Diversity in the Outdoors

“Once you gain a passion for the outdoors, it doesn’t expire. I really just takes the first incentive to get outdoors to see the fun that you can have just exploring a new space.”

Growing up in Atlanta, Ani Yahzid remembers his first experience with the great outdoors. “I didn’t have a lot of access to the outdoors. The way I got out doors is, I used to go to a Boys and Girls club when I was younger and the Sierra Club would host these ICO hiking trips where they would pick us up from Atlanta, from the Boys and Girls club in Atlanta and they would drive us two hours to the North Georgia mountains and take us hiking and I went on those trips every weekend…without having the access you would never know that you’d love the outdoors.”

With his new film project, Exposure, the CU freshman is hoping to inspire multi-cultural urban youth, who like him, may love the outdoors given the opportunity to experience it. “Once you gain a passion for the outdoors, it doesn’t expire. I really just takes the first incentive to get outdoors to see the fun that you can have just exploring a new space.”

Yahzid will be traveling to Olympic National Park in June with hip hop Artist, Namaste, and his Producer, Keelan, from Atlanta, GA, both of whom have no outdoor experience. They will be filming a series of short films about outdoor recreation and exploration through the lens of Urban Culture, with a view to inspiring other young people to enjoy the outdoors and and then support the protection of natural spaces across the United States.

Yahzid has launched a crowd funding campaign to support the film which he hopes will be premiered at the upcoming Adventure Film Festival happening in Boulder in October. He will be presenting a seminar on Diversity in the Outdoors at the REI flagship store in Denver on Wednesday May 3rd from 6-8pm.