-Century Modern design was a running theme of the weekend and triggered my imagination about the ways my future crib can embody a love for the outdoors.
What resonates with me about Wright is that he understood …

Here is a video of the well publicized interview with Shelton Johnson, the only African American Park Ranger in Yosemite. He links the lack of African American participation in the outdoors to the “scars of slavery”. What do you think?

You may also listen to my interview with Shelton on BlogTalkRadio

It might have been a small patch of dirt, a few pots on the porch, or an expanse of acreage. No matter the size, the family garden plot is a seminal part of the African American experience from slavery to land ownership. But after a century of mass black migration north to urban centers, the produce section of the supermarket has supplanted the backyard vegetable garden, which was the source of the freshest collard greens; sweet corn, tomatoes, carrots and more — and folks who ate those foods straight from …

Scouting organizations are a solution for families who may not know how to begin to engage with the outdoors. These historic organizations provide the infrastructure, knowledge, and the equipment that takes the guesswork out of outdoor exploration.
Even though my own parents were “country folk”, they were not campers. It was my experience with the Girl Scouts as a kid and later with Outward Bound as an adult that expanded my joy, technical savvy, and ecological perspective about the outdoors that I am now able to pass on to …

I wish I could tell some folks to simply throw on some hiking boots and GO, but there are historical and social influences that keep many African Americans estranged from the natural environment. So why is it that African Americans consider the outdoors for others and not for themselves?
I came across this National Parks site that does a decent job of describing the different relationship people of color have with the natural world. While African Americans may appreciate the majesty of the Grand Canyon, or the sublime beauty of Yosemite, …

I saw this article over a year ago on the Berkeley website and just remembered it as an appropriate share for this blog.
Like myself, Berkeley geographer Carol Finney took the non-traditional path to an undergraduate education and was deeply influenced by both her parent’s relationship to land and her own extensive travel.
Finney believes that contemporary environmental values are not new for African Americans, who have had long agricultural and familial ties to land in this country. She believes that America’s environmental stories, such as those told by John Muir and …