Displaying items by tag: blacks in appalachia
Thursday, 17 November 2022 13:33
Celebrating Black joy in nature, stitched with all our stories
Outdoor Afro founder Rue Mapp. Bethanie Hines via Revelator
Black people like nature, too. But you wouldn’t know it from looking at outdoor magazines before Outdoor Afro got started.
This story was originally published by The Revelator. There are Southeastern chapters of Outdoor Afro, including Knoxville.
If time and money weren’t an issue, what would you do?
That’s what Rue Mapp’s mentor asked her as she faced the completion of her college degree and an uncertain job market.
“I’d probably start a website to reconnect Black people to the outdoors,” Mapp replied, a story she recounts in her new book Nature Swagger. Soon after that she launched the blog Outdoor Afro, which began with stories of her own experiences in nature. It was inspired not just by her own love of the outdoors, but of a desire to increase the visibility of Black people enjoying those spaces.
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Thursday, 21 October 2021 14:03
You are invited to Friday’s Great Smokies African American Experience Project Townhall meeting
The University of North Carolina Asheville will host a town hall at 2 p.m. Friday Oct. 22 for a robust discussion about the role of African-Americans in Southern Appalachian history, with a focus on the region that became Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
“The National Park Service’s Antoine Fletcher will be leading this event and has been compiling oral histories in order to document and share the untold stories of African Americans in and outside the Smoky Mountains. You are invited—and encouraged—to share information about this event, especially with elders, leaders, story-tellers, activists, and the bon vivants in your local African American community. The African American Experience project is seeking their knowledge, and yours!” according to a UNC Asheville description of the event.
To register, go to Great Smokies African American Experience Project Townhall.
Fletcher has researched the role of early African-Americans in the Great Smoky Mountains dating to the 1540s.
“Research topics in this framework include slavery, the American Civil War, social dynamics, laws and policies, careers, recreation, and oral histories. These, as yet, untold stories will be compiled to educate park visitors understand the vital, but not well known, history of African Americans throughout Appalachia,” according to UNCA.
Part of Friday’s program is geared toward exchanging contacts among those who have relevant historical knowledge of Blacks in Appalachia or might wish to record oral histories related to themselves or family members.
The town hall is the last such community information session planned for this phase of the the National Park Service’s “African-American Experience Project.” All the information gathered will be distilled into programming for visitors to Great Smoky Mountains and other national parks.
It is sponsored by UNCA’s Africana Studies Program, Community Engagement Office and Department of History.
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