I once heard it said that you are what you eat. Well, it’s also true that you are what you listen to and what you watch on YouTube! In fact, I was with a classroom of 4 year olds the other day and half of them could quote the entire verse of a Jay-Z song, with degrading lyrics and all. Then, I asked them to describe a Pine Tree and they shook their heads in silent confusion. What an emblem of a larger human condition! In a recent study, it was reported that children spend 7-13.5 hours per day on screens, lost in the vapid content of today’s entertainment free-for-all. In a world that broadcasts crisis and destruction, it’s not hard to imagine why children are failing out of classrooms, mired in violence and experiencing disease at greater rates than ever before.

Listen to a track of Pacha’s Pajamas here! Call Heard Round The World (Feat. Mos Def)

At Balance Edutainment, this is the problem that we’ve set out to solve. We intend to #Occupy Pop Culture with stories, music and games that uplift children and families on critical environmental issues. To do so, however, we need to meet children where they’re at. And, as anyone who’s anyone knows, most kids are addicted to games, music, and media. With Pacha’s Pajamas, our flagship initiative, we intend to use an urban fairy tale about a little girl, who through her dreams, becomes a Superhero for Nature. We will reach mainstream audiences with this meaningful story about saving the planet on our favorite TV and radio stations.

Dear Outdoor Afro Friends,

2011 has been a terrific year! Through the power of social media, we have seen our community steadily grow, and help people make culturally-relevant connections to nature and outdoor recreation.

In our second year, Outdoor Afro has a lot to be proud of, and we are so grateful for the organizations and individuals who continue to make a difference to connect African Americans, and everyone to the outdoors.

The following is a selection of some of the fun, people, and inspiration we have enjoyed this year.

Trips

We were proud to partner with California Camp Association to produce our first two trips designed to share the experience of RVing with more Americans. Through a focused media campaign, we were able to tell our story in the mainstream RV industry, and other media, to inspire others by showcasing an alternate and bug-free “base-camp” approach to camping!

In the spring, we were invited to cover beautiful Barbados, and Outdoor Afro correspondent  Danielle Lee, with passport in hand, took on the island and shared with us a wonderful tribute.

This year was also the launch of our first Meet-Up group in Northern California to inform the creation of forthcoming MeetUp groups in other parts of the country. We hosted three test trips this year, each one progressively more successful and fun than the last! We rode bikes through urban centers, discovered new birds right in our backyard, and hiked to the rocky coast line after tasting local cheeses.

Partnerships and Collaborations

From the very beginning, it has been critical for Outdoor Afro to build relationships and partner with local and national organizations that genuinely care about diverse participation in the outdoors. I am especially grateful in 2011 for the work we have been able to do with the East Bay Regional Park’s naturalist Bethany Facedini, the Children in Nature Collaborative,  Urban Tilth, Richmond Spokes, Children and Nature Network, the National Park Service, National Wildlife Federation, and the American Camp Association, to name a few.

Keynote Speaking

In January, I had the pleasure of speaking at the American Camp Association National Conference in San Diego to discuss how camps can recognize and cultivate diversity. For black history month, I was humbled to share a podium in Oakland with National Park ranger, and longtime Bay Area activist Betty Soskin.  In the summer, I shared the importance of relevancy with the National Association for Interpretation in California and in the Delmarva region on the East Coast, I shared with black college students how they might turn their passion into an environmental-related career. Finally in the fall, I headed to Seattle, Washington to have an exciting conversation with the good folks at Groundwire to discuss how we can imagine the role of technology in nature.

Media

This was a terrific media year for Outdoor Afro! We were featured in national and local media outlets such as KQED, NPR; magazines and shows such as Heart and Soul Magazine, Childhood Matters with Nurse Rona Renner, Audubon Magazine, Grist, the LA Times,  and more! We were also glad to be a regular guest blogger for Jack and Jill Politics, whose African American politically saavy readers welcomed us and were inspired to think of vacation in a different way. And in an especially proud moment, we were honored to be distiguished as Best Green/Nature Blog by the Black Weblog Awards:

A Birthday Tribute

In October of this year, I turned 40 – and boy was it fabulous! Thanks to my dear sister, Delane Sims, and friends, a surprise Outdoor Afro fundraiser was thrown at the African American Museum and Library to help send more families to my beloved Feather River Camp, where I camped as a child and still take my family today. That night, I felt surrounded by so much love, and we raised over $1500 to help more urban families experience camp. Check out our photos!

Onward…

As you can see, Outdoor Afro is experiencing a time of growth and it will remain a part of the important conversations and actions to connect more diverse audiences to nature and the outdoors.

And as a fortunate mother of three active children, Seth, Arwen, and Billy — and manager of the grantmaking program at the Foundation for Youth Investment, this work is my life, yet there is no way I could do it alone. I have been blessed to have so many more supporters and allies besides those mentioned here, and whose names would require a separate blog to adequately express my appreciation.

In 2012, expect Outdoor Afro to continue to grow as an organization, while also expanding the conversations, possibilities, and actions to better reflect what America looks like in nature.

Won’t you join me?

Yours in Nature,

Rue Mapp

Founder

It was an amazing experience spending time with Groundwire, and its community of supporters who are passionate about the need to merge technology with social change.

The Black Weblog Awards was founded in 2005 to give recognition to Black bloggers (and those of the African diaspora) which are normally largely overlooked by other Internet award events on and offline. Winners were selected by members of the public through an online nomination process and determined by popular vote.

“The Black Weblog Awards create amazing energy each year within the Black blogosphere,” said Gina McCauley, the Executive Director of the 2011 Black Weblog Awards. “It is that one time of year when we all pause to recognize the hard work and determination it takes to produce content and build vibrant engaging online communities year-round.”

This year in the first time in the seven-year history of the Black Weblog Awards, the winners were announced in a live ceremony in Los Angeles, CA on July 9, 2011 during the 2011 Blogging While Brown Conference. I was away on an outdoor adventure with my family and could not make it, but me and the kids managed to watch live on my Droid from the Santa Cruz mountains, and squeeled in delight at the announcement.

“I am delighted and excited that the Black Weblog Awards were presented with the Blogging While Brown Conference,” said Maurice Cherry, Founder of the Black Weblog Awards. “This was an amazing opportunity to showcase hard-working bloggers, video bloggers, and podcasters to an audience of tastemakers and influencers.”

Take a peek at the video coverage of the event, Outdoor Afro (NOT Outdoor Diva) is mentioned at 3:15…

Thank you all for your enduring support and respect for this unique message from the very beginning. I am deeply humbled and grateful.

Please take a moment to vote for us — this is such a wonderful honor! The category we appear in is on page 5 of the ballot:

Click Here to VOTE!

The Black Weblog Awards was founded in 2005 to give recognition to Black bloggers.` What started out as a barely-known event has now grown into an international showcase. With participants from over 90 countries, the Black Weblog Awards stands out as one of the most widespread Internet award events for Black bloggers.

To date, the Black Weblog Awards has recognized nearly 180 blogs in over 30 categories. The Awards has also been featured in several mainstream and online media outlets, including NPR, CNN, and others. Winners of the Black Weblog Awards have also went on to appear in other media outlets, like MSNBC, the Huffington Post, BET, and many others.

Click Here to VOTE!

ACA is a community of camp professionals who, for nearly 100 years, have joined together to share knowledge and experience and to ensure the quality of camp programs. ACA and Outdoor Afro have recently formed an educational partnership to help camps connect to the diverse Outdoor Afro community; and also help Outdoor Afro community members become more aware of the wide range of camp experiences available to them.

The ACA conference brought together camp professionals from around the country to learn about best practices and new innovations, and to foster collaboration to bring the camp experience to more Americans. My friend, and Outdoor Afro supporter Nina Roberts, professor at San Francisco State University, gave a fabulous presentation on strategies to help camps recruit more diverse staff. Here are some of her comments:

Also nice to meet Kevin Gordon, who runs a multicultural camp called Camp Kupugani:

After the educational forums, the ACA exhibition hall featured a wide range of vendors with scores of products and program tools to successfully run camps, and there I ran into some friends and supporters of the Outdoor Afro community, each committed in their own way to make the camp experience available for everyone. Here are Camp Director Lisa Maynor’s comments:

And finally, just before leaving to return home, I was able to connect in person with the passionate CEO of the American Camp Association, Peg Smith, who generously shared her thoughts on ACA’s goals related to camp diversity:

Thank you ACA for your educational partnership and genuine commitment to diversity in the camp experience!

Chris-Tia Donaldson, Author

People always ask me who visits Outdoor Afro? Well, here is a snapshot of who Quantcast thinks you are (don’t ask how they come up with these numbers), although the data is actually pretty consistent with my own survey results from last year:

Compared to other websites, a significant number of you are African-American women making more than 100K/year, and grad school educated. Also according to the site, you are likely to enjoy topics such as travel, politics, sci-fi, fashion, and non-profits. Many of you have young children, but because of the older, core demographic, you are also likely to have children 17 and up,  and/or are influential in the life of a youth as an auntie or community leader.

I think you guys are a great catch, and I am so glad you help make up this inspired community!

The week began with some high-flying times with family and close friends for the Berkeley Kite Festival on what felt like the windiest day of the year. Even if you did not have a kite of your own, there were many beautiful and dynamic kites to see. Some highlights included the kite candy drop; pony rides provided by African American cowboys (more on this later), and bike parking provided by Richmond Spokes, since auto traffic was rough. Note to self for next year: do not bring cheap kites because they will get smacked down in the first 10-minutes of your arrival and you will be laughed at by strangers (trust me on this one). View more pictures

On Tuesday evening, Outdoor Afro joined up with Memorial Tabernacle Church in North Oakland, California for National Night Out to share resources, books, and local programs

for the church and community members to connect with the outdoors in new ways. As much as I enjoy the digital conversation, I recognize not everyone can be reached online, so it’s always enlightening to speak with people directly about their experiences and barriers to the outdoors. I was especially heartened to hear about how Memorial Tabernacle was already leading hikes to Muir Woods, one the most dazzling National Forest sites in the area. View more pictures

Finally, I was interviewed by ABC local affiliate for its Sunday morning show, “Behind the Headlines” that examined the topic of Nature Deficit Disorder, a term coined by Richard Louv, who wrote the ground-breaking book, Last Child in the Woods. It was great to be on the show with friends from Bay Area Wilderness Training, and San Francisco’s Chrissy Field Center. For my first time doing a television interview on this topic, I think it went pretty well and I had a blast! I can’t wait to share the video embed and link with the community as soon as it becomes available.

This upcoming week I am looking forward to the Children and Nature Network’s  Grassroots Gathering in Princeton, New Jersey to be on a panel discussing diversity, and social media strategies to connect more people to the outdoors with some of my closest friends and pioneers of this movement from across the country.

No matter where you are, I hope you are finding ways to enjoy your summer. It’s still not too late to get out and make some warm weather memories for you and your loved ones. Check out the Outdoor Afro community site to get some ideas and find people in your area to connect with. There were also many fun ideas discussed on the Outdoor Afro Facebook page and I’ll publish some of these suggestions later this week to inspire you to get outdoors!

What did your community do for National Night Out?

What other Faith Based Organizations do you know that are connecting people to the outdoors?

Outdoor Afro had the wonderful experience this past weekend to be a part of Outdoor Nation, a youth summit designed to reconnect America’s youth to the great outdoors and inform organizations of what youth care about most. This was also the first official listening session as a part of Obama’s Great Outdoors Conference this past spring.

The event began with a mixer Friday night sponsored by Backpacker Magazine. Leadership from The North Face, VF Outdoors (TNF parent company), The Natural Leaders Network (Children and Nature Network), New York Restoration Project, Student Conservation Association, Bay Area Wilderness Training, New York Parks Recreation, Sierra Club, American Hiking Society, and many others gathered on the rooftop of the Arsenal Building in Central Park. Everyone seemed to enjoy the warm summer sunset, great libation, and engaging conversation that expanded networks, considered the barriers of outdoor engagement, and anticipated the hundreds of youth set to arrive the following day.

Saturday’s events began at noon in the park and the public turnout was amazing! Thanks to much local publicity, many hundreds of people, including several families with children, came and participated in rock climbing, kayaking, trampoline jumping, and hoola-hooping, as part of a treasure hunt to engage with the activity vendors and the various orgs. Each interaction earned stamps in the event’s passport booklet to win prizes. I had a blast working with Kyle McDonald, CEO and founder of Bay Area Wilderness Training at The North Face Planet Explore table to share with the public how to use the social network to connect with regional and local organizations’ events and activities.

Later that afternoon was the official start of the Youth Summit in an outdoor tented area of the park. Nearly 600 youth from all over the Unites States came to town representing several organizations to share what they cared about related to the outdoors. About 35% of those youth were youth of color, many visiting New York City for the first time. Outdoor Afro connected with Brother Yusuf and his stunning youth group from Albany’s (NY) Green Tech High Charter School, Mickey Fearn, Deputy Director of the National Parks, and Bay Area friends Steve Hagler of the Stewardship Council, Zakiya Harris of Grind for the Green, Ernesto Pepito of the Crissy Field Center, and many others for an impromptu reunion.

After an introduction and welcome by event organizers and sponsors, such as North Face CEO Steve Rendle, the youth were divided into various organizational themes or “tracks” to help guide their brainstorming process. Themes such as Diversity, Health and Active Lifestyles, Media and Culture, Careers, Service, and Recreation/Education were matched with issue experts who helped guide conversations that revealed a depth of thought and sophistication these youth had when contemplating how they care to engage with the outdoors – or not. Importantly, ideas generated by these youth can help them to apply for the newly minted Explore Fund,  a $2,500 grant to spark and sustain outdoor youth participation where these kids live. The evening concluded with a youth pizza mixer at the North Face offices hosted by the Sierra Club and Juan Martinez and the Natural Leaders Network contingent.

The following morning, White House officials from the Department of the Interior, Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Labor and the National Parks facilitated the listening session to brainstorm answers to core questions; identify opportunities, and there were more in-depth track discussions to review and prioritize the top ideas of these sessions. Check out the Outdoor Nation website for more details about the conference outcomes.

It was a tremendous opportunity to hear youth voices, such as the African American young lady from environmentally impacted Bay View Hunters Point (San Francisco, CA) who lamented that she grew up thinking that asthma was normal because “every child in the community had it,” she said. With so much disheartening news related to the Gulf and its recovery, it was affirming to witness a return to the conversation of outdoor engagement among youth as one important step to help ensure a future of environmental recovery, sustainability, and justice.

A very special thanks to The North Face for making it possible for Outdoor Afro to take part in such an important and ground-breaking event.

The Obama Administration is recognizing the importance of the outdoors to people’s health and well-being, with two important new programs: The White House Conference on America’s Great Outdoors and First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign to eradicate childhood obesity.

The White House Conference on America’s Great Outdoors will be held Friday, April 16. C&NN President Cheryl Charles, C&NN Associate Rue Mapp (Outdoor Afro) and other movement leadership will be in attendance. President Obama is scheduled to deliver remarks to the group. The conference will be led by Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. The conference will address the challenges, opportunities and innovations surrounding modern-day land conservation and the importance of reconnecting Americans and American families to the outdoors.

“America’s outdoors are part of our national identity. They are the farms, ranches and forests that we take great pride in, and the neighborhood parks, trails and fields where we spend memorable time with our families and friends,” said Chair Sutley.

“Across the country, Americans are working to protect the places they know and love, from the streams they fished as children and the parks where families gather together to the battlefields and buildings that tell America’s story,” said Secretary Salazar.

The conference will bring together leaders from communities across the country that are working to protect their outdoor spaces. Participants will include working ranchers and farmers, sportsmen and women, State and local government leaders, Tribal leaders, public lands experts, conservationists, youth leaders, business representatives and others who view the outdoors as integral to their communities.

Secretary Salazar will lead an afternoon panel, Connecting People to our Lands, Water and Wildlife, which will include New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and REI C.E.O. Sally Jewell, among others.

C&NN will be blogging about the conference as it happens, so be sure to follow along. The Let’s Move campaign will be featured in the next brief.

About the Author

Suz Lipman has more than 25 years experience as a writer, editor, social media manager, community builder, and advocate for getting children into nature.