Kisha is a Black storyteller, producer, director, and adventurer. When an autoimmune disease caused mobility issues in her young adulthood, she actively sought movement as a form of healing. This brought her to the outdoors, and sparked a passion to explore and challenge stereotypes about what it means to be an adventurer. She’s currently working on a documentary called, “Black Girl In The Woods,” a chronicle of her’s and others’ journey to reclaim space in nature. When she isn’t enjoying the great outdoors, she’s in her kitchen in Manhattan (on traditional Lenape land) baking up something delicious.
In our Live Your Adventure video series, we’re partnering with Erin Joy Nash & Sanjana Sekhar of Brave Space Media, two of our 2021 One Outside Film Grant winners, to highlight four Eddie Bauer partners who are tapping into the restorative power of outdoor recreation.
About the Filmmakers
Brave Space Media is a multi-racial, women-led, radically collaborative creative team dedicated to stories of healing that uplift traditionally underrepresented voices. Brave Space’s founder Erin Joy Nash is a visual storyteller working to incite change and foster connection through filmmaking and photography. Her work focuses on elevating voices of womxn and BIPOC around issues of intersectional feminism, antiracism, environmental justice, and compassionate living. Collaborative partner and co-director Sanjana Sekhar is an Indian-American filmmaker, climate action communicator, and outdoor wanderer. Her work seeks to amplify character-driven stories that heal our human relationships to ourselves, each other, and our planet, with a specific interest in socio-ecological justice, ancestral knowledge, and systems of re-nourishment. Together, the team prioritizes imagining, learning, and co-creating a decolonizing approach to filmmaking.
Land Acknowledgement and Land Back Location Fee
This film was created on the ancestral lands of the Munsee Lenape, Lenapehoking (Lenni-Lenape), and Susquehannock peoples. Moving beyond simply land acknowledgment, Brave Space Media practices a commitment of 5% of a project’s budget to local #landback initiatives or similar Indigenous-led initiatives that directly support local tribal nations. Traditionally on a film production, filmmakers will budget for the costs of location permitting or renting studios and venues for filming. Brave Space Media wants to encourage all storytellers to consider the land and her stewards as part of the creative ecosystem, to dig deeper into what reciprocity truly looks like, and to continue learning more about how the industry can participate in reparations for stolen land.
Resources
Black Girl In The Woods: Kisha is producing, directing, and starring in her own documentary project, Black Girl In The Woods, a chronicle of Kisha Jarrett’s journey as a fat Black woman with Lupus working to reclaim space in the outdoors alongside other unlikely enthusiasts. What started as a mission to thru-hike the Pacific Northwest Trail becomes a story of discovery, finding joy, and defining one’s relationship with nature. Help bring this film to life by donating to the film here and follow Kisha’s journey on Instagram.
Donation to The Lenape Center: The Lenape Center, based in Manhattan and led by Lenape elders, is working towards the creation of a physical culture center and, since 2009, has been creating programs, exhibitions, workshops, performances, symposia, land acknowledgment, and ceremonies to continue the Lenape presence in New York and beyond. They push back against their erasure and seed the ground with Lenape consciousness for the next generations through art, ceremony, and culture.
Donate to or volunteer for Native Land Digital, the go-to digital map aimed at mapping Indigenous lands in a way that changes, challenges, and improves the way people see history and the present day. We hope to strengthen the spiritual bonds that people have with the land, its people, and its meaning.
