by Amanda Ong
Sundaes Outside: A Celebration of Black Folks will be held at Be’er Sheva Park this Sunday, May 15. The event will be an outdoor music and market space, featuring a number of performers and partners.
“Sundaes Outside was just really created to celebrate Black folks and nature, and create an experience for folks that come out to the parks on Sundays,” Chevon Powell, organizer of the event, said in an interview with the South Seattle Emerald. “But also just to check out the different ways we can be outside — which means you can be outside in your backyard, in your neighborhood, you can be outside in a state park, you can do lunch or recreation, you can camp.”
Golden Bricks Events, a small business working on different projects and events around diversity, equity, and inclusion in the outdoors, geared toward creating safe spaces for BIPOC folks in the outdoors. Powell founded Golden Bricks in 2018 to cater to communities in the Puget Sound area.
One of the first events Powell launched with Golden Bricks was the Refuge Outdoor Festival, a three-day camping experience geared toward People of Color and their allies. The event centers on community building and includes workshops and arts and other outdoor activities. The fifth annual Refuge Outdoor Festival will be held this year from Aug. 12 to 14.
Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands.
Performances will include Northwest Tap Connection and the Rhapsody Project, both of which are South End-based projects and organizations.
“One of the things [in planning Sundaes Outside] was like, how do we get connected to the folks that are in that area” Powell said. “Because we do want it to be of service to that community there. And the outreach that we’ve been doing in the marketing has really been centered on South End-inviting.”
Powell says that while working down in South Seattle, Golden Bricks must be cognizant of the fact that the community is continuously under-resourced and under-connected, especially to outdoor spaces. So for all of their events, they are actually providing guests transportation from South Seattle to these other activities and state parks.
“We think it’s important to provide access so that there’s greater connections, and we understand that the Black community that has continuously been pushed down to the South End [is who] we want to serve,” Powell said. “Providing different ways to connect to nature is what we want to do.”
It has been a common fallacy that BIPOC are uninterested in spending time outdoors — however, it has actually been found that 70% of BIPOC participate in outdoor activities. The problem is not interest, but access due to socioeconomic status — only 23% of visitors to national parks are BIPOC. When BIPOC do participate in outdoor activities with higher barriers to access, spaces can often be unsafe, as has been the case for Powell.
“As an African American woman that had a traumatic experience in the outdoors, I want to create safer experiences for people that look like me,” Powell said. “I know that a lot of people that look like me go outside, so I also want to showcase them. But at the end of the day, there needs to be a narrative change around the outdoors. And if I can do anything to support that, and uplift that, that’s what I’m going to do.”
📸 Featured Image: (Photos: Golden Bricks Events with editing by the Emerald Team)
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The rain would not stay away, but spirits were not dampened at the series-opening Sundaes Outside event at Be’er Sheva Park on Sunday, May 15.
The “celebration of Black Folks and the Outdoors,” across from Rainier Beach High School in south Seattle, featured live performances, a marketplace, and outdoor recreation workshops — as well as ice cream, of course.
Rainier Beach residents see and touch urban examples from Seattle Audubon’s specimen collection.
Seattle Audubon partnered for the free series with Golden Bricks Events, the producer of the popular Refuge Outdoor Festival, a three-day outdoor recreation experience geared to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and their allies.
Chevon Powell, founder of Golden Brick Events.
Seattle Audubon, with assistance from the Seward Park Audubon Center, led walks to an osprey nest located in the heart of the Rainier Beach neighborhood, showed off bird skins and organizational programs, and conducted a raffle for a gently used pair of binoculars in the marketplace.
Smiles amidst the rain at the Rainier Beach Osprey nest site.
Seattle Audubon will next support Golden Bricks’ summer edition of Refuge Day, at the Seward Park amphitheater on Saturday, June 4, 1–5 p.m. Seattle Audubon has been a sponsor of the Refuge Outdoor Festival since its inception.
Grace Rajendran’s artistic chalkboard sign for the raffle.
Grace Rajendran, Seattle Audubon board member, and Wendy Walker, Seattle Audubon’s community engagement manager, show off an Osprey in the Sundaes Outside marketplace.
Wiley Slough Closure Continues
Wiley Slough (or, officially, the Skagit Wildlife Area Headquarters Unit), one of the most popular and diverse birding areas in the region, will remain closed to all public access until at least Nov. 15, as previously advised by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).
EarthCare Northwest | Fall 2023
Welcome to Birds Connect Seattle’s Fall 2023 member newsletter, EarthCare Northwest. In this issue, we look to birds as a source of inspiration for art, aviation, literature, and learning.
It’s a Bird. It’s a Plane.: Aviation Designs Inspired by Birds | EarthCare Northwest
The skies have always captured the human imagination, inspiring dreams of flight and exploration. But long before humans took to the skies, birds had already mastered the art and science of flight.
By producing events that truly welcome everyone, Chevon Powell combines her love of nature and event planning to bring people together and create a powerful community.
by Crystal Gartner
On her way to her first solo backpacking trip in Vermont, Chevon Powell was confronted by a white police officer who questioned why she was in the area. He said her story of going backpacking was unbelievable and then called for backup. Chevon was finally released and she did take her backpacking trip. But that harrowing incident stuck with her and it was part of her motivation to shift the mission of her company, Golden Bricks Events, toward making the outdoors safer for people of color. By producing events that truly welcome everyone, Chevon combines her love of nature and event planning to bring people together and create a powerful community.
Chevon (left) wearing a Refuge shirt. Photo courtesy Golden Bricks Events.
Washington State Parks took notice of Chevon’s almost two decades of event planning experience and asked her to create a concert last year and again for this summer. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and a nationwide reckoning over systemic racism and police violence followed. Chevon pivoted once again and turned the concert idea, Sundae Sermon: A Celebration of Black Folks, into an online event with six installments. Each “sermon” features a different state park as the backdrop for musical performances and outdoor tips, and showcases local art, businesses and community leaders.
Chevon has already presented four successful Sundae Sermons, and folks still have a chance to catch the next two which celebrate themes of activism and food. On Sept. 20, join in to hear emcee Mikayla Weary, who helped organize the Black Lives Matter march and rally in Shoreline. There will be a roundtable of youth talking about activism, singer/songwriter Elisha who will be doing a musical performance, and a conversation with mental health professional Jennifer Elve.
The final Sundae Sermon on Oct. 4, emceed by Marlon Brown, will have poet Kamari Bright demonstrating how to cook hot water cornbread, a dish from the South with a history around enslaved people in this country.
“We’ll also have an artist doing a live piece while the show is going on. There’s such a wide breadth of Black experiences here in the Northwest and Black folks doing amazing, different things,” Chevon said.
Highlights from past Sundae Sermons include a virtual walk through Federation Forest with GirlTrek offering trail tips, and a live streamed performance from pianist Joe Williams, who shared about the history of Black women in classical music.
A live performance at one of Chevon’s past events. Photo courtesy Golden Bricks Events.
“Nature is the center of everything that I do,” Chevon said. “Success is when Black folks feel comfortable getting outside, you know that people that look like you have been outside, have been doing really cool stuff right here in Washington state, and that we can have fun and recreate responsibly, because we’re still in a pandemic. You get to come [to Sundae Sermon] and learn about new things and the people doing them, regardless of who you are.”
Another Golden Bricks event, Refuge Outdoor Festival, an annual multi-day camping experience geared toward people of color, has converted its usual outdoor setting to the virtual realm as well. This year, everyone is invited to gather online with this amazing community, Sept. 18-20, for a weekend full of entertainment, activities and workshops including herbs for self-care, exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, backpacking basics, a DJ battle and other fun activities.
“The outdoors hasn’t always been that welcoming for people of color, for Black folks,” Chevon said. “We know the national parks used to be segregated. We know that there are trees that hung people that are still in prominent American parks. I’m trying to make events that are a safe space for us so if you don’t have any other opportunity to be safe outdoors you can be safer in this moment.”
“For me there was this urgency to make sure that this still happened. There are folks that just need a weekend reprieve from the stuff that happens in everyday regular society, which is what I always hope Refuge is.”
As an event sponsor, WTA hopes you’ll join us in attending or supporting Sundae Sermon and Refuge. Here’s how you can help:
- Share the word that Sundae Sermon and Refuge are happening.
- Donate to Golden Bricks Events and the payment speakers will receive for their emotional labor.
- Donate directly to any of the nonprofits brought forward by the event’s emcees, including
Press Release
A 6-part virtual series celebrating summer, the outdoors, and Black Folks. It wouldn’t be Sundae without the ice cream. RSVP Today!
Sunday family gatherings have been a staple in the black community from church to family dinners and so much more. In partnership with Washington State Parks, Golden Bricks Events presents:…
Sunday family gatherings have been a staple in the black community from church to family dinners and so much more. In partnership with Washington State Parks, Golden Bricks Events presents:…
Sundae Outside: A Celebration of Black Folks is brought to you by our partnership with Washington State Parks and our generous sponsors. Each event we highlight a different state park…
Sundae Outside: A Celebration of Black Folks is brought to you by our partnership with Washington State Parks and our generous sponsors. Each event we highlight a different state park…
Sunday family gatherings have been a staple in the black community from church to family dinners and so much more. With support from Washington State Parks Sundaes Outside is heading…