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by GUSTAV DEMARS.
Summer or winter, Anthony Taylor is looking for ways he can create more opportunities for people of color to get out and participate in recreational sports that have historically lacked diversity.
A long-time sportsman, Taylor has played his part in founding programs offering Minnesotans outdoor gatherings centered around community and health. Whether he’s teaching new snowboarders or planning long-haul bike trips, it’s all part of Taylor’s goal to create a welcoming space in sports.
“That’s my evil plan,” Taylor said. “That’s what I’m really committed to, creating these new connections to the space around us and our bodies, and envisioning health as an active pursuit.”
Taylor previously worked at the Loppet Foundation, where he led the development of outdoor programs for youth and adults in a variety of outdoor activities. He’s also spent the past 10 years on the Metropolitan Parks and Open Space Commission, which advises the Metropolitan Council on the development of regional parks.
Being an avid cyclist, cross-country skier, and snowboarder for much of his life, lack of diversity in outdoor sports was always apparent to Taylor. Much of his motivation in creating these programs came back to one question: “Who’s not out here?”
Through his programs, he hopes more women and Black, Indigenous, and people of color can find a space where they feel welcome in the world of outdoor recreation.
Cameron Foster had never snowboarded in his life before he came across one of Taylor’s programs when he was looking for lessons in 2021. Three years later, he now teaches others.
“It’s been amazing,” Foster said. “I’ve had a lot of growth as a snowboarder here. I went from having my first lesson to being a coach here.”
Melanin in Motion, founded by Taylor and Lynnea Atlas-Ingebretson with the help of the Cultural Wellness Center, offers low-cost youth and family snowboarding lessons for all skill levels at Theodore Wirth Regional Park in Minneapolis.
Melanin in Motion also hosts family events each Friday at Trollhaugen ski resort in Wisconsin, where Foster said he’s had the opportunity to meet lots of other BIPOC snowboarders.
“It’s an amazing thing to see other snowboarders out there that look like you, or maybe don’t look like you but are a part of minority groups,” Foster said. “There’s not a lot of us, but we do exist and getting together is important.”
Building community with bikes
On December 22, Kennis Littleton unloaded a truck full of around 100 bikes into Venture Bikes, a bike shop and cafe he partnered with Taylor to open along the Midtown Greenway. The bikes, provided by local nonprofits, are part of a bike giveaway the shop puts on twice a season for adults who need bikes for transportation or fitness, but can’t afford them.
Venture Bikes also hosts everything from free weekly cycling classes, community events, and movies, and Littleton and Taylor continue to plan new functions for the space.
Littleton’s shop previously had its home in north Minneapolis where it was known as Venture North Bikes, before moving into the former location of FreeWheel Bike Midtown Bike Center in south Minneapolis.
Unlike many bike shops, Taylor said he hopes Venture Bikes can focus on people in the area for whom owning a bike is a necessity. To him, that means providing “the best quality affordable bikes.”
“Most people are focused on the bicycle as sport and recreation,” Taylor said. “Many of the people we deal with are people who need the bike for transportation.”
Beyond coffee and bikes, Littleton and Taylor hope the shop can serve as a space for the community.
“We want to be a community bike shop,” Taylor said. “The goal of our bike shop is that we’re using bikes to build community.”
Taylor is no stranger to such efforts. In 2014, he launched Slow Roll MSP, which organizes inclusive all-age bike tours throughout the Twin Cities that spotlight arts, music, culture, and food.
“It wasn’t just saying, ‘OK, we’re going to go for a bike ride,’” Taylor said, “it made the bike ride an experience.”
Taylor has also used the bike as a vehicle to explore history. In 2013, he founded Dark 2 Dawn, an all-night bike ride to commemorate the overnight trip made by many across the country to attend the March on Washington during the civil rights era.
When Taylor and others couldn’t make it to the commemoration of the 50th anniversary in Washington, D.C., they decided to ride in honor of those who made the trip all those years ago.
“But in the bike ride, we decided to add historical elements to it, so we found stops around the city to commemorate a person, or something related to the idea of social justice, civil rights, or gender equality,” Taylor said.
See Original Article at Sahan Journal
