Star Gazing

A few months ago, James McKissic with the City’s Office of Multicultural Affairs made a passionate plea for the community to help create a movement to get African Americans, especially African American young people, into the outdoors.  He asked us to beg, plead, knock on doors, and kick doors in if we have to.  Glass House Collective and the Good Neighbor Network, a collective of East Chattanooga residents, took him seriously and we have begun creating that movement in East Chattanooga.

Nicole Lewis, Glass House Collective’s Community Engagement Coordinator, applied for and was awarded a Causeway grant to take East Chattanooga youth on a series of hikes which will eventually culminate in an overnight camping trip.

The first of said outdoor excursions was held Saturday, February 13.  Nicole and Glass Street resident Gail McKeel took 10 African American young people to a star gazing party hosted  by the Bernard Astronomical Society at Harrison Bay State Park. They were fully equipped for the cold weather, providing scarves, coats, hats, gloves, and hand warmers for those that didn’t have them as well as a big pot of hot chocolate to enjoy.  What’s best, the youth were adorned with glow sticks so they could easily find each other in the dark.

The first stop at one of the big telescopes was to view the moon. The youth were amazed to see the moon in its craterous detail.  The group then gazed at Orion’s Nebula before eventually settling near a campfire to play a story creation game and to reflect on their experience.

They stood out a little more than the other folks there. Aside from the glow jewelry, they were the only African Americans there, and probably the most excited.  Bob Thompson, an 80 year old member of the Bernard Astronomical Society, asked where the youth came from.  When it was explained that they were from the urban neighborhood of Glass Street and that they were part of an initiative to get young African Americans outdoors he said, “Wow, that’s incredible! I just wrote a column for our newsletter about how our group is too “sugary white.”  Indeed, the outdoors are too ‘sugary white’ and we are working towards kicking down doors to change that.