Hip Hop in Climbing: Part VII

This article also available as a podcast here.

Part VII: The Black Climbing Community

 It’s too soon: too soon for films such as Hip Hop Gone Wild to be mocking Black culture up on the screen. Too demeaning to the community members who make up the climbing community who are Black, especially women. The road that Hip Hop has taken to ultimately arrive at this film has been devoid of the people who invented it, a story of erasure all too familiar to those with Black skin.

   Back now in Winthrop, WA at the No Man’s Land Film Festival screening. The last film to screen was Mothered by Mountains. The film starts with a group of men with cameras who want to showcase some ‘badass women’. In a turn for the better, they end up passing the camera’s control on to the two women who set out on a solo adventure; wonderfully tender and sincere moments on the experience of being a woman ensue.

   The film ends, and the film festival is over. Us in the front row feel relief creeping back in as the lights turn up. Hopefully at last the camera’s control will be in the hands of the Black climbing community someday.

Stick around for bonus in depth interviews of Snousha, Ryan Edwards, Devin Dabney, and Dakota Camacho in the successive parts: Meet the Talent.

17 Dec 2020

Author: Crystal Rose H.

Edited by: Erin Monahan

Special thanks to:

Snousha Gaude

Emily Taylor-for leading the way for Black and Brown women in climbing and always challenging me

Melise Edwards- for being one of the first if not the first to speak on the history of Black people in relation to climbing history on social media and her involvement in the DEIJ community.

Melanin Base Camp-my secret inspiration for writing

Erin Monahan

Ryan Edwards

Devin Dabney

James Edward Mills

My life partner Keith

Climbers of Color

Brown Girls Climb

Brothers of Climbing

and all not listed here who continue to uplift the Black Climbing Community.