Be Black, Be Bold, Be Innovative, Show the World Equitable Geo. We're coming together as a collective to celebrate people of African descent, the diaspora, and talking about geospatial equity and justice. You're listening to The North Star Gaze, a podcast with intimate stories from geoluminaries. Thank you so much what an incredible experience you gave us this morning, you and David. We are so grateful to have you here. the 2024 homecoming of North Star of GIS. And, it was important to us to have you here and to have your vision expressed here at this event, tell me why was it important for you to participate in this? Well, I have a goal and that goal is that everyone really understand freedom. Wow. The way I found it, because it has changed me in the most amazing ways. So that's my objective. That's an important word, we are sitting here on the campus of Howard University, and a week and two days ago, we were listening to the lyrics of Beyonce singing the song about freedom. And there were so many of us who expected a different outcome. I have taken some moments to reflect on what it means to be sitting here at this moment in time. And it's not easy. But I'm hoping you can share with us a little bit about what it means to you to be here Today, thinking about what the future holds. I was so grateful to hear you talk about simply putting one foot in front of the other as an expression of freedom. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Well, again, I've learned it. I didn't always know it. I'm a woman, an older woman full of wisdom. So I can reflect from my wisdom and, for the first time in my life, well, since 2020, I have felt like a whole human being. I am incredibly confident, poised, successful, and I attribute that to knowing freedom. And freedom is not worrying about what's around you, but doing something with yourself to affect a certain outcome. And I've chosen to be my best, realize my full potential, and share that. And to me, that's the definition of freedom. I love that. You know, we are not just what we are doing today, right? We are about what is going to take place a day from today, a year from today. Where are we going to be in 2028 when we're looking back and thinking about what we've done to create a different future? And in that light, I want to ask you, what can we, People who are involved with technology and science. I think there's a role that we can play in advancing your work as well. I think the technology will be hugely important because I don't have any of that really. I want to be able to get this, what we're doing. and the understanding of it to be felt globally. Alright, and that's where technology comes in, I think. But also, I'll just give you an example in Cambridge, a small town, where Tubman was born and had to leave and for the reasons we know certainly, but the population there now is 51 percent African American and the literacy rate in Cambridge is 20%. So, I'm hoping that through using this history, it's great history there. Tubman is there, Frederick Douglass history is there. Finding a way to connect with these young people, so that they can first embrace themselves, self love, embrace community, embrace history, so that they can realize their potential. They all have potential, they just don't know it. And they don't know it because their minds are not free. And their minds are not free because they don't know who they are. And they don't know the struggle of the ancestors. So, when you ask me, how can we help? We have to frame the story in a way that reaches them. In a way that they can understand. And right now, I don't think they have that understanding at all. Um, in some of my work in the past, one of the most important things I ever learned was I was working with a group of female sex workers and they said, don't come and tell us what you're going to do for us. Sit down, listen, we're going to tell you what we need and what we want, and more important, how to get there. And their motto for their group was nothing for us without us. And when I hear about you talk, hear you talking about the community in Cambridge, I'm thinking, how do we meet people where they are in a way that, It's not about me getting more power or you getting more power. It's about creating opportunities for somebody else. And I am struggling right now. It's like, how do I make what we do more accessible to somebody who doesn't even know that GIS exists? I mean I don't care about the name of the technology. Sure, I care about putting something in the hands of somebody who can then do something that I might not have imagined with it. Well, I'll give you an example. I had a group of young boys and they call themselves Men of Distinction from the schools in Cambridge. They've tried to form this group. And they came in to learn about Harriet Tubman. They came in, first of all, sitting down. They were really kind of, not paying attention. They had their phones. And, um, so I said, I've got to reach these. So there was one kid in the front, a little busybody. I could tell he was the ringleader. And I looked at his shoes. And I said, how many pair of shoes do you have? Oh, about 25. I said, that's a lot of shoes. I said, do you know Harriet Tubman had no shoes? And she walked to freedom. He sat straight up. He put his phone down. I got him. And bring that story up because if we can find ways to get people, meet them where they are, look at them, look at their lives, and make the association, you'll get them. We can't come in and being judgmental, we, we just have to look at them, look at their lives, and see where they are, and reach them that way. I love that. I think that's important, yeah. Yeah. This is also an important week, I think, because on Monday, Harriet Tubman became General Harriet Tubman. She was awarded the rank of General Harriet Tubman. And, I think that is significant. It's pretty cool stuff. Because we often think of women not in these roles of, leading forces. And she literally led forces, right? We think of the Underground Railroad, yeah. Leading groups of people to freedom, but she also played a strategic role. She was so strategic. She led these clandestine operations. Yes. Using the North Star, planning them out. The folks are in the field singing these songs, these code songs, because they're getting ready. That's all very strategic. She moved like a general. She should have been a general a long time ago. Only woman to fight in the Civil War, and didn't get credit for it. Won the Battle of the Combee River. How strategic was that? To go to a place you've never been. She had to learn the Gullah Geechee language, right? This is a woman who never learned to read or write. And go in there, and then she got 700 people to freedom. Amazing. So when we think about a leader, a leader is someone that you admire and that you trust. And in order to gain that trust, you have to meet them where they are. Right. So she went and learned their language. She didn't ask them to learn her language. Right. She went to learn theirs. Mm-hmm . So you told us something that you didn't expect to do this year. I mean, taking so many people on these freedom walks mm-hmm . You know, so many of my questions were about the technology of GIS, and while you are not a user of GIS technology, you are, in effect, because you are speaking about, I wrote this down, people, places, and code, which is basically what GIS is, right? It's connecting, making these connections between people and places and using coding technology to do so. So it was just interesting to hear you use those words and to think about how it relates to the technology that we use today. What can we do to make GIS more reflective of the communities that you serve? What would you like to see us doing to, um, To reflect those that don't necessarily have access to this technology. Well, you know, as Clint did, you know, come into the community. I mean, you know, you can use the museum as a meeting place to really talk about GIS and why it's necessary. Certainly, people are very visual. They don't read much anymore, but if you can create some, some, um, videos or short films or documentaries or something, even if it's 30 second, 60 second clips of what you do and why it's important, I think, people would connect to that. I love that. And I sit on the board of NorthJS, but that's certainly something I'm going to take back to the group, because it's important for us to make those connections. We, I'll have to, the importance of music, I wasn't really reaching people. There are a couple of other groups who do tours in Cambridge. But ours have become so popular because they know they're going to get Linda and David! And David's going to be playing that banjo. And we're going to be singing songs that they know! They just didn't know they were code songs. So, um, yeah, that's fine. A good way to do it, to reach them and pull them in. Fantastic, I love that. You've done this, you and David have done this amazing work in 2024, exceeding probably anybody's expectations for you. Clearly you had expectations for yourself that were very high, but you know, 150 walks and we are, and you've still got more. That's pretty awesome. What's on your agenda for 2025? Well, I'm going to, I've walked, I got it. I've done five walks. I got to get to 13. I carry it. Last year I walked from Auburn, New York to Canada. Wow. I needed to experience that. Okay. In 1850 they had to leave the United States because the government was picking up any African American, free or enslaved, to sell themselves for cotton. So, uh, in two weeks we're going down to Texas. along the Rio Grande and we're meeting with folks from the University of Texas and in February I'm going to map out the plan and go back there in February and walk from the Rio Grande into Mexico. Wow, that's very important to me. This We Walk With Harriet theme We have Girl Trek who's doing a lot of walking for health. Morgan and Vanessa. Yes, and I met them. They came down. We were going to do a walk in Cambridge, But they decided that logistics was going to be too difficult, so walking for health and all of that. I want us to continue to walk for freedom. I want people to know that our ancestors, they made that trek, this trek, but we have to continue it because we're not done. This Underground Railroad continues, and it's a coded, and we have to kind of communicate in code because we have to reach the ancestors, and we have to reach the descendants of the Where the ancestors were. I mean, they've, as you said, GIS, they already created this thing, right? They used the stars. That was their GPS. And they used the technology that they had during the period. They used the waterways. They used their feet later on trains. Horses and wagons, that was the technology. So bringing it forward. Use it in the same way to propel people to where, to their rightful place. There's so many things that we can do with this technology. Yeah. Creating visuals of what you do and why it's important I think will be huge for people to take a look at. So a lot of times we are speaking to the younger people in our audience. As I heard you speaking, I heard you describe a business you owned, a new set of initiatives for yourself. It sounds like you have reinvented yourself a few times. Talk to me a little bit about how you've done this. I just, I, um, you know, and just from a personal note, I, I ended up. 33 year marriage in 2015 and I thought, my God, and I was kind of old by then. What am I gonna do with myself? And so I knew I had to retire. I couldn't give my business developing housing co-ops. It's a whole, it's a whole set of skills that one has to, um, use. And I was kind of skilled out in that regard, so I wanted to be a singer. So I went to New York for six weeks to study at New York Jazz Academy. I went down to New Orleans to learn that genre, learned to play the piano because that was gonna be my way. And then 2020 came and I'd gotten some gigs and couldn't do them because of 2020 everything was shut down. So I found a way through some, the light. I found a way to connect music with history. And it is just, it's just ever evolving. I can't even plan for this thing because I've learned that once you're on the path of light, it guides you to what you're supposed to be. So my plan is continue doing what I do. Doing it through music, we'll record more music and meet people where they are. Connecting with the one medium. That is so innate to our very being. And it's, it's, you know, so more walking, more singing, more talking. I've gotten grant money for the museum. I'm going to, renovate it and make it just a, a beautiful shining example of who we are. And what we're capable of doing. We have been awarded, um, a signal for Harriet Tubman radio station. So I am excited about launching a radio station. I have no idea what I'm doing. But I'm following the light. Fantastic. We're going to have a radio station. So our reach will be in the Delmarva area. We'll be the only African American public radio station in the Delmarva area. Owning Spectrum yes. Is humongous. Yes. I mean, yes, yes, but I, I'm not daunted. Maybe because I don't know to be, and sometimes that's a good place to be. It sure is. You understand. It sure is. I don't have all the baggage and all this stuff. I am just very enthusiastic and I know. That station is going to be our North Star. I love it. You're Polaris. Yeah, Polaris. Absolutely. Fantastic. At the beginning of 2024, typically we think, okay, these are things that are likely to happen. These are things that I don't think are gonna happen. Mm-hmm . What was on your Bingo card for 2024 that happened that you didn't expect, and what did you think? This is never gonna happen, and it. Well, We Walk With Harriet is a mantra and a theme, a brand, that I really didn't think would catch on. I just came up with it, I'm walking, and I said, I'm walking with Harriet. I never imagined that So, just in 2024, I did 150 walks, and the year's not up yet. Amen! It's not done. I'm so excited. I got walks on my, on the calendar. We only have six more weeks for this year, and you've got more walks planned. Walks on the calendar. I never imagined that people would come from all over the country to walk with me. That's pretty impressive stuff. And they all come with different notions of Harriet Tubman. They mostly know about her. But they leave knowing something a little different about her. And a different way to look at her. Look at history. Look at me. Look at themselves. And I'm very proud of that. You should be. We are honored to have you here as part of this event. Really and truly, you and David have been such an uplifting part of this experience for everybody who attended. I could feel the energy in the room just kind of vibrate a bit when you and David did the work that you did this morning. So thank you for sharing that. Thank you for giving us time. We appreciate you. We are so grateful that you and David shared some time with us. So thank you. Absolutely. I'm honored. Thank you. If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more about Northstar of GIS, check us out on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at GIS Northstar. We want to thank our sponsors of the 2024 Homecoming event, our institutional partner ReGrid, and our sponsors New Light Technology, Afrotech, and Black at Work. We'd like to thank our keynotes, Tara Roberts, Linda Harris, Dr. Paulette Hines Brown, and Vernice Miller Travis. We'd like to thank Howard University and the staff at the Interdisciplinary Building and Photography by Imagery by Chioma. We also want to thank our guests for trusting us with their stories. Tara, Linda, Paulette, Christian, Abraham, Jason, Vernice, Stella, Beye, Karen. Nikki, George, Frank, Labdi, Toussaint, Victoria, and the HBCU Environmental Justice Technical Team. And finally, thank you to the North Star team and our wonderful volunteers. We are your hosts of the Season 2 of the North Staggers Podcast, which is based on the 2024 Homecoming Conference event. Thanks for listening to the North Star Gaze, intimate stories from geoluminaries. If you're inspired to advance racial justice in geofields, please share this podcast with other listeners in your community. The intro and outro are produced by Organized Sound Productions with original music created by Kid Bodega. The North Star Gaze is produced in large part by donations and sponsorship. To learn more about North Star GIS, Check us out at north star of gis.org and on Facebook or Instagram at GIS North Star. If you'd like to support this podcast and North Star of gis, consider donating at North star of gis.org/donate or to sponsor this podcast, email podcast at north star of gis.org. You've been listening to the North Star Gaze.