We had created this picture of it where we're the only ones tramping through this untrammeled wilderness, and it's just false. There was an entire indigenous population that that existed here. I think many of us who are connected with the outdoor world began to realize, wait a minute - we are usurpers. Shonstrom: There has been a real reckoning that came from the protests of 2020 - the Black Lives Matter protests. You included some pretty tough critiques of yourself, including an acknowledgement that exploring the "wilderness" as a white man is sort of a false notion at its base. Lefrak: While this book is a collection of very amusing stories, it's also not just a book about your adventures outside. So, yes, I have definitely been lost and gotten stuck in all kinds of stuff. And I think that that can really change kids' perspective in terms of how they can rely on themselves, and how they can count on themselves, and how they can count on each other. We have all our stuff, we have our tents. What you begin to realize in those moments, and what I tried to impart to the kids, is that it's okay. "Is this trail heading back to the car, is it not?" But I've gotten kids really lost off trail for, like, for a day or two. I know that some of us have been lost in the woods. I've gotten kids lost - like really lost. And that can be really an exciting, fun, and also sometimes scary place to be. That's the fun of it, though, right? You do get into these situations where, all of a sudden, the options are not clear, and that increases people's anxiety and panic. Shonstrom: All the time, every single trip.
I have no idea how to get out of this canyon, or swamp, or canoe in the middle of a lake?" Lefrak: Were there ever any moments in which you found yourself thing, "Shoot. I haven't gone back and checked the records, but I have to have been one of the younger instructors ever had.
Pretending acting? It's a great question, because I was really young. Mikaela Lefrak: What was it like to be a young person tasked with keeping these kids physically safe, and exuding an air of confidence and competence in situations where you might not have felt totally safe yourself?Įrik Shonstrom: Posturing. Excerpts from their conversation are below, edited for clarity. Shonstrom spoke with Vermont Edition host Mikaela Lefrak about introducing young adults to the outdoors, writing with levity and humor, and his own reckoning with the legacy of white men exploring "wild" spaces.
In his latest book, I Probably Should’ve Brought a Tent: Misadventures of a Wildness Instructor, he shares stories from his years as an outdoor educator and wildness guide. Shonstrom is an associate professor of writing at Champlain College and the author of four books. Williams also recreated specific pieces from Smith’s studio in New York, like an art handler vest that’s been made in classic tailoring material and a simple mesh hat.From hiking in the Green Mountains to leading Outward Bound trips in Florida, Erik Shonstrom has decades worth of campfire-worthy adventure stories to share. The most obvious change? A lot less black and a lot more color, with Givenchy logos and motifs pulled from the psychedelic palette of Smith’s Reaper paintings. “Josh’s basket weaving, wood work, and different source materials were great starting points for me and led the collection into a really special and unique place.” Just Roll With It Shirt, hoodie, tank top, sweater and long sleeve t-shirtĮven in the Just Roll With It Shirt Furthermore, I will do this small preview seen here, the tonal shift in Williams’s Givenchy is evident. “Collaboration and dialogue with other artists is a great way to bring the work to a new place,” said Williams over a Zoom call with Smith. Together, they’ve translated the happy-freaky mood of Smith’s artistic practice to Williams’s spring 2022 collection to be presented in Paris this evening. Williams has found both at Givenchy with the help of the American artist Josh Smith, whose ceramic sculptures and Grim Reaper paintings are rendered in vibrant, joyous colors. Fashion designers are coming out of the Just Roll With It Shirt Furthermore, I will do this pandemic looking not only for new ways of working, but new moods to reflect the purgatory-like state of late 2021.