By: Jude Knife, April 6, 2023 The ground is under me. The air is around me and within my lungs. The rain drops fall on my skin.  I am made of earth stuff, therefore I belong outside. The birds chirp around me, the wind hugs me, and the sun shines on me. You cannot tell me this is not the warmest invitation you have ever received. That all of the outdoor things are not inviting you to the most gentlest most restful meditative and creative party you didn't know you needed. That you always need.  The earth loves me. Why do I feel more like myself after a walk around my neighborhood? Why ..read more

Growing up my parents were active in surrounding my siblings and I in the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. We frequently went inter-tubing, ziplining, hiking and camping. Much of my childhood summers were spent outdoors. As such, I cultivated an intimacy with the wilderness that marked it as mine long before I became aware of it as a locust of generational trauma. My immersion in nature at a young age formed an eco-memory that subverted and preceded the narrative of the wilderness as a place of harm and terror, and shielded me from the estrangement that many people of African descent experienc ..read more

Braided Seeds is part of a larger movement nationwide of Black led groups and organizations determined to remove barriers to BIPOC accessing the land and to getting Afrodiasporic peoples #blackoutside. Here are some of our favorites! Nonprofit Organizations… Outdoor Afro— https://www.outdoorafro.org Black Outside—https://www.blackoutside.org Black Girls Trekkin’—https://www.blackgirlstrekkin.com Elevation Outdoors—https://www.elevationoutdoors.com Facebook Groups… Sankofa Outdoors: A POC Nature Group—https://www.facebook.com/groups/600037733960858 Black People Hike—https://www ..read more