A dialog with Creator Jonathon Stalls

Strolling means many issues to completely different folks. It may be a technique to get bodily exercise, a path to psychological wellness, a mode of transportation, and all the pieces in between. The “how” of strolling can differ amongst folks as nicely. 

Jonathan Stalls, creator of WALK: Sluggish Down, Wake Up, and Join at 1-3 Miles Per Hour and founding father of Walk2Connect, has encompassed these sides of strolling as a technique to decelerate and acknowledge the lived experiences and challenges of pedestrians.

Strolling Throughout the Nation

Jonathon spent 242 days strolling throughout the USA in 2010 and has continued to maneuver alongside hundreds of individuals for hundreds of miles. Whereas most of us gained’t stroll or roll throughout the nation, the deep knowledge and insights that Stalls receives from the folks, land, and animals he meets on his pilgrimage have profound impacts on every of us. In WALK, he shares how strolling deepened his relationship with himself as a homosexual man, providing deep and clarifying emotional medication. He confronts the systemic racism, classism, and ableism that form and reshape the communities he walks by way of. And he invitations readers to turn into woke up activists, to start therapeutic our tradition’s profound separation from the pure world.

Jonathon shared his inspiration for the stroll after studying A Stroll Throughout America by Peter Jenkins. This e book took him on an emotional rollercoaster and he simply knew his personal stroll throughout the nation was what he wanted to resolve private pains and challenges. 

“This journey was to essentially join with transferring the best way we’re made to maneuver whether or not it’s on foot or in a wheelchair, one to a few miles per hour (or quicker or slower), and was primarily a psychological well being journey for me. This can be the factor that may assist me recalibrate, heal some issues, and join with the world outdoors of a car.”

By this stroll, he additionally fostered the act of unhurried motion. He speaks about this typically within the e book and in his teachings on meditative motion. He defined that any such motion additionally brings consideration to pedestrian mobility and navigating advanced techniques round our constructed atmosphere. We should always not solely acknowledge these challenges however discover out methods to interact in change.

Pedestrian Dignity

Jonathon identifies as a ‘strolling artist’ along with his artistic challenge, Intrinsic Paths, and he sees the world by way of this creative lens. Pedestrian Dignity was created by transferring with the group in strolling occasions and stroll audits and experiencing the hole round lived expertise informing coverage, connectivity, and racism, classism, and the constructed atmosphere. As an artist and an individual who was deliberately making an attempt to succeed in youth by way of civic engagement, he determined to make use of social media to share brief video clips of the tales of those lived experiences.

From the introduction to WALK:

These movies can inform tales of how pedestrian mobility has systematically been seen as an illegitimate type of transportation and an afterthought for a lot of planning departments, budgets, and coverage makers. By TikTok, Instagram, and internet hosting in-person walks within the Denver space, he has seen the suggestions and engagement from youth who’re utilizing this challenge to talk up of their school rooms and native authorities conferences. 

“Pedestrian Dignity is an experiment on how one can heart the lived expertise, not shaming folks, however grounding within the hurt, but additionally celebrating the positives as nicely.”

Walk2Connect

Bringing others collectively who could not ordinarily cross paths by way of the lens of pedestrian mobility is a continuing theme in Jonathon’s work. The creation of Walk2Connect follows this identical origin story. 

After his cross-country trek and transferring with a whole lot of individuals from all walks of life, he realized how brazenly he was discovering widespread floor with others whereas humbly transferring collectively in an atmosphere. He needed to proceed this momentum and host extra occasions to permit folks to attach with others in an intentional follow. 

“We began coaching leaders to deal with connection-based strolling occasions in addition to internet hosting occasions associated to walkability, Pedestrian Dignity and accessibility.” 
The work of Walk2Connect has been achieved by way of mutually helpful partnerships with native authorities businesses, mission-aligned non-profits, and personal foundations. America Walks is proud to undertake the Walk2Connect program and proceed the wonderful on-the-ground work with frontline communities.