In October, the All Black Apex event featured about 60 streamers and raised more than $1,000 for charity. It was sponsored by EA, marking the first time that the publisher would get involved with something so explicitly Black-focused. This wasn’t lost on Annabel “Anzy” Ashalley-Anthony of Melanin Gamers, a squad of streamers, organizers, and activists who organized the event.
“Lots of places prefer to use POC as a catch-all for people of color, but Black people tend to be pushed to the bottom of that group,” Ashalley-Anthony tells me, mentioning that she explicitly wanted this to be Black-focused and that she was grateful that her contacts at EA were receptive to her vision.
“There shouldn’t be different types of Apex players” Ashalley-Anthony says. But the social hierarchy of Apex streaming, and streaming in general, creates an environment where Black streamers can’t rely on getting opportunities off the strength of their talent alone. They are underexposed for a variety of reasons, and the best way to combat that, in Melanin Gamers’ minds, is to organize.
That effort to organize and protect Black streamers comes on the heels of a year where harassment towards the community was as widespread as ever. Hate campaigns on Twitch — waged by using a combination of automated bots, the newly-minted tags that help identify marginalized creators who are on air, and Twitch’s raid feature — has left many Black chat channels helpless to endless floods of racist hate speech. Tools were eventually created to help streamers fight back, but not before a one-day boycott of the platform took place in protest of the company’s apparent sluggishness to take action.
Melanin Gamers were victims of these raids themselves — “It did happen a few times but we were able to catch it,” Ashalley-Anthony says. “We had a hate raid on our main channel but since we have such great MOD’s and they were briefed about what to do we shut it down pretty quickly.”
Ashalley-Anthony is the only full time member of Melanin Gamers, but she’s supported by a team of folks with diverse backgrounds. Her brother, Alan Ashalley-Anthony, co-founded the organization and uses his paralegal background to handle the paperwork and do research and fact-checking when necessary. Don “Dandy” Shand handles social media and video production. Laura “Honey” Wilson covers digital marketing, while Koye John-Charles handles their illustrations. Together, the team is the beating heart of an ever-growing online family of content creators.
The Melanin Gamers community stretches across continents, with about 70 percent of associated members being U.S.-based. This is largely because many of their community events and networking meet-ups have been online, especially over the past two pandemic years, where video calls and digital game events have been the norm. That, and Americans, Ashalley-Anthony finds, are motivated by their mission statement. “It’s a cultural thing, I think,” she posits. “Americans of color are good at being loud about injustice.”
Their international presence doesn’t stop at just who reps the brand on streams. Melanin Gamers organizes live community meetups and networking events across the U.K. Though it is largely in the form of free tournaments and other sorts of branded meetups, the squad often uses these events as a gateway to introduce conversations about important, non game-related causes like the gender pay gap, anti-racism, and unconscious bias, partnering with local London organizations when they can to spread an activist message.
One of their most ambitious international projects took place in September, when Ashalley-Anthony and her team went to Ghana for two weeks to hold panels and gaming events for more than 100 young people hoping to break into streaming and online culture in general.
“Many of them don’t associate streaming or social media with careers,” she explains. “They see it as a distraction or a hobby, but not a route to success.”
While the future is uncertain for any event promoter in the face of COVID-19, Ashalley-Anthony is confident that live Melanin Gamer events will come back stronger than ever and just as ambitious — “We have a lot of events in the pipeline specifically going into schools and colleges to get the youth interested in a career in the tech/gaming industry,” she says. Until then, their online events continue to proceed regularly, as well as consistent Twitch streams from the team and their flourishing host of associated content creators.
2021 was all about expanding comfort zones, maintaining healthy lifestyles, and getting the f*ck back outside. For many of us, that meant traveling to new places both far and near. After a year spent in quarantine due to the seemingly never-ending hell that is COVID-19, how can you blame anyone for choosing to work from an oceanside balcony in Mexico instead of their makeshift work-from-home offices?
With travel restrictions around the world partially lifting, 2021 offered new opportunities to explore, learn, adventure, and simply have a good time. While we don’t know exactly what 2022 will bring as Omicron cases continue to rise and travel restrictions click back into place, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the many epic adventures that we did manage to have this year.
Below, 22 travel writers and influencers share their all-time favorite travel experiences of 2021. From a #VanLife road trip across California and a month-long Italian getaway to a Portuguese wine tour and U.S. national park adventures, the experiences below are sure to fuel your wanderlust.
EDITOR’S PICK: STEVE BRAMUCCI (@steve_bramucci) — FORAGING FOR MUSHROOMS IN OREGON
Steve Bramucci
Our Uproxx Fall Experience Guide featured a piece by Indy Officinalis that urged people to forage for their own food, at least once, in 2021. And while I grow a lot of my own food and cook over an open flame a fair bit, as I edited the entry I realized that I haven’t foraged much over the past few years. I set out to change that in the fall and was helped by Karl Holl — founder of Forager Goods & Co.
Holl is a widely renowned chef-of-all-trades who found his lane over the past half-decade and has absolutely bloomed. He’s currently the Culinary Director for Smith Tea and is known for mushroom-centric collaborations with some of the biggest names in the culinary world. His merch site features tie-dyed shirts and hoodies made with Top Chef’s Shota Nakajima and he’s dropped products with beloved brands like Woodblock Chocolate and Earthwell camping gear. Everything he touches reflects his deep expertise and love of the natural world.
The day actually started out pretty mellow. Holl had heard that my next novel includes some foraging near the Oregon coast and wanted to take me to the region where my book takes place. But fall rains had been light there and we were skunked. As someone who definitely tunes in for the mushroom thirst traps that Holl and other foragers post to IG, I got a little worried. My guide didn’t trouble over it at all, though. He took me to a fire pit beside a river and cooked up some oysters. (Always a good remedy for angst.)
As we ate, Holl explained that Oregon has such a bounty finding mushrooms was simply a matter of driving east, back toward Portland into the Oregon Coast Range, until we spotted areas that had gotten some rain a week or two prior.
“Do you have spots you know in that direction?” I asked.
Holl looked at me like I was dense: “You wanted to go foraging, right? We’ll have to forage.”
Forage we did, driving 40 miles, pulling off of Highway 26, and scrambling up a logging road until Holl spotted a gully he liked. We could hear the trucks out on the road through the forest as we began plucking lobster mushrooms the size of my face and creamy-looking chanterelles — scouring the duff for the spots where their caps made a rise in the leaf litter.
In 20 minutes, we had full baskets.
As I marveled over this, Holl explained how this was, for him, a mediocre day. He reiterated that Oregon is teeming with mushrooms and finding them is both an art and a craft, but also not terribly difficult. Listening to him made me fall in love all over again with the state where I was born. He gave me his take from the afternoon and a jar of pickled chanterelles as a parting gift.
That night, I made lobster mushroom carbonara. The chanterelles were an appetizer, cooked in butter with onions. The next day, I cooked an ultra-dense mushroom broth which I jarred and stored. The broth lasted for about a week — I drank a cup with my coffee each morning — but the experience has stuck with me much longer. It’s everything I always hope travel can be: an education, an exhilarating experience, and a reminder of beauty and magic in the world.
My favorite travel experience of 2021 was visiting Rwanda. I had made a vision board in August for what I wanted out of travel for the rest of the year. I was living in Mexico, so the majority of the images and words that I cut out were related to Mexico, because realistically I didn’t think I’d be visiting many other countries in the second half of the year due to the ongoing pandemic. But I came across a photo of a zebra and I had to put it on my vision board, as it’s been a life-long dream to go on a safari. Two weeks later I was invited to go to Rwanda.
So within a month of creating the vision board, I was actually seeing wild zebras in Rwanda in Akagera National Park. It was absolutely phenomenal. During my first safari game drive — which was at dusk, we only had an hour, and everyone told me not to have the expectations — we saw several male and female elephants, we saw two female lions, countless zebra, countless giraffes. It was absolutely phenomenal, but the highlight of the trip was getting to trek to see gorillas. The family I saw had three silverback gorillas and a baby that was only three months old.
It was absolutely breathtaking to be just feet from these kings of the jungle.
My favorite travel experience of 2021 was ringing in the new year in a made-over camper van via Cabana Vans. They let me take a van for a week for a road trip around California, and it was so magical. It was the best way to spend New Year’s since we weren’t throwing parties and we weren’t really around anybody.
It was just a really beautiful way to see more of the state that I live in. I went to a lot of national parks and got to do it with my boyfriend and my dog, and it was just a beautiful time. I got to see so much of the diverse California landscape.
My favorite travel memory of 2021 was definitely visiting Samaná, Dominican Republic. It’s truly a hidden gem that is not mentioned nearly enough in mainstream travel outlets! When you think of Dominican Republic, most people automatically think of Punta Cana (myself included). Samaná is a beautiful remote area full of beautiful zen beaches and lots of locals. Needless to say, it’s a breath of fresh air from the more touristy areas in DR.
Samana was the peace and uninterrupted relaxation I had been yearning for during my month in the Dominican Republic. It was a different type of paradise. You know when you see something so beautiful, you immediately have this jaw-dropping moment of “wow, God is soooo amazing!!!!”? LOL, it’s that type of serene beauty.
My vacation rental had a huge balcony that overlooked the most captivating, tropical scenery/ocean views and had two private beaches! It legit felt like I owned the beach. The only other person there was security, who helped me find a coconut on the beach to enjoy while I relaxed. The entire resort is essentially built on a mountain which ensures that no matter where you are on the resort, you literally have beautiful panoramic views of the ocean at all times…a dream.
Accommodation details — Xëliter Vista Mare Samaná (booked on Airbnb). One to three-bedroom apartment-style accommodations, private beaches, two large pools, and an onsite restaurant and bar. There’s also a cute swing overlooking the best 360 views. I give it a 4-star rating. There was no fancy furniture or decor, but it was clean, comfortable, and overall an extremely enjoyable stay.
Vaccination reopened international travel to me in 2021. After spending the previous year relegated to domestic road trips, I was eager to get outside of the U.S. again—this time, carrying a newfound appreciation for the opportunity to travel abroad. For me, the experience of travel is entirely different than it was pre-pandemic. I now seek a deeper meaning to destinations. I seek experiences beyond beautiful photos and learning where to find the best meals and drinks. Nowhere did that manifest more than at Hadrian’s Wall.
Following the death of my father, who passed away from COVID-19, I decided to hike the full 73-mile length of the ancient Roman ruin near the English and Scottish border. Comparatively few people make this trek each year, and even fewer choose to camp along the way. Canadian archaeologist Raven Todd DaSilva joined me on the journey, and together we spent about a week backpacking into, over, and alongside the ancient ruins of the Roman frontier. By taking a week to absorb a part of the U.K. that travelers in a car can blow by in less than a day, we truly immersed ourselves in ancient history and found new meaning in the briefness of human lives and the unstoppable march of time.
MAHNA GHAFORI (@maza.travel) — ISLAND HOPPING IN HAWAII
My fiancé and I lived in Oahu, Hawaii. So we were based off that island, and we spent eight months of 2021 island-hopping and exploring all the other Hawaiian islands — getting to know the culture, the land, the food. I just absolutely loved that travel experience, and we definitely feel very, very grateful for that opportunity.
Kauai was our favorite island, specifically because of a boat ride we did on the Na Pali coast. If you’re looking for the best experience in Kauai, Hawaii, for sure check out Go Blue Adventures! Our guides Makona & Nessie were the absolute best.
If you’re looking for a coastal city that delivers on everything that makes California, well, California, look no further than the So-Cal town of Oceanside. Oceanside offers great surf, year-round sunshine, undisturbed ocean views, and a booming food scene all nestled within a walkable (better yet, bikeable) 42.16 square miles.
Hit the culture by cruising the California Surf Museum or the Oceanside Museum of Art, or stumble through one (or all) of the great bars and coffee shops that dot the city before ending your night by witnessing the most beautiful California sunset you’ve ever seen from the Oceanside Pier. This town offers all the beachside beauty of places like Malibu and Santa Monica, without the heavy crowds, foot traffic, and tourists.
I’ve spent significant time up and down the coast of California, and I’ve never felt more relaxed and in love with the state than when I was chilling in Oceanside with a spiced margarita in hand.
ALISHA MCDARRIS (@terradrift) — ISLE ROYALE NATIONAL PARK, MI
This year my husband and I returned to Michigan after not getting a chance to explore Isle Royale National Park during a low-key, outdoor-centric road trip we took around the state in 2020. That summer, none of the ferries to the island were operating, so the only way to get there was by seaplane or private boat. So it was super exciting to finally make it to the island this summer for a week of true wilderness, totally off-the-grid backpacking.
It was as stunning as we anticipated and a magical break from the endless negative news cycle. And those views! 10/10 would recommend!
My favorite travel experience of the year was driving through Waimea Canyon in Kauai, Hawaii. It was one of my last big trips of the year, and also one of my first big solo adventures. Waimea Canyon is on the western side of the island where you’ll find mountainous views and waterfalls.
I drove my rental car up to the top of the canyon, making several stops along the way to check out the scenery (by the way, upgrading to a convertible is totally worth it in Kauai). There were unique red dirt patches, cliffs, waterfalls, and streams running through the canyon. However, by the time I reached the top, it was downpouring and foggy. So I missed out on the view at the main lookout point, but it was still an experience to remember.
Luckily, when I drove back down the mountain the sun came out again — the weather in Kauai is insanely unpredictable — so I made one more stop where I found a hiking trail. The short trail led me to a cliff that overlooked a vast canyon that was absolutely stunning. The best part, though, was the giant double rainbow that was tucked within the canyon. I literally was somewhere over the rainbow…It was truly magical!
NICOLETTA DARITA DE LA BROWN (@vida.magica.love) — SONORA DESERT, AZ
By far, my favorite travel moment from 2021 is the Sonora Desert in Tucson, Arizona. Horseback riding at sunset golden hour, monsoons, rainbows, purple mountains majesty. Yes, the mountains were purple. Yes, there were rainbows during the monsoon season in Tucson. Amazing. When I was thinking about where I wanted to go after a year locked down, I wanted to go somewhere new, somewhere I’d never been, and somewhere that I could practice mindfulness fluidly and easily. Somewhere I could breathe for what felt like the first time in a year and a half because of COVID and the pandemic and everything that’s come with that for everyone on the planet.
Mindfulness was easily embedded into this trip was because I grew up on the east coast. I grew up in humid summers. I had never experienced dry heat in the summer before. Being there made it super easy for me to be present. I couldn’t think about anything else except the summer heat of Tucson, Arizona, and the dryness of the desert. I couldn’t think about anything except the beautiful cacti and the succulents and the animals, like the horse that I was riding at sunset. I couldn’t think about anything else except that because it was so different from anything that I had experienced before. By default, my brain was rewired to be present in that moment, which was exactly what I needed.
SHARITA JENNINGS (@itssharitasworld) — DOURO VALLEY IN PORTO, PORTUGAL
Porto, Portugal was probably the most magical place I’ve seen in the world. It was just really beautiful. It inspired J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series. There were actually students walking around in cloaks just like in Harry Potter, so that was really cool.
Then, my friend and I took a day trip to Douro Valley, which is the wine region where Port wine is made. It was just beautiful. It was super green, super gorgeous, and the wine was amazing. It was just non-stop beautiful scenery. I didn’t do this, but you can take an old fashion train to really see all of the valley.
GRAHAM BERRY (@festivalwriter) — SAND DUNES NATIONAL PARK, CO
This year I traveled to 20 of America’s National Parks and hands down my top moment was a short hike to Zapata Falls at Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes National Park. It’s fed by a stream that carves into the Sangre de Cristo Mountains before winding out through the adjacent forest to the base of the Dunes. It’s a short easy hike, but it’s packed with adventure. I actually had to travel about fifty yards into the belly of the mountain to get there!
My favorite travel experience of 2021 was actually being present and seeing New York City open up again this summer – it was a magical time when vaccines were rolling out and the variants hadn’t come yet – New York in the summer is always amazing, but it hit a little differently this year. We were actually filming our brand, new Season 5 of my PBS series, Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi, where I traveled the world within the 5 boroughs of New York City [official trailer here], so you’ll be able to see those magical moments come to life on screen starting this spring!
My favorite travel experience from 2021 would have to be my month-long trip to Italy. I’ve been going to Italy for the past eight years every year around the autumn season in October. 2020 was the first year that I didn’t get to go, so I spent the whole year dreaming of Italy, watching films, and reading books about Italy until the day I could reunite again.
After I got vaccinated, I went there at the end of August/beginning of September instead of October because there were rumors that Europe may prevent Americans to go. August isn’t my favorite month because it’s too hot and too crowded, but I figured I’d take what I can get. So I went there for a month and got to reunite with a bunch of my friends in Italy. I started off in Milano, went to Lake Cuomo, explored towns I had never been to before, then made my way down to Rome and the Amalfi Coast.
I wanted to go to Apulia, but I missed my cat. So I came back to New York, but just being in Italy after not traveling there in so long was just so special. I felt so grateful. That was my biggest trip of the year.
My favorite travel experience of 2021 definitely would be Tulum, Mexico. Tulum is one of my favorite places to visit. It is a bohemian paradise and the Mayan culture shines through all of Tulum. The Mayan way of life is fascinating and immersing yourself in these ways while in Tulum is essential. Explore the ancient Tulum Mayan Ruins, swim through the Cenotes, and shop outdoor markets and boutiques.
Although Tulum gets praised for its parties and nightlife the culture is what keeps bringing me back. There’s something about Tulum that makes you want to recharge and meditate your way through your vacation. My favorite part about Tulum is the many luxury hotels made of wood, vines, and jungle-like structures designed to relate to the curvature of the earth. It’s truly amazing and each property is a sight to see. My personal favorites are Azulik and Nomade. Although expensive to stay, you can go to both of these properties for lunch or dinner or even just to walk through and explore!
The shopping in Tulum is like no other. Tulum fashion is similar to how they construct their hotels, on par with the earth. Natural colors, crochet, and linen pieces make up most of the styles. When shopping the streets of Tulum, one-of-a-kind handmade pieces can be found at the boutiques. I have gotten some of my favorite pieces, including a linen top with beautifully embroidered stars and an amazing handmade hat, at these shops. Lastly, everything you eat in Tulum is amazing. From a $2 street taco or quesadillas to a fancy meal at Rosa Negra, you won’t be disappointed.
Tulum is all-around great vibes and a must-visit in everyone’s lifetime!
SOJOURNER WHITE (@thesojournies) — AMTRAK 52-HOUR ZEPHYR
I would say my favorite travel experience of 2021 was definitely taking Amtrak’s 52-Hour California Zephyr from Chicago to California. I took it solo. It was an impulse buy that may have had a little wine involved. That was definitely the highlight of my summer. It was very unexpected. I never thought I would be taking that long of a train ride, but it was super scenic and beautiful. I really enjoyed myself, so it was definitely my highlight of the year.
My favorite travel moment of 2021 was my trip to Los Cabos, Mexico. This was my first plane trip in 18 months and first time to Los Cabos in 25 years. I forgot how easy Los Cabos was to get to from LA, just 2 1/2 hours. Los Cabos has everything you need from incredible experiences, amazing accommodations for all price points, fantastic culinary options, and plenty of sunshine to relax.
I loved my time there and already have a trip booked for March to explore the Sea of Cortez as part of a bucket list trip to dive with Whale-sharks with the small boat adventure company UnCruise.
My favorite travel experience from this year has been rediscovering my love of Texas. The Lone Star State is full of natural wonders and delicious eats — one of the best places I know to visit or engage in a staycation.
This summer, I had the opportunity to hit the Disco Ranch in Wimberley (in the Texas Hill Country outside of Austin). I didn’t realize how much I missed dancing to the sounds of a DJ. It was spaced out and outside, which made it safe. Moreover, the view was incredible. The Texas Hill Country is underrated in the States, but it has some of the best wineries, scenic lookouts, and mind-blowing BBQ that rivals any place else.
I foresee this location becoming a destination point in 2022 because of its expansive landscape and offerings.
One of my favorite travel experiences in 2021 was that I spent most of the month of July in Greece. Although I’ve been there before, it was so different this time because there weren’t as many tourists due to COVID. It was just such a unique experience to be able to see all of the iconic places without being surrounded by so many people.
It was so fun being able to be more with the locals rather than with tourists. It was a whole different experience in itself. I also had some pretty amazing hotel collaborations during this time that really made my whole experience just amazing. I think that always when I think of Greece I’ll think about my time this year.
ZACH JOHNSTON (@ztpjohnston) — SOUTH DAKOTA ROAD TRIP
I was lucky enough to get to travel around the U.S. a fair amount in 2021. Though traveling from Europe meant that I spent literally thousands of dollars on PCR tests for the privilege to do so. Never before has international travel felt more like a first-world privilege than in 2021, as people are simply priced out of getting to do so (even more so). Still, a simple road trip across South Dakota was the highlight of the year.
I’ve been to South Dakota several times before but this year it was just that little bit better. Hitting the Crazy Horse Memorial, Wounded Knee, the Needles Highway — the trip was like visiting old friends who I needed to see again to get my sea legs back under me.
The trip through the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, still considered a prisoner of war camp by the U.S. government, was the real highlight. While sitting and reflecting at the Wounded Knee Massacre site, I struck up a conversation with an old auntie who’d spent the morning collecting chokecherries and wild sage down by Wonder Knee Creek — crucial to her daily meals since food is massively scarce on Pine Ridge. We reminisced like old pals about rez life, what the pandemic has been like in one of the world’s poorest communities, and where to find the best sage and berries by the creek. The whole interaction was simple and easy. But those are the moments that make travel what they are — simple interactions with someone you know in your bones who you’ve also never met before. It’s going home while also experiencing something wholly unique.
Right after that, I drove off the rez and into Badland’s National Park. I sat by a huge window at the Cedar Pass Lodge and watched day-trippers ready to go into the park with their thousand-dollar bicycles and all the REI gear you could imagine and bags of expensive groceries while I ate an Indian Taco and sipped a root beer. Weirdly, I had crossed an imaginary line and entered a different world, one of excessive wealth — another sign that travel is less about setting foot somewhere “new” and should be more about taking the time to see how different life is on the respective side of our various made-up lines.
My favorite travel experience from 2021 was visiting London and Glasgow on my first trip outside of Canada since the beginning of the pandemic. I loved wandering around different neighborhoods, markets, and parks in London. In Glasgow, I discovered street art, dined at amazing restaurants, and went on a couple of interesting walking tours. While I have loved exploring more of my own backyard in the Toronto area this past couple of years, it felt so good to fly internationally to visit one of my favorite destinations, the UK.
You normally wouldn’t think of a PC or a gaming system as a tool to make art. These pieces of hardware are inherently analytical. They’re built on mathematical formulas and electricity, which are not really the kinds of organic materials Van Gogh would use to create masterpieces.
Amelia Winger-Bearskin, however, has never seen technology and art as incompatible. Over the course of her career, Winger-Bearskin — an Associate Professor at the University of Florida, an organizing member of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, and the host of an award-winning podcast, among numerous other things – has sought to blend art and technology to tell stories and advocate for her Indigenous community.
“Art and technology have really never been separate,” Winger-Bearskin tells Uproxx. “But I think we have thought about it that way. All you have to do is peel back just a tiny bit of any kind of software product or technological gadget and you see all of the artists that were involved in it.”
As a Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) of the Seneca-Cayuga Nation, Deer Clan, in Oklahoma, Winger-Bearskin grew up understanding how tech and art could combine to preserve her peoples’ history and fight for their future. Her dad worked for Kodak’s innovation center during the tech boom of the 1980s and helped create the first digital camera. Her mom, who holds a Ph.D., was their tribe’s storyteller – an umbrella term that meant she served as an academic, researcher, politician, and performer for her community. Her toughest job was translating the tribe’s history into something that could be easily digested by current and future generations.
Winger-Bearskin grew up learning how her people used tech to do everything from harvesting and planting to curing disease. She equated wampum – traditional beads made from shells and worn as jewelry or used as currency – with blockchain.
“I was always thinking of technology in that way, that it’s not something you discover, but it’s always around you and part of your life and has been part of your ancestors’ lives, as well,” she says. “It’s full of a lot of whimsy and innovation. I think that there’s a lot of creativity in the way that computers are created and how open of a sandbox they give us to think about the world. So I still am using computers and AI and non-human systems to make art. And art is a really important part of our culture. It’s something that we can prototype the future with. We can think about our past and reimagine a world in which rights are made from wrongs.”
Winger-Bearskin has done that in a variety of ways. She’s worked with producer Alysia Reiner and actress Christina Hendricks to create a VR experience and installation for the Sundance New Frontier’s Story Lab, modeling how tech can transform film and TV. She created a Virtual Reality toolkit to help citizens in New Rochelle, N.Y. co-design their city. She’s creating a chatbot for the U.S. Dept. of Arts and Culture to help people understand the importance of land back initiatives, the movement to get Indigenous land back in the hands of Indigenous communities.
One of her most popular projects though happened purely by accident … well, a pandemic-caused accident, anyway. Her award-winning podcast Wampum.Codes was initially part of her Mozilla Fellowship while she worked at MIT’s Co-Creation Studio. She intended to create a documentary, interviewing Native developers, gamers, creators, and more, visiting their reservations to see how they were using tech to disrupt and develop new ways forward for their tribes. When COVID hit and the world went on lockdown, Winger-Bearskin turned to podcasting as a way to continue telling the stories of these trailblazers.
From conversations with Indigenous game designers like Elizabeth LaPensée (When Rivers Were Trails, Thunderbird Strike) to deep dives with creative directors like Asha Veeraswamy who are using XR educational gaming to teach kids Shakespeare and transforming board games into 3D experiences, Winger-Bearskin has used this new format to host intelligent, exciting conversations on how everything things like VR, gaming, streaming, and A.I. can improve the lives of people in underserved communities.
“There’s just so many incredible projects that indigenous voices are leading,” Winger-Bearskin says.
Whether it’s initiatives meant to restore tribal land, VR experiences to tell stories of her tribe, or podcasts to give other Indigenous creators a platform to share their work, Winger-Bearskin is constantly finding the crossover potential in art and tech while challenging herself — and others — to use it to spark important conversations, meaningful connections, and needed revolutions.
South Carolina entered Thursday as two touchdown underdogs to North Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte, but it didn’t take long for them to jump on the Tar Heels, taking an early 18-0 lead.
The Gamecocks would maintain that advantage the rest of the way, winning 38-21 even as the Heels woke up a bit on offense, giving Shane Beamer a signature win to close out his first season in Columbia, finishing at 7-6 and carrying some positive energy into next season when Spencer Rattler arrives from the transfer portal. For many, the game itself was just the appetizer, as after teasing us with a mayo cooler on the sidelines a year ago that was only filled with water, both coaches had agreed to take an actual mayo bath if they won.
Sure enough, after the trophy ceremony, Beamer went over to the mayo bath zone, where 4.5 gallons of “slightly watered down” mayonnaise awaited him. It certainly wasn’t watered down much because it took a couple good shakes (and bonking him on the head with the cooler) to get the mayo flowing and it was thick as it covered the Gamecocks coach.
For his troubles of being covered in mayonnaise, Beamer earned a $10,000 donation to a charity of his choice from Duke’s, and the bar has been set for postgame celebrations. As we get more and more food sponsored bowl games, we’re seeing more of these, including french fries in the Idaho Potato Bowl and a cooler of Cheez-Its got dumped on Dabo Swinney on Wednesday night after winning the Cheez-It Bowl, but none of those quite touch the disgusting nature of a tub o’ mayo cascading over your head.
Ladies and gents, the final UPROXX Sessions performance of 2021 is here. Since we’ve spent so much of the year highlighting LA’s underground scene at our LA-based studios, it’s only right that we close out the year with one last veteran LA artist: The underrated Niko G4 of Dom Kennedy‘s OPM crew. In typical OPM fashion, Niko comes through with a mellow performance of his laid-back September single, “Never Change,” vowing to “always keep it player” — the overarching theme of his July 2020 project, pLAyer 4ever.
His first full-length since 2017’s Roll The Dice 2, pLAyer 4ever features appearances from the Bay Area rising star Larry June, Niko’s fellow LA native Mani Coolin, and, of course, OPM general Dom Kennedy. This year, Niko followed up with another full-length record, Winners Tape, tapping OPM family Dom and Jay 305, as well as LA G-Funk revivalist G Perico, Texas producer Troy Noka, and San Diego firestarter Rob Stone. With Niko’s increased activity, it looks like Dom isn’t the only member of his crew feeling revitalized in recent years.
Check out Niko’s groovy performance of “Never Change” above.
UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.
This year was a huge year for vinyl records, far bigger than anything the industry has seen in the last three decades. Billboard reports that 2.11 million vinyl records were sold between December 17 – 23, the most since MRC Data began tracking music sales in 1991. It also marked the first time that vinyl sales crossed the two million mark in this period. This comes after the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) reported last month that vinyl sales accumulated $467 million in sales by mid-2021. This more than doubles the $207 million in sales that were generated halfway into 2020 while opening the door for a billion-dollar year in the vinyl record industry.
There are plenty of reasons for this jump in vinyl sales, with most having to do with consumers increasing interest in the novelty and vintage item that’s still connected to today’s music. This interest is catered to by record stores all over the country as well as the annual Record Store Day campaign. While big artists like Adele, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and more are responsible for a heavy percentage of vinyl sales, the companies that go above and beyond with their consumers also played a large part in this. Stores that seek to do more than sell vinyl, and instead, build themselves as staples in their communities will always have old customers coming back while piquing the interest of new ones.
Plenty of stores across the country do this, but there’s a specific uniqueness and communal aspect that’s present in Black-owned record stores. So here are six Black-owned record stores across the country that helped to give vinyl sales its biggest year in decades.
Moodies Records (Bronx, NY)
The Bronx’s Moodies Records remains a cultural stamp in New York. From its inception in 1982, late founder Earl Moodie provided a limitless collection of vinyl records with a focus on reggae, dancehall, rocksteady, and other Jamaican music. This past fall, Earl Moodie passed away at 69 years old after being sick for a few years. “There was not a sad day to him,” a longtime customer said to Brooklyn News 12 about the late Moodie and his store. “If you went in there sad, he would give you that light. I don’t know how he did it, but he was such an inspirational person.”
Brittany’s Record Shop (Cleveland, OH)
Brittany’s Record Shop will pretty much give a decent selection from multiple genres to pick from. Whether it’s hip-hop, reggae, soul, or jazz, you’ll find it at the Cleveland, OH shop. Their selections get more specific with crates dedicated to Brazilian, Latin, and Afro-funk. However, selling records is just half the job for Brittany Benton. She handpicks every vinyl in the store and helps guide shoppers to new sounds — consider her the Spotify of vinyl records. “When I can make a recommendation that really sticks,” she says in an interview with Cleveland’s Spectrum News, “it definitely validates me, because I know I’m doing the right thing.” Brittany’s Record Shop is temporarily closed at the moment, but a reopening is planned for some point in 2022.
JB’s Record Lounge (Atlanta, GA)
Many of the biggest records in the music world today come from artists based in Atlanta. Whether it’s rappers (Lil Baby), singers (Summer Walker), or pop stars (Lil Nas X), the city has something for you. It’s also the home of JB’s Record Lounge which is far more than you’re typical record store. The company started as a quarterly crate-digging party in owner Jonathan Blanchard’s basement. What began as a collection of 1,000 records quickly grew to 13,000 records leaving all while maintaining the liveliness and community bonding that helped it grow. It also allowed Blanchard to carry a bold claim about his business. “I also will be carrying some of the best vinyl this side of the Mississippi,” he said in a GoFundMe video according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Out Of The Past Collectibles (Austin, TX)
Charlie Joe and Marie Henderson are the proud owners of Austin, TX’s Out Of The Past Collectibles store, and they have been since its opening 35 years ago back in 1986. It boasts a massive collection of jazz, blues, soul, pop, old and new school R&B, and hip-hop vinyl that span the store’s ten rooms, filled with over a million items. Out Of The Past Collectibles isn’t just limited to vinyl though. They also carry antiques, CDs, DVDs, cassette tapes, 8-tracks, and more. Long story short, as their listing on Visit Austin’s website reads, “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it!”
Fivespace (San Diego, CA)
If you happen to live or find yourself on the West Coast and want to get lost in a collection of hip-hop vinyl, San Diego’s Fivespace has just what you’re looking for. Cassettes and select vintage clothing can also be found at the North Park location as the store aims to cater to “consumers interested in vintage design and music products.” During an interview with SD Voyager, owner Sir Frederick promised that a chat with him or the other owners of Fivepsace will result in “a whole new world of styles, artists, and genres to discover that are tailored to your individual tastes.”
Offbeat (Jackson, MS)
In a few years, Phillip Rollins (aka DJ Young Venom) will celebrate the tenth anniversary of his Jackson, MS record store Offbeat. Since its opening in 2014, Offbeat has grown into a home for new and old releases, reissues, and used records that buyers can sift through and choose. A collection of collectibles, pins, apparel, and more can also be found at Offbeat. For Rollins, the store is a visual representation of his goal to “create a space that would have a lasting effect on the state of Mississippi,” and the store’s website reads. Influenced by art from all unconventional aspects of the world, Rollins is doing a great job of highlighting the overlooked corners that his store helps to bring attention to.
Not only did Ava Max experience the difficulty of promoting her debut album Heaven & Hell during lockdown, but she also unfortunately caught COVID in 2020. While Max made a full recovery, the singer said she did have one very unfortunate side effect of the virus: hair loss. Thankfully, a year later, her hair is finally growing back.
The singer revealed the status of her hair growth in a video posted to her Instagram Stories. “Baby hairs Comin THRU,” she wrote. “Also so so happy my hair is growing back (I lost a lot of hair when I had COVID).”
The CDC hasn’t confirmed hair loss as a side effect of contracting COVID. But hair loss, or hair shedding, can be a side effect of having a high fever, which many experience with COVID. Furthermore, stress can be a major contributing factor to hair shedding, which may be the case with those who came down with COVID.
Hair loss is always an unwelcome occurrence, but it is particularly unfortunate for someone like Max whose haircut is part of her brand. The singer is known for her lopsided hairdo affectionately named the Max Cut (it’s long on one side and bobbed on the other), which actually was the result of a happy accident. One day, the singer decided to chop off her locks while she was simultaneously baking cookies. The cookies started burning in the oven when she had only cut half her hair, but decided to stick with the style. Since, the Max Cut has since become a metaphor for empowerment the freedom of self-expression she preaches in her music.
Watch Max document her new hair growth above.
Ava Max is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Reviews are as synonymous with video games as double jumps and health packs at this point. They’re an essential part of the gaming ecosystem — good reviews can be crucial for a major release’s chances of breaking even, while a positive review can pluck one of the endless array of indie games out of obscurity and into the mainstream. But some reviews are simply more important than others for a specific population of gamers, especially when it comes to the work of DAGERSystem and the legion of disabled gamers who rely on the site’s reviews.
For a significant portion of the gaming population, the ability to even play a game properly isn’t something that can be found on the box or in a traditional review. Gamers with fine motor impairment or other disabilities need to know what options a game may have to accommodate their unique circumstances before they pick up a controller. It’s an area Josh Straub aimed to fill with DAGERS when he founded the website in 2012.
Intended to be a consumer protection site, Straub’s DAGERSystem reviewed games with a specific goal in mind: inform disabled gamers before they buy a game about whether that title is playable with impairments. Originally intended as a rating system similar to the ESA, the site largely provides reviews of games that focus on playability for disabled gamers. While many gamers don’t need to tinker with game settings too much, for some, having playability features can actually make a play-through possible in the first place. Whether it’s visual changes to help colorblind gamers or flexible goals in a game to help impaired gamers better navigate challenges, there are numerous ways to make games for a broad array of gamers of different abilities and limitations.
“The three broad principles I go off of are the three Fs of accessibility: flexibility, forgiveness, and fun,” Straub tells Uproxx. “Flexibility is how much of the experience can be tailored to my needs as a player.”
Straub explains that there’s no hard-and-fast list of features games need to be more accessible. But the principles can apply to anything from puzzle games, to sports sims, to first-person shooters. In a shooter, for example, Straub gravitates toward titles that let him use a shotgun because it “minimizes the challenges” that come from his own motor impairment due to cerebral palsy. That flexibility — and even options like button remapping or adjustable text sizes — seem like small tweaks but can help more gamers get a fuller experience from a title.
Straub studied the medical benefits of gaming for the disabled in college, and as he pursued his Masters and PhD, he started DAGERSystem to keep his writing skills sharp. But the site grew over the years, and along with others like CanIPlayThat have become part of a vibrant community advocating for more play options for disabled gamers.
In September, DAGER debuted the Accessible Games Database, an ever-growing searchable collection of information about games and their accessibility options. The Database is in its early stages, but cataloging the visual, auditory, and fine motor tweaks of titles like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is something most reviews of the AAA title simply never cover.
Straub stresses that progress is being made in gaming, albeit as slow as the notorious development pace of many sprawling AAA titles that take years to transform from idea to execution. DAGER’s most recent Diamond Award — given out annually to a game advancing the range of accessibility options in gaming — went to Naughty Dog’s The Last Of Us Part II. And it’s not just because Straub himself worked on the game as a consultant: The title had more than 70 accessibility features, a far cry from the award’s origins as meeting a “reasonable standard” of accessibility, which usually just meant the game could be played at all.
“The terrain has changed drastically from mere playability being a standard that we’re trying to reach to now a features-based approach,” Straub says. That approach doesn’t come without buy-in from the people that make games, of course. But it’s clearly possible to make a Game of the Year candidate extremely accessible to a wide audience.
In recent years Straub’s for-profit consulting work has seen him work closely with several different studios to help programmers and game directors build more accessible games. The process, he says, often starts with largely the same reckoning period regardless of the project.
“If they have no awareness of accessibility, the very first thing they do is respond emotionally,” Straub says. “Either they get angry with themselves for not seeing this ahead of time or they get profoundly sad. I had a senior producer at PlayStation tell me that after he met me, he felt like he had wasted the first 30 years of his career.”
Straub calls that kind of drastic response “very common” because of the emotions involved with game development in general. But after the hyperbole fades, he says, things get “really interesting.”
“It’s actually really, really fun because then they start brainstorming,” Straub says. “The first thing they do is they jump headfirst into the literature and into best practices and they come up with ideas. I haven’t had to really drag anyone kicking and screaming into accessibility.”
Straub admits not everyone in the industry has embraced accessibility. Certain titles or studios make waves in the community for not addressing concerns or considering gamers hoping for more play options. Many of the simplest accessibility options center on overall difficulty. Straub noted disabled gamers enter fail states more often than others, so the ability to save more frequently and not need to backtrack as much after dying in a game makes it more playable, not to mention far less frustrating. But not every game maker wants to implement different levels of difficulty or appeal to a wider audience than they had previously considered.
“I will be the first one to tell you that games thrive off of diversity, and part of that diversity is the diversity of challenge,” Straub says. “And the diversity of challenge will necessitate that some games will be less accessible than others.”
That diversity, however, is what makes the Database essential for so many. And Straub and the community that relies on it are eager to see its catalog continue to grow as developers approach the process of making games — and who is playing them — with fresh eyes.
“One of the things we say around these offices is if accessibility is too expensive or too hard you’re doing it wrong because real accessibility is not about universal design — universal design is a myth,” Straub says. “Real accessibility is about understanding your limitations as a studio and working within those limitations — and the limitations of your creative vision — to create an experience that as many people as possible can enjoy.”
WARNING: Spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home below.
In the mid-credits scene for Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock is seen getting drunk at a bar in Mexico, which confirms that the end-credits scene for Venom: Let There Be Carnage did, in fact, show Eddie/Venom being pulled into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, there stay wouldn’t be long. As Doctor Strange issues the film’s final spell that erases all memory of Peter Parker, Eddie/Venom are sent back to their home universe, which appears to be the same one as Morbius, but not the MCU, which is causing all kinds of confusion because, apparently, there’s some sort of Spider-Man bouncing around there. As for which one? Who the heck knows?
Anyway, one of the big questions is why would Tom Hardy’s Eddie/Venom be pulled into the MCU in the first place by Doctor Strange’s initial spell considering they had no connection to Spider-Man at this point. Here’s what No Way Home screenwriters Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna told Variety:
Speaking of biting, the screenwriters say that including Eddie Brock and his alien symbiote Venom in the film’s final battle was “definitely discussed.” The pair confirmed that Watts directed the post-credits tag on “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” which showed Brock zapped into the MCU. But Brock was ultimately relegated to the “No Way Home” post-credits scene instead. As for how a character who had never met any Peter Parker, let alone Spider-Man, could be pulled into the MCU by a spell specifically drawing people who had to know Peter Parker was Spider-Man? “The idea is that the symbiote has knowledge of other universes. Buried in his brain is some knowledge of that connection,” McKenna said.
So basically Venom has in-depth knowledge of the multiverse. Neat. As for the pressing question of whether or not Ted Lasso‘s Danny Rojas is the MCU’s Venom, sadly, the screenwriters offered no hints on that one, but fingers crossed.
This week’s Ghislaine Maxwell guilty verdict (for helping the late Jeffrey Epstein recruit and abuse underage girls) has led to some awkward takes. That includes rootin’ tootin’ Rep. Lauren Boebert demanding more justice against those linked to Epstein (she was likely thinking of Bill Clinton but didn’t mention Donald Trump’s Epstein association). Among the others implicated in unsealed court documents would be former O.J. Dream Team member Alan Dershowitz.
Dershowitz hasn’t taken kindly to revelations about that association. He even sued Netflix for $80 million (while claiming defamation) over the Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich documentary’s noting of allegations that he had sex with Virginia Guiffre, the Epstein survivor who accused Epstein and Maxwell of grooming her at age 17 “to have sex with Epstein, Dershowitz, and other powerful men as part of a sex-trafficking ring.” For his part, Dershowitz insisted that the accusations are “categorically false,” but to complicate matters, he reportedly “helped negotiate a non-prosecution agreement” for Epstein’s case, which only led to a 13-month sentence.
So, there’s no universe where Dershowitz could be considered an “impartial analyst,” which led to an enormous mess when the BBC decided to welcome “constitutional lawyer” Dershowitz about the Maxwell guilty verdict. And in response, the BBC scrambled by issuing a statement:
“Last night’s interview with Alan Dershowitz after the Ghislaine Maxwell verdict did not meet the BBC’s editorial standards, as Mr. Dershowitz was not a suitable person to interview as an impartial analyst, and we did not make the relevant background clear to our audience. We will look into how this happened.”
Yikes. To say the very least, it’s a terrible look for the BBC to interview Dershowitz, who has been accused of sexual abuse by an Epstein survivor, as an impartial expert on Epstein’s right-hand gal. People are disgusted and calling the move “grotesque” and “unfathomable,” among other things. The also-accused Prince Andrew came up in people’s speculation of how this oversight happened.
The BBC having Alan Dershowitz as an expert commentator on the Maxwell verdict is grotesque, and a complete disgrace for a public service broadcaster. pic.twitter.com/M19QfbAdOh
the BBC ‘interviewing’ (allowing to monologue) Alan Dershowitz immediately after the Ghislaine Maxwell verdict, just to top their Gonzalo Pinochet on Boric the other week pic.twitter.com/dBprpvw0lc
Also v worrying that, after the verdict, the BBC interviewed a ‘constitutional lawyer’ as if he was an impartial expert. This expert spent the interview saying that Prince Andrew was innocent. Turns out Alan Dershowitz was also accused of sexual abuse by one of Epstein’s victims. pic.twitter.com/lbkDu0msKy
The descent of the BBC is truly spectacular to watch. Is believable that the National broadcaster would go to bat for Ghislaine Maxwell or is it more likely that a certain Royal nonce #PrinceAndrew is behind this
And this tweet might sum the matter up best: “What next… Freddy Kruger invited on to discuss teenage knife crime?”
Still can’t believe the BBC had Alan Dershowitz on to discuss Ghislaine Maxwell. What next… Freddy Kruger invited on to discuss teenage knife crime? pic.twitter.com/ylx8kV4Hbf
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