We’re stepping away from food talk today, just for a moment, to talk about change and growth. As the leaves turn and the weather chills, we look at settling in for the winter. Much has been said about the new normal, but the fact that we get to determine what our personal new normal is often gets overlooked.

Watching the news has become more disheartening than ever, and the updates on the American election can be downright depressing. Today we offer up an antidote – to uplift your spirits and offer some education at the same time. In an effort to be better informed and, through that, become better allies to the underserved in our lives and communities, let us tell you about Black History Bootcamp.

Each instalment features a different subject – Tina Turner, Colin Kaepernick, Anita Hill, Maya Angelou, and others whose names may not be as familiar, all with incredible stories of perseverance, pride and bravery.

The series is put together by Girl Trek.  “It encourages walking as a practical first step to inspire healthy living, families, and communities.”

Think of it as a civil-rights inspired health movement.

How it works: Each day you receive a new story in your inbox, a recording you can listen to while you walk. The idea is to take a walk each day and listen to an engaging history lesson. And it doesn’t cost anything, sign up here to get started.

Here are a few snippets from the series:

• On the night that Gwendolyn Brooks learned that she would become the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, she was sitting in her living room on the Southside of Chicago with her nine-year-old son in the dark because the light bill hadn’t been paid. By morning word had spread. A 32-year-old Black girl genius had secured the highest literary award in the land. 
• On July 6, 2016, Diamond Reynolds watched the murder of her boyfriend Philando Castille. The officer’s gun was still drawn. Pointing in the car at her and her 4-year-old daughter. At that moment, Diamond got snatched up by a spirit of love and became fearless. She pressed record to tell the world what was happening to her family. It was an act of raw and radical love
• Shirley Chisholm was the first Black woman in Congress and the first Black women to seek the nomination for President of the United States from a major party ticket. The Washington Post recently profiled her under the headline “Shirley Chisholm Blazed The Way for Kamala Harris”.

If this pandemic has taught us one thing, it’s that we all have so much to learn. Girl Trek offers an interactive guide to that learning that inspires movement in our bodies and an expansion of our minds. The more we know about each other, and our history, the better we’re going to be going forward. 

In the words of Gwendolyn Brooks:

“We are each other’s harvest; 
we are each other’s business; 
we are each other’s magnitude and bond.”

All illustrations courtesy of Girl Trek.