Heroes of the Great Outdoors
24” x 36” full color poster. 2nd Edition, Final Printing.
Heroes of the Great Outdoors
Before you learn about this poster you should understand that, as a white person, I was not the best choice to illustrate this. I did not understand this fully until recently. I illustrated this in 2016 as part of an editorial assignment for my job at the time. But I had the agency and power to ask them to hire an artist of color instead.
I’ve stopped selling this poster in my webstore. But I still have about 700 copies that I’m looking to donate to a non-profit organization who is fundraising to empower POC youth in outdoor endeavors. If your organization is interested in stewarding this project, please contact me at eren@erenkwilson.com
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This illustration was created for Outside Magazine's article "It Matters Who You See in Outdoor Media".
CLICK HERE to download a print-able two page PDF with a short biography of each member of the poster.
TOOLS: Photoshop CS6, Wacom IntuosPro4 Tablet
Teresa Baker
Teresa Baker spends time outdoors with the purpose of engaging communities of color in outdoor spaces. Her work aims to foster a shared sense of responsibility for environmental protection for all people. Teresa’s current trajectory began through her online campaign, African American nature and Park Experience. This campaign provided communities of color across the country with opportunities to participate in planned events such as hikes, talks with environmentalists, national and state park engagement, stewardship and camping excursions, and more!
Mavynee Betsch
Since 1975, Betsch made it her full-time mission to preserve and protect American Beach, her great-grandfather’s investment , from development and destruction. She was famously named “Beach Lady,” for her many efforts and dedication to the beach and it’s inhabitants. ‘Beach Lady’ gave her life savings, some $750,000, to sixty environmental organisations and causes, ten of which she was a lifetime member, and most of them involved animals. ‘Beach lady’ was featured on CBS and CNN and in such publications as Coastal Living, Essence, Southern Living, Smithsonian, and over twenty-five others.
Jason Brown
Jason Brown chose to walk away from football in 2012 at the age of 29 to become a farmer in Louisburg, North Carolina. He maintains a 1,000-acre farm called First Fruits Farm where he grows produce such as sweet potatoes and inyari. He donates these crops to local food pantries, having given away over 46,000 pounds of sweet potatoes and 10,000 pounds of cucumbers. Brown began learning about farming practices in 2012 by watching YouTube videos.
Dr. John Francis
Dr. Francis began his work in 1971, when after witnessing an oil spill in San Francisco Bay he stopped using motorized vehicles and took a vow of silence lasting 17 years. He earned three degrees including a doctorate in land resources during his walk across the US and length of South America. The founder of Planetwalk, an environmental awareness organization, he ended his silence on Earth Day in 1990, telling the assembled crowd, “Environment is about how we treat each other.”
Shelton Johnson
For the last 30 years Mr. Johnson has worked as a National Park Ranger, mostly in the West, in parks such as Yellowstone, Great Basin, and Yosemite. Since 1998, Shelton has told the story of the Buffalo Soldiers in the national parks- in print, on camera, and in person. His passion is to connect people of color with their national parks. He served as an advisor and “talking head”, for “The National Parks, America’s Best Idea”, an Emmy Award winning PBS Documentary film by Ken Burns, and hosted Oprah Winfrey during her celebrated visit to Yosemite in 2010. For his work with Ken Burns, Mr. Johnson won the 2009 Freeman Tilden Award for Interpretation, which is the highest National Park Service Award, among many other honors.
Sir Lancelot Jones
Sir Lancelot Jones was born in a boat in Biscayne Bay near the turn of the 20th century as his dad “Pahson” Israel layfayette Jones strove to get his mom to a Miami hospital. Sir Lancelot grew up to be a defender of his island paradise, choosing to sell his land to the National Park Service instead of developers. As a result we have Biscayne National Park, the largest marine park in the park system.
Rue Mapp
Rue Mapp is the CEO and founder of Outdoor Afro, a community reconnecting African Americans with nature through outdoor recreational activities. She oversees a carefully selected and trained national volunteer leadership team of 90 men and women who represent 30 states around the US. Outdoor Afro is a not-for-profit organization with offices in Oakland, CA and Washington D.C. and shares opportunities to build a broader community and leadership in nature. Her important work has generated wide-spread national recognition and support.
Audrey Peterman
Audrey & Frank Peterman became pioneers for integrating the great outdoors following a road trip across the country in 1995. Seeing less than a handful of Americans of color in the national parks from the Atlantic to the Pacific, they resolved to help change that and have been working to that end for 21 years.
Queen Quet
In addition to being the Chieftess and Head-of-State for the Gullah/Geechee Nation on the Sea Islands from North Carolina to Florida, she is a published author, computer scientist, lecturer, mathematician, historian, columnist, preservationist ,and “The Art-ivist.” Her people have maintained their traditional connections- brought from West Africa- for more than 300 years — petitioning Congress to designate the Gullah Geechee National Heritage Area within their lands.
Betty Reid Soskin
Betty Reid Soskin is a Park Ranger with the National Park Service, assigned to the Rosie the Riveter/World War 2 Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California. As of January 2020, at age 99, she is the oldest National Park Ranger serving the United States (currently she’s working part-time). She has been celebrated as : “a tireless voice for making sure the African-American wartime experience- both the positive steps toward integration and the presence of discrimination- has a prominent place in the National Park’s history”.