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Dudley Edmondson on Black Outdoor Role Models
Writing a book that highlights Black and Brown nature lovers
© Courtesy of Dudley Edmondson
As a kid in Columbus, Ohio, Dudley Edmondson came to love being outside, despite having few outdoor role models who looked like him. As he progressed in his career as a nature photographer in Minnesota, Dudley wanted to show the next generation of Black nature enthusiasts that there are people who look like them in the outdoors. So he wrote a book called Black & Brown Faces in America's Wild Places.
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Dudley Edmondson on Black Outdoor Role Models
This is BirdNote.
[Minnesota soundscape]
As a kid in Columbus, Ohio, Dudley Edmondson came to love being outside.
Dudley Edmondson: I did not have any outdoor role models who looked like me. But it was really just: once I fell in love with the natural world, that was it. Accessing those spaces were so important to my mental and physical health, I refused to let anything or anyone get in my way.
And as he progressed in his career as a nature photographer in Minnesota, Dudley wanted to show the next generation of Black nature enthusiasts that there are people who look like them in the outdoors. So he wrote a book called Black & Brown Faces in America's Wild Places.
Dudley Edmondson: I wanted to try to introduce other people to nature and particularly, people of color and Black folks, in general. Because I know that we have higher levels of stress than most people in America, as people of color, but African Americans in particular. And so I felt like there was some therapeutic components to connecting to nature that could help us with those daily stresses and so that became something that I wanted to do. And so, the book was kind of that. Four years of traveling the country to find other Black people who loved nature.
Hear more about Dudley’s self-taught journey into birding and photography, plus how he’s supporting the next generation on the Bring Birds Back Podcast. Listen in your favorite podcast app or at BirdNote dot org. I’m Tenijah Hamilton.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Environmental ML527181 recorded by Wil Hershberger.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2023 BirdNote June 2023
Narrator: Tenijah Hamilton
ID# PodBBB-25-2023-06-28 PodBBB-25
