It took some time to locate and then articulate my relationship with the environment.

How does a black woman who grew up poor, a child of sharecropping and the drug pandemic, consider the environment? How does a black woman employed in an “environment” dominated by white culture, and trauma, swimming upstream daily, consider climate?

At what time does this mother of three, two who are young men working, thriving and “driving” in Minneapolis, consider sustainability?

As I sit in this process of determining, both viscerally and cellularly, “what brings and has always brought me peace?” Where do I find opportunities to explore light and ask God, “what is it you want from me in this place?”

I started distance running in my north Minneapolis community when I was 28. Running brought the desired destination of good health; I was lean and I was strong. Running was the way I would reach my destination, at maximum caloric reduction, in the shortest amount of time; I was committed.

When I started my running journey I was a single parent of three. Time is golden when you’re a single parent of three; running helped me get a workout, destress from a long day, and meant avoiding the commute and time at the gym. I could workout to good health and still be a good mom. 🙂

When I started running my route was a single, yet sinuous circle, never passing the same point twice. It began from my childhood home at 12^th and Oliver North in Minneapolis and took me south through the neighborhood. I ran between stucco and newly sided single family homes. I ran down choppy, cemented, uneven sidewalks, dodging opened metal gates. I ran through urban two way streets, between parked cars and around idle ones with horns and music on blast. I ran through alleyways that took me past a myriad of passersby, dog walkers, bikers, my neighbors. I ran until I reached the City engineered pathway to the wooded surroundings and dampy swamps of Theodore Wirth Parkway, by way of the Glenwood Lake I swam in as a child.

When this running circle became too short for my endurance and its surroundings too mundane, I extended it by skirting beneath the Highway 55 overpass and took the footbridge across that same. I met eagles and deer, bladers and fishers.

The more I ran the better I felt, euphoric, but also the more relationships I built: within myself; with nature; with running buddies; peace and wellbeing and with my community. It was running where I realized the benefits of nature: the wind against my skin; the sun at my neck; and, when I was daring or dumb, the moon glaring down on me.

On my runs I met wildlife, I met people – in passing – and I experienced every season along the way. Over time I learned that my runs were my meditation and my medicine. To be removed from disease and to do so amongst my community was my first experience with good health and a sound mental state.

My relationship with climate and the environment are not the same, but it’s growing.

My story doesn’t include new revelations, obvious manifestations of climate change on my now biweekly runs and more commonly, slow walks. I still have my most peaceful and introspective moments in the outdoors. I still enjoy the change in scenery as the seasons shift, and the fall dusk of evening runs. My story embraces the science of carbon and the environment, and like my crave to run and the solace of nature, my passion for equity and justice compel me to write this and get to work each day.

My climate journey is burgeoning, it includes a commitment to curating opportunities that explore the intersections of equity, education, the outdoors and anti-racism. When designing the City’s Green Career Exploration Program I did not envision the impact and possibility that would emerge. Nearly ten years after my initial attempts to partner this program with a North Minneapolis elementary school there is much progress to boast and so much more to build.

Through this program, our Health department works alongside community and subject matter experts, educators, municipal staff and youth to ensure we are centering black and brown youth and young adults in the outdoors, environmental education and climate change. And just as my runs have become slow jaunts, my climate journey is growing. At 28 I muddled the elation of “the run” with the joy my body experienced in nature. Ten years ago I mistook the Green Career Exploration Program for a mere Environmental Education project; it so much more. It means ownership, health, wealth and equity. It means taking responsibility, resourcing and repair. It is complex. Yet as simple as this: the impacts of climate change are laden upon black and brown bodies – and its solutions don’t happen without us.

Markeeta Keyes is the Workforce Director for the Minneapolis Health Department and leads the Department’s Green Careers Exploration Program. The program advances equitable and inclusive education and training opportunities that lead to Green sector careers.

With the aim to reduce inequities, Markeeta leads a Green Career program that centers BIPOC representation and participation by reducing barriers to access, elevating local industry representatives of color and enlisting a framework that mitigates trauma.

Markeeta believes experiential learning opportunities and investment in strong, collaborative relationship building ensures this program is instrumental in gaining ground for environmental justice across our communities. The GCEP endeavors to collaborate and strengthen relationships with those leading the environmental justice movement through education, awareness and career readiness, offering students experiences that prepare them for a just and sustainable future.

Markeeta is a Climate Generation Window Into COP delegate for COP28. To learn more, we encourage you to meet the full delegation and subscribe to the Window Into COP digest.

The post The Intersection of Equity, the Outdoors, Anti-Racism, and “The Run” appeared first on Climate Generation.

The Intersection of Equity, the Outdoors, Anti-Racism, and “The Run”