Pulse: Blackwaters

This summer, five prominent Black men in the outdoor indsutry—Chad Brown, James Edward Mills, Jahmicah Dawes, Nick Brooks, and Alex Bailey—headed to Alaska’s Gates of the Arctic National Park to fly fish. They went for the same reasons any group of dudes would head to Alaska: to find adventure, laughs, and companionship, but the reality is that a group of all-Black men taking the same trip makes a statement—and forges an important path for Black youth. Trip leader Brown is turning the trip into a film that he hopes will normalize the idea of Black men heading off in the wild and inspire more to do so.

“Blackwaters is an expedition, an adventure, a vision quest, and a fly fishing adventure that surpasses the color of their own skin, connecting to the fundamentals of nature’s, the poetry of life, and prosperous joy,” says Brown, a Navy veteran, adventurer, and founder of the nonprofit Soul River and inclusivity initiative Love Is King. “Like indigenous communities, they find self-fulfillment in being outdoors. They find their own representation, and hold space for everyone, especially inspiring young Black boys. It is a dual survival between Black boys who cannot make the connection to a Black man in the outdoors due to lack of representation and Black men finding representation in wild spaces to call their own. Hopefully, these youths can see themselves, and be inspired to embark on their own journeys into the outdoors.”

The trip was a big success. “I’ve been adventuring in Alaska for almost a decade now, but this was the first time I’ve participated in an all-Black led and organized expedition,” says Mills, who has been a writer in the indsutry for decades and runs the Joy Trip Project. “It means a lot to share this experience fly-fishing with friends and colleagues who do so much to make the outdoors more accessible to people of color. Gates of the Arctic is the least visited and most remote of all the national parks. This project gave us the opportunity to demonstrate that Black folks can represent as anglers anywhere.”