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Black African-owned bush camps

When Beks Ndlovu set out to open his first safari camp, Somalisa Camp, on a private concession in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, he furnished it with items from his own home. Sixteen years later, Ndlovu, one of the few Black safari camp owners in Africa, is about to open his 16th safari camp.

While the company that Ndoluv founded, African Bush Camps, has long since been able to buy furniture for its many safari camps in Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Zambia, it’s the attention to detail and personal touch that Ndlovu brought to his first camp — and to each one since — that helped make him one of the continent’s most respected safari camp operators.

Photo: African Bush Camps

“I’ve always been a hoarder of old antiques and furniture and stuff, so literally my entire household, because I didn’t have a lot of money … I moved it to Somalisa and started my first camp,” Ndlovu tells Matador. “I’d created this place that I really identified as an extension of my home.”

Ndlovu brought over a decade of experience in the safari businesses to the first camp at Somalisa. A native of Hwange, Ndlovu also drew on his deep appreciation for the area’s animal life — first sparked by the adrenaline and fascination he felt when a herd of elephants approached his childhood home when he was 10.

Ndlovu began his career working as a guide at camps, where he learned the details of camp operations and management. After five years, he began a private guiding business, which took him to multiple countries and allowed him to “sample probably the best of what there is in Africa,” he says. Ndlovu also took advantage of opportunities to travel beyond Africa to pay close attention to the best practices of the service industry and to hone his own design sense.

Photo: African Bush Camps/Facebook

After 10 years in the business, Ndlovu felt he was ready to have a bigger impact on the wild places he was sharing with others. Although by then he had eight guides working for him, Ndlovu says, “Even that just didn’t seem enough to have an influence and impact in conservation and bringing on board communities and really having a formidable voice where you could be taken seriously.”

Changes in the safari industry itself convinced Ndlovu to take the next step. As he describes it, the early 2000s saw an increasing emphasis on luxury. Tents became massive, with dual sinks and even dual showers, and camps added amenities like spa services. The frustration for Ndlovu as a private guide began to arise when he would receive radio calls that, say, a client needed to get back to the lodge, since they had booked a late morning massage and needed time for a leisurely brunch beforehand.

“So it’s like you’re sitting in front of a sighting of a pride of lionesses and there’s zebra. Where would you rather be?” says Ndlovu. “So seeing that kind of world bothered me immensely.”

It was then that Ndlovu says he decided to open a camp that would be a “dream for naturalists.” He applied to the Zimbabwe National Parks Authority to run the concession at Somalisa Camp, and opened the small six-tent camp in 2006.

At Somalisa, Ndlovu could focus on what for him was the real extravagance: the natural landscape. “It was quaint and it had this rustic nature about it, and at the same time the luxury was the raw wilderness and the way in which I’d designed it such that it felt very connected to the land. I’d always used this concept that design and the feel of the place has to be honest to its surroundings,” he says.

Despite Somalisa’s positive reviews, Zimbabwe was in economic and political turmoil at the time, and attracting visitors was hard. Although Ndlovu originally wanted to operate just one camp, six months after starting Somalina he opened Lyanti Bush Camp in Botswana — which was a more stable country to open a safari camp at the time. The success of Lyanti helped sustain Somalisa and eventually also drew more visitors to it.

Today African Bush Camps has 15 camps and multiple travel awards, including global recognition for that first camp, Somalisa, as the best tent camp in Zimbabwe. Although Somalisa is still small, with only seven tents, visitors are often rewarded with up-close sightings of elephants who come to quench their thirst at its elephant pool.

Photo: African Bush Camps

Ndlovu says one key to his success has been working closely with the communities where each camp is based. As a Zimbabwean who comes from a rural background, he notes that he has had an advantage in building the initial trust with the community.

“You have to employ locally … you really need to treat your staff as part of the community and then you become part of the community,” says Ndlovu. Then when you want to engage the community more deeply, “you really have credibility because you are a fair employer, you treat people well, and you’ve got a passion for wildlife.”

Ndlovu says community involvement is not just central to the business of running a safari camp but to conservation. “You can’t tackle conservation without understanding the dynamic of the people,” said Ndlovu in a recent presentation organized by Extraordinary Journeys.

The co-founder and CEO of Extraordinary Journeys, Elizabeth Gordon, was in fact drawn to working with Ndlovu because she was impressed with his strong guiding background, the stunning location of his camps, the welcoming teams who work there, and “values with a strong focus on conservation and community involvement.”

Photo: African Bush Camps/Facebook

The connection with the community is so important that when Ndlopvu opened his first camp, he also opened the African Bush Camps Foundation, whose mission is to partner with the local communities “to improve their quality of life and achieve long-term conservation through programs focusing on education, conservation and community empowerment.” For each night you spend at an African Bush Camps location, $10 is donated to the foundation.

In fact, Ndlovu believes that being a local is a “differentiating factor” that sets him apart from many other camps. “I am a local, and I run this business … I’m right down to the last detail in terms of finding an area to build our next camp, the vision of it, the design I’m involved intrinsically with that, the build process and how that rolls out, I’m involved from the beginning to the end.”

Ndlovu also continues to guide at his camps, and he helps other guides learn to tell their stories, “because so many people have similar stories growing up that the rest of the world would like to hear about.”

Today, Ndlovu says that while safari tourism business is still “viewed as a white-dominated industry,” some progress is being made. He spoke of the need to recruit and promote Black Africans into management positions in the tourism industry, and the need for financial support of locally owned safaris right now.

At the moment, all funds are scarce, as African conservation parks reel from the pandemic-imposed travel shutdown. Ndlovu urged people who had safari travel plans to postpone rather than cancel them; and he asked those who have been considering a safari to book now for a future date, since their deposits could be put to work towards conservation efforts. He also says donations to organizations like the African Bush Camps Foundation are always welcome.

Moreover, says Ndlovu, besides diversifying the management of safari camps, it’s time to diversify who visits them. While they’ve traditionally marketed to wealthy people aged 45 to 65, Ndlovu says it’s time to target millennials and others who have perhaps in the past not thought about visiting African parks.

Ndlovu says, “Those people need to have in their minds that there’s this whole new world, and this world needs their attention.”

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Australian borders closed until 2021

Most countries are looking for ways to speedily open their borders and welcome back tourists this summer, but Australia is saying, “Nah, we’re good.” According to Trade Minister Simon Birmingham, Australia is unlikely to reopen to international travelers until 2021.

The country enforced a strict and early lockdown earlier this year, and successfully limited the outbreak of the virus. Understandably, they’re not too eager to reverse their progress.

Birmingham told the National Press Club, “I do sadly think that in terms of open tourist-related travel in or out of Australia, that remains quite some distance off. Just because of the practicalities of the volumes that are involved and the need for us to first and foremost keep putting health first.”

When asked if the border wouldn’t open until next year, he replied, “I think that is more likely the case.”

An exception may be made, however, for students and other long-term visitors. Birmingham said that for international students and visitors who plan to remain in the country for an extended period, “We can simply work through the 14-day quarantine periods that have worked so well in terms of returning Australians to this country safely.”

The return of international students is viewed as a major priority, as international students bring in $26 billion a year to the country.

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North America border restrictions

To prevent further spread of the coronavirus, the US has extended border restrictions with Canada and Mexico until July 21.

Restrictions on non-essential travel between the North American bloc were set to expire on June 21, but that deadline will be extended by one month. The countries closed their borders to non-essential travel in March, with extensions occurring in both April and May. Just like before, cross-border travel will only be allowed for those working in essential services, and for citizens or residents returning home.

In a statement, acting US Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said, “Based on the success of the existing restrictions and the emergence of additional global COVID-19 hotspots, the Department will continue to limit non-essential travel at our land ports of entry with Canada and Mexico. […] The Department of Homeland Security is in close contact with our Canadian and Mexican counterparts regarding this extension, and they agree on the need to extend their non-essential travel restrictions as well.”

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Loophole innSupreme Court ruling

This week’s Supreme Court ruling prohibiting workers discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity was a landmark decision, but there’s a big loophole. Although it extends employment discrimination protections to the LGBTQ community in all 50 states, it does not apply to small businesses with fewer than 15 employees.

According to Al Jazeera, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that about 17 percent of the workforce is employed by companies with fewer than 19 employers, meaning a significant segment of the population — as many as one in six Americans — is not protected against discrimination. Although some states, like Califorrnia, have laws protecting employees of small businesses against discrimination, in more conservative states the loophole could be easily exploited.

Moe Vela, who was a senior advisor on LGBT affairs to former Vice President Joe Biden, said, “I don’t know of any decent excuse or rationale for having let that sit on the books. There’s always been a special kind of place for small businesses in the legislative process, but I don’t understand how that protective spirit can translate in any way to allowing them to discriminate against employees based on who they love or what gender they identify with.”

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Breaking quarantine in Hawaii

If you think that “mandatory quarantine” means “lightly suggested period of slightly heightened social distancing” that isn’t actually enforceable, you’re wrong. Hawaii requires a mandatory 14-day quarantine for anyone visiting the state, and violations of that rule could result in jail time.

On April 30, 2020, according to local authorities, a California couple on their honeymoon ignored the requirement to remain in their hotel room, and after several warnings by hotel staff, were arrested by police. A few days earlier, on April 28, another couple was similarly arrested by Honolulu police after breaking quarantine. Once hotel staff noticed them returning to their room with shopping bags and takeout food, they alerted the authorities.

New arrivals to Hawaii are required to fill out documentation listing their contact and lodging information, and acknowledge that violating quarantine is a criminal offense punishable by a $5,000 fine and up to one year in prison.

A Hawaii hotel manager told CNN, “Our guests receive periodic calls from state health officials, the police, and hotel staff, to make sure they are actually in their rooms. Some of our hotels are issuing one-time keys, which allow a guest to enter their room upon check-in, but don’t allow reentry. For first-time offenders, our staff will escort them back to their rooms. If they leave again, we call the police.”

Lt. Audra Sellers of the Maui Police Department said, “Our initial goal is to educate people. Our efforts are meant to keep people safe and stop them from spreading the virus. If they’ve been warned, and do it again, we arrest them.”

The mandatory 14-day quarantine for incoming out-of-state visitors will be required until July 31. The same quarantine was applied to people traveling in-between islands, though that was lifted on June 15.

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Gramercy Tavern chef talks support

In the first week of June, when Black Lives Matter protesters flooded the streets with their grief and anger, megaphones pointed at the sky demanding that their country finally treat them with humanity and compassion, a much quieter movement swept social media. On Instagram, lists of Black-owned restaurants went viral. Non-Black and white restaurant owners expressed support for the protests, and promised “solidarity” with the Black Lives Matter movement in so-called blackout posts.

While these posts are well-intentioned, their performative nature soon caught the (righteous) ire of Black chefs who have been advocating for equality in restaurant kitchens, long before it was trending in the news. In a short essay she posted to Instagram, Gramercy Tavern sous chef Aretah Ettarh called out “disgenious and performative” promises of solidarity that aren’t backed up with real action, including “amplifying [and] mentoring” Black chefs and partnering with Black-owned businesses.

Ettarh, who has been a professional chef for six years, grew up in Fort Lee, New Jersey, eating jollof rice and fufu with her Nigerian family, and Korean cuisine at the restaurants in the neighborhood she grew up in. She’s never shied away from speaking her mind, and her response to what felt like empty gestures from an industry that routinely dismisses and disenfranchises Black chefs and businesses owners was no different.

“I’m very opinionated and I enjoy sharing my hot takes, sometimes as a means to just stir the pot, but also as a way to open it up to have those larger conversations,” she tells me.

Here, Ettarh expands on her thoughts about how performance can transform into action, the hard work white people have ahead of them if they want to prove they’re committed to the Black Lives Matter movement, and why it’s time to tear the whole system that restaurants rely on down and begin building anew.

In your Instagram post, you briefly touch on strategies for supporting Black-owned restaurants and Black chefs in the long term, especially from white industry leaders who have expressed “solidarity” in words alone (but not yet in action). Can you expand on what you want to see happen to make sure that Black-owned restaurants are not just supported financially but that Black chefs feel safe/mentored in the industry beyond this moment of political uprising?

Honestly, I think this is too narrow of a question. We can’t talk about mentoring Black chefs in the industry if we first don’t talk about what the culture of the restaurant industry is. It has historically been an industry that has valued the work of straight white men above all else. There’s no denying that. You look at the most famous and revered chefs in the industry in the last 20 years and most of them fit that category.

You can’t talk about mentoring black chefs if a restaurant doesn’t even have more than a handful of black cooks (if that) employed at any given time. So if you want to talk about making black chefs feel safe and mentoring them? First we have to talk about why the spaces that restaurants tend to create don’t usually foster an environment where Black cooks feel welcome enough to want to stay and be mentored in the first place. It’s critical that we focus on restructuring and reimagining the restaurant industry’s culture as one based on equity and not strictly based on diversity in order to foster environments that promote authentic safety and mentorship for cooks to flourish and grow.

In an op-ed for KQED, Ruth Gebreyesu writes that eating at Black-owned restaurants is not an effective way to “address the brutal and deadly force that police continue to unleash on black people,” and at best it, “scratches the itch of ego-driven guilt.” I wonder what you make of this statement — obviously there’s an active good in supporting Black chefs with our dollars, but as Ruth writes, “temporary patronage as a viable solution to an enduring problem” kind of lets white and non-Black diners off the hook, maybe?

Very much so. If white and non-Black people just start going out to eat at Black-owned restaurants and don’t actually interrogate why that wasn’t always part of their rotation of eateries, then how genuine is it? And even going beyond that, it needs to be an interrogation of why it took countless Black people murdered for you to really see the humanity in us and to see the value of our work.

One element of posts about solidarity is that they are “performative,” as you wrote in your Instagram post. Can you expand at all on the difference between being performative and actually being effective? What does it look like to take shows of solidarity to the next step?

These solidarity posts are interesting because it’s not like Black people haven’t been saying for years that we’ve been mistreated. None of this pain and marginalization is new. The Black Lives Matter movement started in 2013 and these businesses didn’t say a damn thing. Black employees have talked about the mistreatment they’ve faced from their employers and coworkers for years and were gaslit. So to see “solidarity” posts now? With no sort of acknowledgement of the harm they’ve done? That to me is part of the performance. That is attempting to erase their own history as opposed to acknowledging that they have also perpetuated the problem. The only business I’ve seen do it right is Ben & Jerry’s. Every other business should take notes.

A related sentiment you touched on is that you’re “tired of Black lives mattering only in death.” One element of the criticism around the sudden push to support Black-owned businesses is that it took multiple deaths for lists like this to go viral. Is it difficult to take efforts like this seriously when they only become popular in the wake of another death?

To be honest, if we were living our “normal” lives and these murders happened, we probably would have seen the same thing happen that we always do: Black people express their pain and outrage, protest, rally, support one another, and find strength in our community while white people offer surface level support and move on with their lives. But we aren’t living “normal” lives.

A convergence of multiple factors happened that I think resulted in this moment. Black and brown people are being disproportionately affected from COVID-19. Millions of people lost their jobs. Most of the people on the front lines in these essential jobs are BIPOC. We have this joke of a president trying to insight a race war by tweeting things like “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” So there are all these factors outside of just the loss of Black life that play into why we’re seeing white people joining the anti-racism party.

On the one hand, do I believe white solidarity is sustainable? I’m not really convinced, but time will tell. On the other hand, do I believe that the changes we’re seeing happen like Derek Chauvin’s charges being upped to second degree murder, Breonna’s Law being passed in Louisville (ironically without the officers who murdered her actually being arrested), and the repeal of 50-A in NYC were because white people joined the anti-racism party? Yes, and it pains me to say that. I guess Black people trying to explain that our humanity is worth value for centuries wasn’t enough.

Right now, it feels like we’re in a pivotal moment in which people are willing to take action but it still feels like we’re very much in the first phase, and that the hard work of supporting Black business people, restaurants, and chefs is still to come. What’s next?

Sonya Renee Taylor has this amazing video on Instagram where she basically spells it out. White people shouldn’t be arguing and defending the value of Black life, they should be asking themselves why whiteness has made it so they don’t see the value in Black humanity. Dwayne Reed said, “White supremacy won’t die until white people see it as a white issue they need to solve rather than a Black issue they need to empathize with.”

The priority for white people should be unpacking that — use that as fuel to learning about the very mechanism of systemic racism and white privilege. Non-Black people should be learning about anti-Blackness and how that affects their interactions with Black people. Hell, Black people should be learning and unpacking their anti-Blackness, too. Racism is so ingrained in the fabric of our society that it’s going to take more than a couple of weeks of social media activism to unpack all those layers. It’s going to take a lifetime.

We must arm ourselves with the knowledge and tools now in order for this to be able to go beyond and sustain past quarantine. My fear is that white people aren’t used to this level of mobilization and activism. What happens when we all get back to our “normal” lives? What happens when you’re back to seeing your friends and family again who three months ago had no problem saying a racist joke or microaggression? To me, none of this will matter if we’re not putting in the work to educate ourselves now. For white people, this has always been a trend. Prove to us that you can make this a movement.

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Barcelona opera house reopens

Hosting a full audience is still too risky for many theater venues, so Barcelona’s Liceu opera house is trying something a little different — playing to an audience of plants. The opera house just announced that it will perform a concert for 2,292 plants once it reopens next Monday, though human spectators will only be able to watch via livestream on YouTube at 5:00 PM local time, which is 11:00 AM ET and 8:00 AM PT.

Photo: Liceu

The Concert for the Biocene will fittingly feature a string quartet rendition of Puccini’s “Crisantemi” (which translates to “chrysanthemums”), and is intended to provoke serious thought about the current state of the human condition and the changing audience experience during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Eugenio Ampudia, the conceptual artist behind the concert, said the concert’s goal was to reflect what happened across Spain and the rest of the world during the pandemic. “At a time when an important part of humankind has shut itself up in enclosed spaces,” he said, “and been obliged to relinquish movement, nature has crept forward to occupy the spaces we have ceded. And it has done so at its own rhythm, according to its patient biological cycle. Can we broaden our empathy and bring it to bear on other species? Let’s start by using art and music and inviting nature into a great concert hall.”

The concert will take place on June 22. Once it’s over, the plants will be donated to 2,292 health workers as thanks for their recent efforts.

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Best luxury cabin rentals in the US

Howling winds and jagged rocks poking at your back don’t exactly make for a good night’s sleep. Add the omnipresent possibility of a bear encounter, and you’re off the hook if tucking into a thin layer of canvas for the night just isn’t your thing. You’re not off the hook for bashing on nature, however, so, fortunately, it’s totally doable to seclude yourself away from the civilized world without sacrificing the bed-laden comforts and four walls you’re used to.

These cabin escapes spare you even needing to sacrifice home luxuries — actually, you might even find new comforts to complement the seclusion. If your outdoorsy friends ever question your preference for rustic-modern, send them this list and watch their mouths drop.

The Douglas Fir House at Lone Mountain Ranch — Big Sky, Montana

Photo: Lone Mountain Ranch

Lone Peak at Big Sky Resort is among the most breathtaking peaks in the United States — and you’ll have a striking view of it from the Douglas Fir House at Lone Mountain Ranch. The cabin features a sauna, four bedrooms that can sleep up to eight people, a loft, and plenty of firewood to keep the stories going late into the night. The slopes of Big Sky are 10 minutes away, and the entire area is surrounded by more miles of trail than you could cover in a lifetime. Dine at the upscale Horn & Cantle restaurant just up the road, or at least pop into the bar for a cocktail and live music. The ways of the wild west have never felt so approachable.

Sweetwater Estate — Lake Tahoe, California

Photo: Tahoe Luxury Rentals

A proper Lake Tahoe vacation could involve a party house rental in South Lake Tahoe within a quick Uber ride of the casinos and nightlife in State Line, Nevada. That simply won’t do when nature is in order, though. The Sweetwater Estate, located at the end of a winding private drive off Carnelian Bay, is the type of spot you rent for the once-in-a-lifetime family reunion; when you need to rally the family around the idea of a rustic mountain getaway but don’t want to listen to your high-maintenance uncle complain about the lukewarm shower once everyone finally arrives. With a five-figure per night price point, you’re right to expect a private pier, floor-to-ceiling windows with expansive lake views, and a glass-encased stone shower with accompanying jacuzzi tub. The hosts also don’t skimp on the wood-burning stove or the lakeside hot tub and patio along the bay. You’ll need everyone pitching in to be able to afford a stay, but these nights will be some you never forget.

Blue Deer Cabin — Claryville, New York

Photo: Red Cottage Inc

The Catskills are where East Coasters head for a quick mountain escape in actual rugged mountains. Blue Deer Cabin smooths the edges of this ruggedness. A small but luxurious two-bedroom cabin surrounded by 23 acres of wildlands, you and a few friends can soak your feet in the Neversink River after a day of exploring the property. Miles of hiking trails are available, and the property is just a few hours from New York City and under five hours from Boston, making it an easy getaway from the urban chaos.

Asheville Cottages — Asheville, North Carolina

Photo: Asheville Cottages

The Manche family offers multiple luxurious cabins for rent outside of Asheville, North Carolina, complete with heated bathroom floors and what they assure is the “softest available” toilet paper (just because you’re close to nature doesn’t mean you have to rough it). Each cabin also has a La-Z-Boy recliner and a hot tub on the back porch, so you’re totally off the hook if literally nothing gets done while you’re there. There are 14 cabins on 15 acres, giving you about an acre of uninterrupted space. If you do manage to pull yourself from the recliner, a tasting at the Biltmore Estate Winery is less than half an hour away. Cheers to that.

The Reserve at Lake Travis — Spicewood, Texas

Photo: The Reserve at Lake Travis

The name sounds more like a gated suburban apartment community than it does a collection of luxurious, lakeside cabin rentals. Still, The Reserve at Lake Travis will give you a new perception of what a cabin can be. Also on site are a full-service lodge, a marina, and a lazy river complete with a swim-up bar — because nothing says getting away from it all like tubing with a drink in hand. If you’re smitten after a night or two, the property has real estate for sale in addition to cabin rentals, so you never have to leave.

Blue Beaver Luxury Cabins — Broken Bow, Oklahoma

Photo: Blue Beaver Luxury Cabins

Midwest residents know how to road trip like nobody’s business, and the Blue Beaver Luxury Cabins make a great place to pull over this summer. A stay here puts you right on Broken Bow Lake, where you can boat, fish, and swim to your heart’s content. On land, Beavers Bend State Park is right there for hiking, golf, horseback rides, and more. The property has a variety of cabins fit for couples and up to six-bedroom lodges. Dallas and Oklahoma City are both within a four-hour drive.

Snowmass Elegance — Aspen Snowmass, Colorado

Photo: Luxury Retreats

Calling this a “cabin” is akin to calling the White House a “place to hang your hat,” but it has a wooden porch, a fireplace, and is in the mountains, so we’re rolling with it. Prices start at $3,500 per night, but you can divide that between you and 13 of your closest friends and have the hardier ones crash bunk-style in the five bedrooms. With a massive common area and boutique kitchen, your only tough decision will be deciding whether to cook inside or out on the grill for the more “authentic” experience. In the summer, play volleyball on the lawn. In winter, strap on some skis and ride right onto the slopes of Snowmass. Oh, and there’s also a hot tub for après-ski (or après-sleep) relaxation.

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Diversify Your Palate map

One night during a trip to Brussels, Brandon Montgomery, an engineer, certified beer judge, cicerone, and the man behind Black Beer Travelers, stumbled on a party in the woods after doing some deep Googling on the local beer scene.

“I’m just a Black foreigner showing up in Brussels, and on this night I get dropped off and go to a party that only locals would normally know about,” Montgomery says over the phone from San Diego, where he lives. “That’s the type of experiences you can find when you just do a lot of deep diving and just plan it all out.”

His approach to travel through the lens of craft beer has led to experiences around the world that he wouldn’t have otherwise had. In doing so, he’s made connections with a diverse set of people in the industry. To help others travel in a similar way, he created a Google map in September 2019 called the Diversify Your Palate map, a “list of breweries, wine/spirit creators, and influencers with diverse backgrounds throughout the world.” It currently features more than 100 breweries and taprooms, more than 20 wineries, and nearly 10 distilleries.

When announcing the map on his website, he wrote that one of the main goals for Black Beer Travelers is to help people of color “find spaces and people that resonate with their spirit while they travel throughout the world.” The map, which is continuously updated, covers much of the United States as well as certain regions of Central America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Montgomery grew up in the suburbs of Dallas and Atlanta and first became interested in craft beer in 2011 while on his first of six work trips to Japan. In a Tokyo cafe, he tried Belgian classics and traditional styles that he didn’t often see at the bars and restaurants he frequented in the US at the time. That experience ended up permanently changing the way he travels; he now actively seeks out the unfamiliar — breweries and other establishments unique to the region he’s visiting.

Part of Montgomery’s philosophy is that life is richer when you step out of your comfort zone, try new flavors, and look for experiences that you can’t find at home. His way of travel opens the door to learning about history and culture, as well as beer.

“It’s the feeling of realizing there’s something more out there,” Montgomery says. “You probably could have found this years ago, but you didn’t open up your eyes and take that first leap and decide to do it.”

Diversify Your Palate, as the name suggests, encourages people to “step out of their normal realm and try something new,” Montgomery says.

With the map, Montgomery hopes to put all the information in front of people so that they can learn about the diversity in craft beverages and plan their own journeys to explore more for themselves. It’s information that’s hard to find elsewhere despite there being more than 7,000 craft breweries in the US alone.

Photo: Brandon Montgomery

Craft beer’s lack of diversity is no secret. By some estimates, fewer than one percent of craft breweries are Black-owned. Craft breweries can gentrify neighborhoods, especially when they don’t offer support, financial and otherwise, to the community where they’ve opened. One reason is that there’s often a lack of people from the community or those who organize for the community in the room when business decisions are made. Drinkers can support diversity in the industry by actively seeking out and purchasing from diverse businesses.

“I would say right now is a time when people are pushing forward to diversify their situation and understand that there’s another way to look at things that they may have not been aware of,” Montgomery says. “I found there’s a lot of action going on now, but it took a lot of time for people to act and break down that wall.”

In other words, it takes more than looking at a list or map once or twice and feeling like you’ve done your part.

“Today you are frequenting these Black-owned, Asian-owned, women-owned establishments,” Montgomery says. “But also continue to do that next week, next month. Talk about it with your friends. Change the general narrative. Have discussions and make it as if it’s nothing special to do this; it’s just understood that’s what you do.”

Montgomery is helping people do this where they live but also where they travel. There are stories to be heard and new experiences to try everywhere.

“There’s a backstory to everyone’s experience in craft,” Montgomery says. To hear that backstory, often all you have to do is sit down with a beer and start a conversation. “That’s what I like to put forward with the idea of a Black beer traveler: searching out the culture and sharing it as you change the face of what craft is.”

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iPhone Police Shortcut

Incidents of police brutality are sometimes hard to prove, but there’s one Siri feature iPhone users who wish to protect themselves can use to record police interactions. The feature is an app called Shortcuts that lets you create any voice control shortcuts you want on your phone. When the app became available in 2018, Robert Petersen downloaded it and set out to created I’m getting pulled over, a shortcut that lets you monitor police encounters without the need to touch your phone.

A bunch of people and news outlets are passing around an old version of my ‘Getting Pulled Over’ Shortcut.

Current version is here:https://t.co/P3rKxJKNKm

Current versions will always be posted at:https://t.co/gFrOSdBV6W#Siri #Police #Shortcuts

— Robert Petersen (@Sonikku_a2) June 16, 2020

When the user says, “Hey Siri, I’m getting pulled over,” any music playing will be automatically paused, the screen’s brightness is dimmed, the phone’s “Do Not Disturb” function is turned on, and a video recording begins using the phone’s front camera. The phone then sends a text to a pre-selected contact informing them that the user is being stopped by police, along with the user’s location.

“Once you stop the recording,” said Petersen, “it sends a copy of the video to a contact you specify, puts volume and brightness back to where they were, turns off Do Not Disturb, and gives you the option to send to iCloud Drive or Dropbox.”

Petersen calls it the civilian equivalent of a police body cam.

To use the feature, you must first have the Shortcuts app installed before downloading the I’m getting pulled over shortcut (also known as the Police Shortcut). The Shortcut is only available for Apple users, but similar features like “Stop and Frisk Watch” are downloadable on Android.

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