In the latest episode of 6.5 Minutes With…C21, graduate fellow Jamee Pritchard interviews Samira Payne, an educator and outdoor enthusiast, who discusses her journey into hiking and her role as a volunteer leader for Outdoor Afro, a nonprofit organization that reconnects Black people to nature. She emphasizes the importance of slow care and defines it as being present and actively listening to one’s surroundings. Payne highlights the benefits of nature for self-care, health, and community building, encouraging newcomers to start with simple outdoor activities and gradually engage in group hikes.
You can find more information about Outdoor Afro by visiting outdoorafro.org or following the organization on Facebook and Instagram.
Join one of Samira Payne’s hikes by connecting with the local group via Facebook or Meetup.
Additionally, if you are interested in Payne’s other form of self-care, yarncrafting, visit her Instagram page @livelybysamira.
She describes crocheting as a meditative activity that calms her anxiety: “I’m able to focus better because it’s this repetitive behavior that calms my mind and helps me slow down and be more present to where I am in that moment. So I’m a better listener when I’m crocheting, I am less anxious when I’m crocheting because I’m not running through my to do list. I feel like I’m getting something accomplished.”
Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, Wild Life: Finding My Purpose in an Untamed World
For further exploration of topics covered in this podcast episode, Samira Payne recommends Wild Life: Finding My Purpose in an Untamed World.
In her memoir, Rae Wynn-Grant explores the relationship between humans, animals, and the earth through her personal journey to becoming a wildlife ecologist. The memoir follows Wynn-Grant on her adventures and explorations in some of the world’s most remote locales. With a nearly twenty-year career in the wild, she’s created a niche as one of very few Black female scientists and her story recounts the challenges she had to overcome, expectations she had to leave behind, and the many lessons she learned along the way. Spanning the Great Plains of North America to the rainforests of Madagascar, Wild Life sheds light on our pivotal relationship and responsibility to the natural world and the relatives―both human and otherwise―that we share it with.
What Winter Did to Us: A Nature & Poetry Walk
And C21 recommends an event that’ll help you just get out there for real this Thursday, April 3, from 3:30 to 5:00 PM.
Join C21 Sociocultural Programming and the Center for 21st Century Studies for a nature and poetry walk celebrating the work of Ada Limón, 24th Poet Laureate of the United States.
Spring is coming to Milwaukee. So is Ada Limón. Prepare for both with a patient, plodding ramble through Downer Woods, featuring reflective writing exercises, group poetry readings, and acts of radical attention. The walk will commence at 3:30 sharp at Curtin Hall‘s 1st floor lobby and will end with a fire circle outside of Merill Hall. Bring a pen, warm clothes, sturdy shoes, and a willingness to be here, with poetry in the natural world.
This event is free and open to the public.