The great outdoors is also a place for great connectivity

COURTESY CULTURE QUEENS OUTDOORS

Culture Queens Outdoors participants from left Breanna Everett, Janice Givens, Mara Kimbrough, Natalia Spittle, Yaviri Escalera, Jennifer Michelle. (Front) Katedra Davis and Taunula Grayson. Participants gathered for a Saturday hike at Upper Whitewater Falls. Culture Queens Outdoors travel around North Carolina going on hikes, zip-lining and camping trips.

For Yaviri Escalera, getting outdoors is self-care.

Escalera, 47, is a member of Culture Queens Outdoors, a group that is dedicated to breaking the stigma that Black people don’t do the outdoors. The group goes hiking, zip-lining, and camping across North Carolina.

“Nature is healing,” she said. I have a brother who passed away from cancer some years ago and … I’m a photographer also, so photography and nature were the two things that really kind of brought me back to myself. I jumped at the chance to be around women and to be in nature.”

In 2020, Culture Queens Outdoors completed their first group at Linville Falls and Gorge. Six women gathered to start what is now a monthly meetup. But it’s more than women connecting with nature – it is a safe space where they have deep conversations about life experiences.

“I wanted the group to be diverse,” founder Jennifer Michelle said. “I wanted our group, first of all, to be a sisterhood. I’m sitting here fighting back tears because I’m thinking about when I started the group. I didn’t want us to just be a group of ladies that got together. I wanted it to mean something.

“I wanted it to be a safe space because I remember where I was personally and the things that I was dealing with. I was actually suffering in silence dealing with negative relationships, bad work environments, like all the things that we deal with as women that we don’t talk about.”

Last year, Michelle published a book “I Choose Me: The Ultimate Act of Self-Love” that encourages readers to find triumph in the pain caused by traumatic experiences along with peace and purpose.  

Even though Michelle suffers from allergies, she doesn’t allow that to stop her from being adventurous and connecting with nature.

“When I get outdoors, when I get up in the mountains to clean air, it just cleans my lungs out and I forget about my allergies because it’s like everything resets – my mind, my body,” she said. “Everything resets.”

Prior to joining Culture Queens Outdoors, Janice Givens of Raleigh had been camping for a decade but never tried hiking.

“I’ve reached a new milestone in life and things have evolved and changed for me so I’m looking for new ways to discover who I am and what it is that I like,” said Givens, 57.
“It’s always a positive vibe when I’m there and we talk a lot. We have bonfires and at the bonfires we share a lot. We talk a lot; we get a chance to heal and confess with our mouths what’s going on in life. It’s healing to be able to confess to one another.

“It was just a beautiful thing to be out there and to meet women who were not only like-minded,” said Escalera, “but when we’re out there, we’re having really great conversations, and we trust one another. It’s a very safe space to have these conversations.”

The next outing for the group is June 16-18 for the annual Juneteenth campout at Jones Lake State Park.  

On July 1, from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Culture Queens Outdoors will host a Mudgirl Run obstacle race at Hodges Family Farm in Charlotte. For more information, visit https://itsjennifermichelle.com/events-calendar        

Aaliyah Bowden, who covers health at The Post, is a Report For America corps member.

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