BIPOC in the Outdoors
Our home state of “Vermont” is known nationally for winter sports, activities, and recreation. However, it’s important to recognize that we enjoy these activities on unceded Abenaki land. These outdoor spaces, used for recreational hiking, skiing, and other winter sports, have been dominated throughout history by notions of white supremacy. This month’s newsletter feature Hana Saydek eloquently explains that “because of settler colonization, white supremacy, capitalism, and the cisheteropatriarchy, the current reality of navigating snow spaces in ‘Vermont’ requires engaging with whiteness and folks that are committed to upholding white structures/systems.” Fortunately, BIPOC are taking back these spaces, and forming new ones for themselves, in the process.
This month, our feature is Hana Saydek (they/them), community organizer for Unlikely Riders, which is making a name for itself as a place for BIPOC to gather, learn and reconnect in the outdoors. We’ve also included a host of relevant news and events happening this month, including a screening of “The Price of Safety” by the Rutland NAACP.
Read up on all of these opportunities below!
Get to Know VT PoC
Businesses and People
Hana Saydek
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER FOR UNLIKELY RIDERS
Hana Saydek (they/them) has lived in Vermont their entire life, having grown up in Cavendish. Alongside Amanda Moran, Bettina Guevara, Abby Crisostomo, Hana helped to found Unlikely Riders in October 2020. The organization is a community of BIPOC with the mission of using snow sports as vehicles for radical conversations and movements while reconnecting with the land. Hana truly loves this work because it “involves organizing in alignment with community [they’ve] wished for during [their] twenty-three-plus years in snowsports/skiing.”
To learn more about Unlikely Riders, click here.
Read the rest of our interview with Hana at this link.
Updates and Resources
Events
- Ancestral Voices: Yoruba Level 2 Intermediate Class
SUSU CommUNITY Farm is hosting a series of interactive African Language classes, open to anyone!
Sign up for the Dec. 7th class here.
- Restorative Yoga with Sasha Fierce Yoga
Join Sasha Finnell’s weekly Restorative class at Laughing River Yoga in Burlington.
Get all the details here!
- “The Price of Safety” Screening
Virtual screening organized by the Rutland NAACP of a film that explores national conversations of over-policing and racial bias as they unfoled in Vergennes, VT.
Find this event, and other VT PoC happenings, at this link.
News
- Calling all VT PoC Members!
Complete the updated member info form if you haven’t already!
Click here to complete it.
- NAACP Releases New BIPOC Holiday Gift Guide
Rutland & Windham NAACP put together a list of BIPOC businesses and creators so you can invest in the local community this holiday season. Find the full guide here!
- Booster Shots at BIPOC Clinic
Get your Covid-19 Booster Shot at the BIPOC Clinic in Burlington, every other Saturday! The next clinic is December 18th.
Register at their website.