Farmers on the Rise
AN URBAN WITH
A
OASIS
Big Impact
Story by Maria N. Listman, Photos by Backyard Basecamp Inc.
At the age of 22, Atiya Wells went on her first hike. She was in nursing school at the time, and never considered herself a nature-focused person. But after that initial experience, a spark was ignited in her that she couldn’t ignore.
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VOLUME 27 | ISSUE 1
tiya Wells is the founder and executive director of Backyard Basecamp Inc., a nonprofit organization that reconnects Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) to land and nature in Baltimore City. As a registered pediatric nurse for nearly ten years, she came to realize how spending time outdoors affected her family’s wellness. “It became a family ritual to all hike together,” she says. “After that experience, I started looking at how you connect kids to nature, and how they really inspire awe and wonder with the things they’re interested in.” Atiya wanted more parents to share in the experience, so she started the Baltimore City Chapter of Free Forest School. The program encourages children and their caregivers to spend quality time outdoors, exploring nature. As she spent time with the group, questions would arise about their surroundings. With little knowledge at the time, Atiya set out to educate herself further. She studied plant identification, herbalism, and took naturalist classes. There was a common theme that she noticed throughout all of her learning experiences. “In every single class, I kept noticing that I was one of the only black people, the only black person, or one of the few people of color in the entire class,” she explains. Atiya took it upon herself to research the topic of BIPOC and their relationship with the land. What she discovered was ancestral wounding and trauma. “We’ve just associated the environment and nature with bad things. So much so, that the notion that black people don’t do this has been rooted in history because black people cannot do this, because it’s not safe,” she shares. “I just want to get us back to the land.” The more she delved into naturalism, Atiya realized the importance of having a community outdoor space close to home. She researched the area, and discovered that there was a park three blocks from her house. It was tucked away, overgrown, and forgotten. But beauty was all she could see. With the guidance of Baltimore Green Space, Atiya found out that part of the land was owned by Baltimore City, and the other part was privately owned. She put the project aside until
