A June 5, 2020 article in Scientific American focused on the first annual Black Birders Week. Associate Editor, Andrea Thompson, interviewed the three co-founders who started this as an educational counterpoint to the recent racial incident in Central Park.
The three are all young and full of joy and enthusiasm for birds, the environment and wildlife. Corina Newsome is a birder and graduate student focusing on avian conservation at Georgia Southern University. Deja Perkins is a birder and graduate student in urban ecology at North Carolina State University. And Tykee James is a birder, podcaster, and government affairs coordinator at the National Audubon Society. Two of the three, James and Newsome, are originally from Philadelphia.
The Scientific American article makes a really good read for anyone interested in birds, wildlife, social justice or all three. As they say, “Nature should be for everyone.”
Also worth checking out: Tykee James and his colleague, Tony Croasdale, have a podcast called Brothers in Birding. It’s part of the Philadelphia-based Wildlife Observer Network (WON). They recently interviewed Dr. J. Drew Lanham, a poet and professor of wildlife biology at Clemson University.
Written by Susan Reel-Panish, FCW Board Member