Outdoor Afros in Los Angeles explored local African American history and nature over the weekend – read on!
 
Alisha Pye here, I’m the Outdoor Afro Leader for Los Angeles. This week we decided to celebrate Spring by hiking at Solstice Canyon in Malibu which is located in the Santa Monica Mountains. It’s a beautiful hike with flowers in full bloom, waterfalls to enjoy, valleys and canyons to climb and picnic areas. We started on the stairs and continued on a steady incline until we came to an area of ruins that …

Just recently, I had the privilege of being invited to my Levias family church, St. Paul Church of God in Christ, to speak on the topic of community health. I was raised in the sanctified COGIC tradition, where I learned how and was encouraged to become a public speaker. That girl sure can talk, I would hear the saints say, and felt then a sense of pride in a skill that serves me well in my work today.

While my traditional church participation has fallen off considerably as an adult for many reasons; …

Queen Quet “Keeping It Wild” in Lithonia, GA!!!
Join Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation and Founder of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition as she provides a keynote address for “Keeping It Wild” in Lithonia, GA September 22, 2012.
Queen Quet, Chieftess and Head-of-State for the Gullah/Geechee Nation and Founder of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition

Queen Quet is the founder of the advocacy organization for the continuation of Gullah/Geechee culture, the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition. She worked with the U. S. Congress, the United States National Park Service, and other organizations for the passage …

In an interview yesterday with Dianne Glave author of Rooted in the Earth: Reclaiming the African American Environmental Heritage (August 2010), she shared some of her insights with me about the movie Avatar, and its connection to people of color and the environment.
So you finally  saw Avatar! What are some of your initial thoughts?
Many people were raving about Avatar, so I had to see it! And while director James Cameron is breaking his own record [over Titanic] with more than a billion dollars in gross sales, I was pleasantly surprised by something …

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 …