Episode 5: Gathering community at Refuge Outdoor Festival

Episode 5 transcript

Sarah (Narration): This episode of Outside Voices is brought to you by REI, your local outdoor co-op working to help you experience the power of nature. REI brings top-quality gear and apparel, expert advice, rental equipment, inspiring stories of life outside and outdoor experiences to enjoy alone or share with your friends and family.

[Music]

Ladan: So the Race and Place project is actually the latest iteration in our work, REI's work in an attempt to explore the meaning of the outdoors for communities of color [00:09:03][15.4]

Sarah (Narration): That’s Ladan Yalzadeh, who works at REI. We got to chat about their exciting new project: Race and Place.

Ladan: the project has been inspired and guided by a group of advisory board members who are luminaries within their own communities. And we are going to explore and give context to today's issues when it comes to racial identity, place and the redefinition of the outdoors. [00:10:13][28.0]

Sarah (Narration): Stay tuned to hear more about Race and Place, by REI.

[Music fades]

[INTRO]: You’re listening to Outside Voices podcast. We’re using our outside voices to redefine what it means to spend time outside and connect to nature. I’m your host, Sarah Shimazaki. Let’s get started.

Mom: And she she has this knack for bringing in people to gather. I don't know how she does it but. you know we bring family and neighbors. That's --- you know they’re right there. But Chevon will go outside the box and bring people together. That is different.

Sarah (Narration): In this episode of Outside Voices, we’ll be hearing from a family.

And how—while solo time in nature is lovely, don’t get me wrong-- spending time outside can also be about bringing people together and gathering as a community.

[Sounds of rain and music]

Sarah (Narration): It’s Friday afternoon, late September in the Pacific Northwest. I’m setting up camp in the middle of a grassy field, surrounded by dozens of colorful tents and large puddles. Because, oh yeah -- it’s pouring rain.

Our intern Esmeralda and I are attending the second annual Refuge Outdoor Festival, a 3-day camping experience just outside of Seattle, Washington on the land of the Coast Salish people. The festival is geared toward people of color and open to allies. As its name implies, Refuge is a relaxing, safe space to meet new people, reconnect with old friends, learn from each other through workshops and just hang out in nature. Together.

I was also there to record an episode for Outside Voices through our partnership with REI. And I want to talk a little behind-the-scenes about the evolution of this episode, because I think it really reflects the spirit and feeling of Refuge. And how special this space is that Chevon, the founder, created.

I came into Refuge with an open-mind and a flexible idea of how to structure the episode. You know, as a media maker, I always try and let the story take me where it wants to go, but I still come prepared with ideas of who to interview, what questions to ask, what elements and sounds to record, what to focus on, all of that.

Once I got to Refuge, all of that slowly unraveled and eventually I tossed it all out the window. In a good way. You see, what makes Refuge so special is difficult to capture. Because it’s in the small moments. Communal cooking in the camp kitchen, sharing laughs and spices, borrowing pots and washing each other’s pans. The smiles and cheerful “hellos!” you exchange with soon-to-not-be-strangers while walking around the campsite. Sharing personal stories in intimate circles about family, ancestry and belonging. I couldn’t—no, I wouldn’t—record any of that for the podcast. It didn’t feel right to leave my recorder on, let alone jab a microphone in someone’s face while they were enjoying freshly made pancakes off the camp stove.

I spent the first day and a half soaking in the friendly atmosphere at Refuge and connecting with folks, while simultaneously starting to panic on the inside. What am I supposed to do?! It doesn’t feel right to record the episode the way I originally intended, so now what?

I opened up to Esmeralda and a good friend of mine, Bam, explaining my thinking and gut feelings. They felt the same way and we started brainstorming ideas of how to best capture Refuge’s spirit. That’s when Bam said, “You’re already planning to interview Chevon, the founder. Did you know her parents are here and they traveled from Houston? What if you interviewed them all together?”

I loved the idea. I ran it by Chevon, scheduled a time for all of us to chat and we gave it a shot. I had no idea what would come of it, but throughout our little table chat everything started to just click. That special feeling of familiarity and community gathering at Refuge? It roots back to Chevon herself and her family—a Black family from Houston, Texas. So this episode, is a conversation- with Chevon, her mom, her dad and myself, plus some special guests who join us at the end. We gathered around a picnic table, Esmeralda held the microphone in the middle and we just talked.

[layered with laughter from conversation]

Sarah: So tell me about your earliest memories outside. Yeah.

Chevon: My earliest memories outside were when I went to a burn camp called Camp Janus.

Sarah: That’s Chevon, the founder of Refuge Outdoor Festival. She’s talking about what was really the inspiration for Refuge, Camp Janus-- a camp for children who were burn survivors.

Chevon: We stayed in cabins. we fished, we canoed, went hiking. There was a guy that liked to tell us about the stars at night. He's a firefighter outside of Houston.

Sarah: Chevon was 5 months old when her family’s home in Houston burned down. Years later, when she was three, Chevon started attending Camp Janus.

Chevon: I think being around other burn survivors because usually you were the only one you know. Being around people that had that similar experience was really powerful. And you just felt connected in a different way. Yeah. It was really powerful. Just be in the space with those people.

Mom: Where you could be comfortable.

Sarah: That’s Chevon’s mom

Chevon: Yeah I could be. Fully comfortable and not worry about being bullied.

Dad: Or looked at.

Sarah: And that’s her dad

Dad: A lot of times. When you're burned because it was several seriously burned kids and people stare and make fun of you and I mean most people just didn't understand.

Mom: In this camp it was just love the nurses, the volunteers, the doctors. They made them all just feel love and it also taught them that though you may have this injury you can still do these outdoor activities and find what you love.

Dad: This camp was it was amazing Yes. It was. Yes yes. It was amazing that the love. First the love that they show and then the teaching her the independence of thinking and doing. We can't say enough good things about Camp Janus because it makes a difference in the kids lives.

Sarah: Thank you for sharing that. And the piece about just you know I'm sure a lot of it was about camp and being in nature, but it sounds like most of it was about the community that was there. And that that's really what I feel here too is like, yes we're out here camping but what I'm really feeling is it's been such a communal spirit here like, I was sharing, so last night I went to the porta potty right before bed. It was dark and it didn't have toilet paper. It's like, you know that moment when you realize, you're just on the john and you're like no toilet paper!? And then there's a soft knock at the door and someone says, “Do you need toilet paper? I noticed there wasn't toilet paper in there earlier.” And I think. Yes please! So They run into the into the stall next to me grabs toilet paper and is like, “I'm not going to look don't worry but just open so I can give it to you.” And it's just that I feel like that's a good encapsulation of this experience is like people are looking out for each other and there's just-- I don't, I never saw this person just know their voice but they helped me out.

Mom: And well this is our first time camping me and her father. And It has been wonderful the togetherness. Everybody wants to help offer you food whatever they have.

It has been an experience.

Sarah: Yeah absolutely. And I think that was your vision right. You know when you created this.

Chevon: I said it was about community building so that we can come together and make changes and make it safer for people of color to be outside you know just build toward a better future. I'm also really into like nature but also taking care of nature. And so I say if we can do anything like this to make people feel more connected to nature we can also start to take care of it better more people in it to take care of Mother Nature is the best.

Sarah: Mm hmm. Yeah. I loved your chili by the way.

Mom: Thank you, Chevon didn’t get chili.

Chevon: Everyone keeps saying I'm I love the chili.

Mom: Yeah I put it out there. Say it tell whoever wants chili.

Sarah: Is that something that you make when it's just a big celebration and family get together.

Mom: No I just like cooking. Like sharing. Yes yes.

Chevon: What this family does.

Sarah: What are some of the things that you love that cook and share.

Mom: Barbecue right lots of barbecue gumbo gumbo. We just cook. Anybody around. Invite them neighbors family.

Chevon: People would just show up.

Mom: We don't lock our door so everyone knows.

Chevon: Stop telling people that!

Dad: That's where It started at. Just always for the love of people and the love of community because we always had an open door and and a lot of people did use it. A lot of people. And it was just great. Where we stayed in. Our house was The gathering place where everybody knew you know you just do the right thing. And with that it just continue to evolve to to today. chevon being the leader you know her being the leader, knowing, and having the vision to want to do a festival. Because I don't think in the last we've been here five days now. And I think she might have had 10 hours of sleep. Yeah yeah started putting out fires putting people in place just every thing. And so it is like a baby. This refuge is like her baby and you can just see a growing. And that togetherness. I didn't know a person could know that many people.

Mom: But her community is I mean she have. She has a community and I was shocked rainbow because I'm asking you everybody well where did you meet Chevon. Because she's involved in this and this and that. So it's always fascinating to say OK how did you meet her. Because she's friendly. But she's also spread herself out to all these other communities. And she brought all those communities together and that was beautiful. Yeah.

Sarah (narration): Chevon’s knack for connecting people and bringing everyone together is a huge part of the origin story for Refuge. It all started when she first moved to Seattle, where she quickly became involved with an impressive number of different organizations, made friends with her colleagues, grew her community and tried new things.

Chevon: The two guys that actually took me on my first tent camping experience. I said hey like after we'd been hanging out for a while I was like I want to go camping this summer but I've never camped in a tent like would y'all do this. And then they took me out with actually there's a few folk from that first camping trip that we did here.And so what we did after that first year that I just like loved it after I made them take care of me from the camping experience I'm like I have no gear. And then two days before we left I was like Oh so how about you I'll grab food for me. And so I was like really really like nothing that first time I went out like camping in a tent and then now I'm the person that everyone comes to because I have a gear library and half of the gear library is my personal stuff. And so I loan that out but that was another community and so what we did with that and that's kind of part of my inspiration for refuge. After that first year we had such a good time. Once the cohort from that community that nonprofit finished their program we invited them to the next camping trip. So we've been doing that for nine years and we invite a new group and we've gone all the way up to like 20 25 people and it's 90 percent POC. That go to that camping trip. And so I built community there. Yeah. And then I started being active in environmental people of color group and Girl trek and all these other things. And so my community just kept growing.

Sarah: OK I see what you're saying now. All these different connections. Yeah all of these organizations that's really cool. Yeah. And something I love about this space too is I think that there's often times what's perpetuated in terms of like this is what an outdoors experience is, it has to be in solitude and you know you're it has to be quiet. Right. And I love like you're bumping music, there’s a DJ, there's cooking. Yeah. laughter and fun.

Dad: And we just loved it because it was kids.

Mom: There were kids here.

Dad: Yeah I actually heard about a ten or twelve year old. You know he was talking to chevon and he said. I think she said its cold. And he'd say Well now you just have to get used to it. So he's gonna be. A lifer camp is cold is wet and he said you know you just have to get used to it. And and I thought that was so beautiful that 10 year old or you know maybe 12 kid in the rain and we were going to camp and we're gonna you know just have fun and that's what I saw this whole weekend was you know cause the weather was bad Friday. But the togetherness that everybody would just moving around and working putting things together. Like you just said, laughter. You could just you know feel the love. Even though it was cold it was warm all the people that was coming together.

Mom: Yeah. Somebody gave me their gloves. I was sitting with my hands and he tapped me and he said you can have my gloves I have more and I was like Thank you!

Dad: It's been a great week.

Mom: It's been amazing to see her put all of this together. All of this the vendors, communication.

Dad: and community.

Chevon: I will say I have a few people that help do things on the back end. This year I started a community advisory board and I hope to see that grow and more support there because it is hard putting on this event by myself. And there are some really good people in that group and volunteers that are around right now doing stuff. So I need 10,000 times the volunteers to keep this going. And the way that I want it to grow.

Sarah: Just looking back, because this is the second year. How have you seen it grow?

Chevon: Yeah I've seen it. I mean one it's more people this year. Even in spite of the rain there was more people here. And just the conversations that are starting because it's happening. I've seen that grow and catch like wildfire and just people thinking about it differently. And like you said, you know, we all you hear the way that you hear about the outdoors is not always the way that we need to experience it. And to have that in the air and circulating and people really taken hold of that is I think that's the way it's growing too. It's not just the physical space it's also the thought process behind what outdoors means in the narrative that that is so. And I think if that's the impact that can really have. That's what I want.

Sarah: I think it's just to me, unapologetically showing up in the way that we like to be outside. Right. Because I've heard so many times like, “why are they playing music on the trail, it has to be silent,” and you know. “Why are they being so loud over there?”

Mom: It's nature. It's us, It's whoever you are you can let it out right here you.

Chevon: And sometimes I want to listen to the birds and be silent but sometimes I want to dance and walk down the trail and sing a song loud or you know play my music loud so yeah. You can do all that.

Sarah (Narration): We’ll be right back.

[Music]

Sarah (Narration): We’ve been sharing with you all a little bit about REI’s newest project, Race and Place. Here’s a sneak peek of one of the stories they’re working on:

Yanira: So the African meeting house is really exciting because when we think about, typically when we think about the Underground Railroad, we think about the south.

Sarah (Narration): That’s Yanira Castro, one of the advisory board members for the project. Yanira is the director of communications for Outdoor Afro as well as the founder and CEO of Humanity Communications Collective.

Yanira: The African meeting house in Boston is the oldest Black church building in America. It was primarily organized for Black Bostonians. Sometimes we forget about, you know, how people need to work together, especially in the north, as enslaved people were escaping the south and needed the leverage and the space and the ownership that white folks had of land and place in order to continue to be safe. And so this place is really important because it just became a central point of education, for religion, culture. And a lot of really prominent people came through this place.

Ladan: the African meeting house is part of a 1.6 mile Black heritage trail in Boston with all kinds of very important institutions along the path of this trail. And that, you know, this is another way that we're redefining a trail-- most people usually think about an outdoor trail in the mountains or in the park, but here we are on an urban trail with major significance.

Sarah (narration): At the end of this episode, we’ll share more on where and when you can expect to hear some of these stories from REI.

[Music ends]

Sarah (narration): And we’re back.

Sarah: Do you have a favorite memory. Actually, I'll have each of you answer-- I just want to hear like a favorite memory this weekend or even from last year.

Dad: Oh yeah let me think about it for a sec. My favorite. This weekend.

Sarah: We could share ours too. Yeah. I mean I shared my toilet one.

Chevon: The crazy thing is, I had bought extra rolls of toilet tissue while I was gone. But I could never like get to the restroom to change it.

Mom: Or eat

Chevon: Yeah. Well yeah, eat.

Sarah: That's the thing though. It's not all on you right. It's like, someone came and did that for you yeah. that's a part of being in the community together. Someone was looking out.

Mom: My favorite is just meeting all of chevon's friends and the love that they have. We don't have any family here. So I was fearful that my daughter wanted to stay in Seattle.

Dad: And I'm moving down.

Chevon: You are not moving down.

Mom: I'm comfortable. Because she has a community that watches out for her. They are there. So that's my best memory. The love that she has here and they support her in everything the support. So that's good.

Dad: My favorite is just seeing people of color. And when I see all the races we have seen this weekend, all races because we're all--

Mom: Coming together no trouble.

Dad: Yeah. Being together. That's it has been truly amazing. Just the togetherness the spirit of togetherness.

Mom: I even like the name. And I'm like How did you come up this a safe place.

Dad: That's a safe place a safe place.

Sarah: I know you came so you came all the way from Texas. And you also brought. She said you brought friends. Who is everyone that's here.

Mom: We have two other couples and they're our best friends. My husband went to school elementary with one of them and when we got together we just. They've seen chevon from Baby to now so they think they're her parents too.

Dad: We grew up together. It was four couples. So we have been friends for the last 40 years now and then. I'm not that old now anyway but just learning how to. And I think part her growth and growing up was she saw where we put. Big events on. We would have a beach party every year and then a couple of years we were fortunate enough to come back and get them and let them enjoy the beach. So I always thought it was always outdoors trying to do something.

So. Oh wow. Hey can I bring them in. No. Oh yeah. Reese. Yeah. Gary. Yeah. You'll live a long time we were just talking about y'allI. Hi good morning, hello.

Sarah: I love this, so just as Chevon’s Dad was talking about their friends, they all walked by. So naturally, we invited them into our conversation

Friend 1: We wanted to understand just what she's been involved in and we saw her website and got a chance I did to listen to the video and see what it was all about it. It's is inspiring. And she's probably one of the babies of our group our group of friends.

Chevon: I'm in the older group!

Mom: But you still a baby.

Chevon: Ok. A 30, almost 40 year old baby.

Sarah: Always a baby.

Friend 1: She's out doing her own thing and there's this connection with nature because I'm an I'm an outdoors and my kids are we fish and do that kind of thing. So this is just something that we just want to see what you put together and want to be a part of it. And her mom and dad are longtime friends of ours. Since practically high school and my wife and the husband says you know elementary. So. I. Just want to come and support the kids you know. We call them our kids. We all look at each other's aunties and uncles and that kind of thing and you know we're not blood relatives but there's a closeness that we just we share. Where want to be involved in our kids lives. And this is just a beautiful thing to come here and see the participation and the activities and the scheduling and all the things that you know give people give people an opportunity to see what the rest of the world does. You know instead of the city life we're in Houston with so much hustle and bustle. And to Get out here and walk these trails just to listen and not hear cars. Music was very very inspiring for us. I mean we walk around and just through nature. There was good especially the water.

Friend 2: I like to do outdoor things. I don't like to sleep on the ground though. We call it glamping. Well I was excited to do it. Just come to see what it was about experiencing it. I really enjoy it. Its beautiful out here.

Sarah: Yeah I was just sharing that my favorite thing has just been the community which is really the vision of just sharing food sharing. Someone shared toilet paper with me. It's just been everyone's just looking out for each other and.

Friend 3: Yeah that was our conversation this morning. Was the beauty of how nice people are. It's a rare thing nowadays. So just to see how people everyone was just so welcoming I mean i didnt have boots and I had one lady offered me like What size do you wear and I said it she was like I have a pair and I was like oh my god here somebody offer me their boots to put on and it was just beautiful. I couldn't say anything bad about it. Everything was so nice.

Sarah: So you also keep your door unlocked at home no.

Friend: No.

Mom: they talk about us.

Friend: About my crazy Friends that keep their doors unlocked.

Friend: Just go on record with you. They're the only ones we know that leave them here. I. And people just walking and just wrong they always and always I've always known that I was watching all that's wrong.

Dad: And that's the thing because. We never have. Mess with no bad people but people just like the ones that are talking love just the good people coming together. So everybody that came to our house knew that they could just come on in. But they were good people. So it was always love just like it with our friends they know but is just this love. We've been fortunate then to have chevon come in and being creative enough to bring hundreds of people together. And hopefully you know just continue to grow you know hopefully Washington state will give her a date in august have this park.

Chevon: The only downfall was King County should give me an earlier date

Friend: There's a great exposure to cool and wet weather. You know I love the cold you can keep the rain. All right.

Chevon: Houston gets more rainfall than Seattle and they did well with that. I'm just like thinking we can't have rain.

Mom: But we’re not outside

Friend: You guys got cold and rain and they just don't go together for us anyway.

But this was when and it's funny I always think that chevon is one of our only children from our group growing up that just went out and became adventurous and just went and like where is she. Oh she's in Brazil. Oh where's she. Oh she gone hiking

Friend: Oh yeah she's by herself. what's she doing out by herself. So we just got down and we had to stay praying for her. We all worry because she was always by herself and it's like you don't go to places by yourself.

Friend: She has always felt comfortable getting out there and doing things with the beauty and then so then she comes back now and educates us so that the beauty of the whole thing is getting exposed. Yeah. They're exposing us to those things. Come on you guys go try.

So it's nice. It really is nice to be able to do these things.

Sarah: So are you gonna come back next year?

Friend: I would love to talk to the group.

Mom: We're going to get more. Yes. Yeah. If it's in August.

[Everyone laughs]

[OUTRO/END CREDITS]

Sarah (narration): Thank you thank you thank you to Chevon and her parents for SUCH a special conversation together. I’m humbled I get to share their personalities, their dynamic, their friendly and lively spirits with you all on our podcast.

Our logo and cover art was designed by Brooklyn Bell, music by LIVS or Olivia VanDamme and produced by Jamison Blue Stegmaier.

For more information, check out our website: www.outsidevoicespodcast.com

Let’s be friends on Instagram! Follow us @OutsideVoicesPodcast

Outside Voices is a project by Resource Media. This episode was brought to life thanks to our friends at REI.

POST-ROLL

[Music]

Yanira: this conversation needs to happen because there is so much going on in the world that feels as if people of color are not centered or not deemed as important. And this conversation puts us in the center of creation. It puts us in the center of storytelling and it puts us in the center of leadership. And that's so critical right now.

Ladan: And again, this is a continuous work that REI is committed to. So this will be just the phase one. And hopefully we'll continue to tell these stories as a regular part of representing our communities in the outdoors.

Sarah (narration): You can follow the Co-op Journal, REI dot com and REI’s social media channels for more great content and details on their exciting new project, Race and Place.