Former Inspiring Connections Outdoor (ICO) participant Ani Yahzid has grown up to become a filmmaker and student at University of Colorado, Boulder.
His journey has taken him a lot of places, but the influence of ICO stays with him. He says, “I was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia and understand the lack of connection to the outdoors available to most multicultural urban youth; and I would like to change that.“ He’s now working on The Exposure Project, which “aims to authentically reach multicultural urban youth and connect them to the outdoors with the influence of Hip Hop.”
One of our volunteers recently had the opportunity to interview Ani about his experiences and future plans. Here’s more on what he had to say:
Q: How did you get involved with ICO?
A: I attended Brookhaven boys and girls club when I was young. The Sierra Club would host ICO hiking trips from Brookhaven Boys and Girls Club to the north Georgia mountains every weekend. I can't remember how many outings I went on, it just seemed like every weekend for at least a couple of months, if not years, growing up.
Q: What did you like about it?
A: I just liked getting out of Atlanta. It was like a whole other world outside of the city. The mountains in the small towns in north Georgia were pretty fascinating to me as a kid. Everything was new. I remember on one trip, we hiked a mountain and when we got to the top there was snow. For a kid from Atlanta, snow was a big deal. It had probably snowed a week ago and this is what was left over, nearly melted away. But it was very cool to us. We started making snowman and throwing snowballs, something none of us had ever done before. Just seen on TV.
Q: Why is getting to spend time outdoors important for those from communities historically marginalized in the outdoor/environmental space?
A: Getting to spend time outdoors is important for anyone. For historically marginalized groups, getting outdoors can help you to break out of your Socio economic bubble and realize there's more to the world than what you know. Spark creativity and a passion for something that they would have never experienced in the city.
Q: Has being involved with ICO had any influence on what you want to do now?
A: The Exposure Project is pretty much a large scale, extreme version of my ICO hiking trips growing up. I know the experiences I had on the trips and I want to capture that emotion in others.
Q: Tell us more about your current project?
A: We are currently crowd funding the project on Indiegogo. We have raised enough money to to cover all travel and base cost, but we are but we are short of funds to cover quality film making equipment. So the project is a go, it's going to happen. But to ensure the quality and success of the project, we need more backers.
Q: What do you hope to achieve with the work you're doing now?
A: The project idea is simple. Mix hip-hop in the outdoors. We want to draw the influence of hip-hop, the most influential music genre in the US today. And bring it towards the outdoors. Making it cool to get outdoors for young people. The real impact will come from the nine-year-old kid surfing YouTube in Atlanta that finds this content, shares it with his friends, and start an authentic popular trend that it's cool to get outdoors.
You can learn more about Ani's current project and how to support it by clicking here.
We’re excited to see where his journey will take him next!