YOGA & RIDE - A RESOUNDING SUCCESS!

This past Sunday, March 26, Rose Maghdouri of Yogaland RVA and Anne Poarch with BASKET & BIKE (with the help of Heather Engel with local boutique Happy Haven RVA brought together 12 women, ages 30s - 70s, for a morning devoted to slowing our rhythms and connecting. From mountain poses grounding us to the land along Yeokanta (aka the James River) at Upper Shirley Vineyards to bicycle strokes lengthening our strides along the Virginia Capital Trail, these women brought all their energy and enthusiasm, allowing their vulnerability and truest selves to shine. While early spring breezes kissed our skin like silk, we took deep breaths, listened to song birds joyfully singing, pushed ourselves to try, and laughed deep belly laughs. Some had never taken a yoga class. Some hadn’t been on a bicycle in 15 years. No matter our level what we all found is companionship in being outdoors with women we may have never met before, and encouragement on all fronts. When we pedaled our last and cooled off with a lavender-scented towel, the refreshing Upper Shirley Vineyards wine eased us into a place of knowing. Knowing that we, as women, were meant for connection, and that we had just experienced a profoundly unique day in a very special part of the world, right here in Virginia. We hope you’ll enjoy these photos and join us for our next Yoga & Ride, date TBA soon!

Priority Bicycles and BASKET & BIKE Cruise the Coast Summer Tour

BASKET & BIKE is hosting our bike dealer, Priority Bicycles!

on their East Coast Summer Tour: Cruise the Coast, in Richmond.

BIKE GIVEAWAY (deets below)

Wed June 29, 11am-5pm
Next to our shop in Shockoe Slip at 1301 E. Cary St.
12-1pm: Free Community Ride, featuring Capital Trees. Bring your own bike or demo one from us.

Thurs, June 30, 2-8pm
Shockoe Bottom at 17th St Market at 100 N 17th St.
2:30pm & 5:30pm: Mini tours to the Capital Tail of the Low Line with Capital Trees. Free.
Bring your own bike or ride a demo bike.

They'll have bike demos, merchandise, a new electric bike, and a lively atmosphere. We'll also host a community ride on the Virginia Capital Trail along with mini tours of Capital Trees’ The Low Line. Join us for specials and giveaways.

Priority offers unique, no-rust, belt drive bicycles that are high-quality and low-maintenance. They’ll be featuring their cruiser-style Coast bike. 

Join us for one of our free community rides or mini tours with our charitable partners, Capital Trees, along the Virginia Capital Trail.  

Black History Month: People Making History for the Environment

Our world speaks to us in so many different ways. For some, it  speaks in a whisper; for others, it issues a clarion call. Our individual experiences shape what we hear, and how — or even if — we respond. And those responses take countless forms: poetry, art, religion, and scientific inquiry. Quite often, the response generates an outpouring of enthusiastic engagement — and meaningful action.

During Black History Month, we consider the contributions of six African Americans to the world to which we are all connected. Their efforts to build community, to respond from unique places with creativity and passion, help us learn how to share our world with one another.

The bronze facade of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, designed by architect Zena Howard, not only works as a passive climate-control system it creatively draws attention to the contributions of African Americans, enslaved and free who would have been responsible for much of the ironwork in cities like New Orleans, Charleston, and Richmond during the 18th and 19th Centuries. PHOTO_Perkins&Will

Zena Howard, FAIA, LEED AP

Architect, Visionary, Storyteller

PHOTO_Perkins&Will

For Perkins&Will Managing Partner and Architect Zena Howard, project manager for the design of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the built environment can be a framework for sharing stories and strengthening communities. In all her projects, she carefully navigates issues of equity and justice and strives to restore lost cultural connections. She endeavors first to listen and then to harness the power of good design. One recent project, L.A.’s Destination Crenshaw, successfully averted the “cultural erasure” that would have accompanied construction of a new metro line. Instead, Destination Crenshaw will be an outdoor museum of African American art and culture — with its very own metro stop.

Solomon Brown

Curator, Smithsonian Institution, Poet, Picnic Organizer

PHOTO_Smithsonian Archives

Solomon Brown was the first African American employee at the Smithsonian Institution, more than 150 years before the establishment of the NMAAHC. Hired in 1852 to build exhibit cases, he rose through the ranks, educating himself in the field of natural history, illustrating maps and specimens, giving lectures, and, we love this — writing poetry. By 1870, he had begun to collect the myriad artifacts and specimens, effectively serving as curator, for the institution’s magnificent collections. In his personal time Solomon and his wife organized picnics for their local community, another thing we love!

Rue Mapp

Founder, Outdoor Afro, Speaker, Friend

PHOTO_Bethanie Hines

Rue Mapp believed that, historically, nature wasn’t readily accessible to African Americans. Segregation, racist housing laws, and access often kept them from enjoying urban parks and venturing into forests and mountains.  In 2009, she founded Outdoor Afro, an organization that strives to establish and strengthen Black connections to nature through hiking, fishing, swimming, kayaking, gardening — and even scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro. Rue’s about page sounds like she is just the woman to join one of our bike excursions. Not only is she an “inspirational leader, writer, speaker, and public lands champion; she is your solid, fun friend - and good cook! Great cook? Sounds like she should meet our next feature, Michael Twitty!

Michael Twitty

Chef, Author, and Blogger Afroculinaria

PHOTO_Ryan Smith/Sierra Club article

A childhood visit to Colonial Williamsburg stirred interest in traditional cooking for Michael Twitty. Michael has worked to eradicate food injustice and to show how African-American food has shaped American cuisine. Several years ago, he returned to Colonial Williamsburg to establish gardens containing the crops that enslaved people would have grown.  More important than the crops they contain, undoubtedly, is the abundance of cultural, scientific, and historical knowledge bound up in the soil. His book The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South was awarded the James Beard Foundation Book of the Year in 2018. Michael also authors the food blog, Afroculinaria. Maybe we can find out when Michael will next be in Williamsburg, and plan a bike and meet?

John Francis

Conservationist, Scholar, Author

PHOTO_Michelle Stocker/The Capital Times

After witnessing an oil spill in San Francisco Bay in 1971, John Francis chose to stop using motor vehicles, and began walking wherever he went.  Not long afterwards, he took a vow of silence that lasted seventeen years.  After his period of silence ended, he assisted the United States Coast Guard developing more stringent oil spill regulations. Francis, known best as “the Planetwalker,” founded a non-profit environmental awareness organization, received several academic degrees, teaches graduate-level envrionmental classes, and has published two books Planet Walker: 17 years of silence, 22 years of walking and The Ragged Edge of Silence: Finding Peace in a Noisy World. Presently Dr. Francis is visiting associate professor at the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Betty Reid Soskin

Optimist, Historian, National Park Ranger

PHOTO_NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE/INSTAGRAM

The wartime work experience of Betty Reid Soskin guided the planning and development of the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park.  Soskin added her personal story, which included her experiences with racial segregation and discrimination while working for the U.S. Air Force in 1942.  Believing that she had a responsibility to share her story with park visitors, she joined the National Park Service as a ranger (and was still an active ranger at the age of 100, as of this writing). Most Thursdays you can join a virtual talk with Soskin at 2pm. Named a 2018 Woman of the Year in Glamour her interview with journalist Farai Chideya was a beautiful tribute to this inspiring woman who told Chideya her families’ lives “stretch from Dred Scott to Black Lives Matter”.

We are all the better for the dedication these six people have given throughout their lifetimes to help us all connect with our planet and each other.

By Susan Creasey and Anne Poarch

November is Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month. It is a fitting month. November is a month of Thanksgiving, of gratitude for the blessings the land has bestowed upon us, gratitude for our family and friends. But here’s the thing. Our indigenous ancestors have never needed a month of reminders to be thankful. Their lives were, and still are, rooted in praise and thanksgiving for life. They are living examples of gratitude. Practicing presence and a deep love of the earth, Native Americans are active stewards in its care.

The landscape in Eastern Virginia where we lead our bike excursions echoes with the presence of our native forebears, and there are a multitude of ways in which we can honor them. Being curious is step one. Specifically taking the time to learn about our Virginia Indian Tribes, cherishing their legacy and embracing who they are today.

Archaeologists at Werowocomoco • Image courtesy College of William and Mary

Three things you can do:

1. Take just 7 minutes to watch this National Park Service video about the 21st Century discovery of Werowocomoco, Powhatan’s Place of Power. Along the banks of the York River, this is where John Smith would encounter Powhatan and Pocahontas in December 1607. And while a pretty famous association, archaeology tells us it was an important place for Virginia Native Americans for thousands of years. Not yet open to the public, Werowocomoco is notably the first archeological effort to work with the sustained counsel and participation of Virginia Indians.

2. Attend one or all the screenings of Native American films at Pocahontas Reframed. In its 5th year the Pocahontas Reframed Film Festival seeks to “Reframe Native American Life and Experience through Film” and will be held this year at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Friday, November 19 - Sunday, November 21. View the impressive line-up of films here and purchase tickets now.

3. Ride the Virginia Capital Trail or take a walk along a James River trail with an intention to recognize and appreciate the people who were here before us, building a riverside world with reverence and gratitude.

During our Signature Rides at Upper Shirley Vineyards we introduce you to Tsenacomoco (the land), Yeokanta (the river), and the story of Werowocomoco. We ride though lands inhabited for thousands of years. Riverside lands taken from the very people who depended upon the river as life force. We hope to honor our indigenous ancestors by savoring the day with moments of stillness, quiet reflection, and deep breaths, and by opening a Pocahontas-sized curiosity for connecting with nature and each other in our hearts. Be Curious & Reflect. . .

BASKET & BIKE tour departing Upper Shirley Vineyards