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The Feministing Five: Rue Mapp

For this week’s Feministing Five, we spoke with Rue Mapp, founder of Outdoor Afro. Her wonderful organization celebrates and inspires African American connections and leadership in nature.

Rue Mapp If you were to ask me two years ago, “Who goes hiking?” I would say (A) Not me (B) White dudes with beards and flannel (C)  Seriously, I’m not going hiking with you. Back then, outdoor appreciation was something I had to do in middle school, centered on a community that was not inclusive of people of color or feminists and full of weird imperialist phrases like ‘bro, way to conquer that mountain.’

But little by little, I have started to hike more and more, and the outdoors has frequently become a backdrop to great conversations about feminism, social justice, and life. Spending time outside really makes me feel better and it’s not as nearly as intimating as I thought it was. Still, there is a long way to go in bringing non-white communities to the trails.

Thankfully, we have Rue Mapp and Outdoor Afro. Rue’s organization seeks to increase the number of African-American hikers on trails throughout the country and to remind them of black communities’ long standing and important connection to nature and the outdoors. Outdoor Afro connects communities of color with outdoor leaders who organize trips in their cities.

Especially as climate change and environmental activism become more visible and more urgent, it’s vital that the leaders and invested individuals in that sector are diverse and intersectional. We are so grateful for Rue Mapp and her ever-increasing troupe of trail leaders as they reclaim the physical space, culture, and adventure within of the outdoors.

And now without further ado, the Feministing Five with Rue Mapp!

Suzanna Bobadilla: Thank you so much for speaking with us today. To get us started, could you explain the background behind Outdoor Afro? 

Rue Mapp: It started off as a blog and it was born of my passion for the outdoors, for African-American culture, and technology. It just so happened at that time of my life that I had questions about my next moves and this was the outcome of that inquiry.

Outdoor Afro was a simple blog, not an organization or anything like that. It’s since evolved into a much better conversation as people started connecting via social media and started to share how the message relayed into their reality and values.

SB: The connection between the outdoors and your activism is extremely present in your writing as well as your organization’s core mission. How do you see racial justice intertwined with things like hiking? 

RM: Great question! It’s very present in what we have been doing in response to the social justice inequity issues. We have gone out to nature to find healing. For example, after Ferguson we led healing hikes for people like myself were just beyond hurt and angry and feeling many complex emotions. The healing hikes were also a call-to-action to other organizations, like the Sierra Club, where we encouraged them to take the time to go into the wild and reflect on their commitment to social justice. Here in Oakland, we had about 30 people to come together, where we started with some yoga, then went down the bowl of the Redwoods. People were sharing how they felt. Not everyone agreed with each other, but everyone was heard and respected in their space.

We also shared our commitments on what we were going to do to create a more equitable and just world as we came out of that Redwood Bowl. We were doing what we knew what African-Americans have always done, which was to lay down our burdens down by the river side. We have always known that we could go to nature for restoration and for healing, and that we could use the conduit of nature for our freedom. It’s like what Harriet Tubman did. She was very much a wilderness leader in that she knew how to get around in the natural world, navigate, knew what was safe to eat, as she led hundreds of people to freedom.

Outdoor Afro’s work has evolved from a very personal story about me and my life choices to a broader conversation that includes people who felt unrecognized and not validated in the mainstream representations of the outdoors. Outdoor Afro has become a deliberate way to use nature to find healing and community. We need nature now more than ever. People are suffering and are feeling disconnected whether it’s from foreclosures, evictions, or the presence of technology in our lives. We’re starving to feel like we belong some place and that we have people who care for us. Outdoor Afro is building a community not just for the sake of getting outside for being outside but to feel connected. It’s incredibly rewarding for me to experience.

SB: What would you advise to folks who might be interested getting move involved in the outdoors but who don’t know where to start? 

RP: Outdoor Afro addresses that concern with our leadership model. People don’t want to go out by themselves. They don’t want to venture out in the woods on their own. People have fears around wildlife and other people. If you can’t find an Outdoor Afro chapter near you,  find a friend or a mentor who knows the trail and the beaten path. You can also check out your local park and rec district for upcoming activities. But, again, if you’re a person of color you might be the only person of color on that trip. Outdoor Afro presents an unique opportunity where you aren’t the only one and you have leaders who have done their homework and who will provide a positive experience for you that you can replicate.

SB: Where do you see Outdoor Afro going in the next years and how can our readers help support you? 

RP: We are continuing to grow and we are doubling our leadership team membership  from 30 to 60. We want to touch the lives of 100,000 people and get them outdoors through our network and sponsorships. We have a Gala in October in the Oakland Museum of California, where anyone is welcome to come. And folks can also make a donation on our website.

Our donations will particularly fund more resources to build our leadership. The reason the leadership is so important is because we oftentimes get very comfortable with the idea that people of color need to be taught about the outdoors. We don’t recognize enough the assets that we have in our history, whether it’s our grandmother’s garden to other historical figures like Harriet Tubman that we already have as a part of our identity.

If we want more people of color outdoors, we have to think about leadership and develop that leadership in ordinary people. We want restore outdoor leadership in everyday people, not just those folks who take 30 days off to go on an extensive trip. This is about the moms, human rights attorneys, accountant, or who ever has a solid relationship in their community and who can connect people with the outdoors. I think that’s really the strength that we have that can transform the way that we think about the outdoors.

SB: For our final question, let’s pretend that you are on a stranded island, you can bring one food, one food, and one feminist. 

RP: I would bring Sojourner Truth as my feminist because I think we have a lot in common. I would bring some sushi (which would blow her mind). I would also bring a nice chardonnay from Napa.

 

San Francisco, CA

Suzanna Bobadilla is a writer, activist, and digital strategist. According to legend, she first publicly proclaimed that she was a feminist at the age of nine in her basketball teammate's mini-van. Things have obviously since escalated. After graduating from Harvard in 2013, she became a founding member of Know Your IX's ED ACT NOW. She is curious about the ways feminists continue to use technology to create social change and now lives in San Francisco. She believes that she has the sweetest gig around – asking bad-ass feminists thoughtful questions for the publication that has taught her so much. Her views, bad jokes and all, are her own. For those wondering, if she was stranded on a desert island and had to bring one food, one drink, and one feminist, she would bring chicken mole, a margarita, and her momma.

Suzanna Bobadilla is a writer, activist, and digital strategist.

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