HTLA: EP #18 Taking Up Space with Brown Girls Climb

Shalaka Gole  00:00

[gym ambi] I think so much of it is just taking up space collectively in the gym. [gym ambi grows louder] Gyms in particular, climbing in particular, can be very male, can be very white. We're just trying to like- You're here! This is yours too! [cheering- You made it!... Yeah! Woo! You go girl!]

Brian De Los Santos  00:17

[theme music in] From LAist Studios, this is How to LA, where we learn a little bit more about the communities we live in. I'm your host, Brian De Los Santos. Today's story comes from Aaricka Washington.

Aaricka Washington  00:29

Hi, Brian.

Brian De Los Santos  00:30

She writes her newsletter over on LAist.com.

Aaricka Washington  00:33

Okay, so Brown Girls Climb [Brian: Mmm hmm.] BGC. I'm black. I've only climbed once before when I lived in Annapolis. I don't know that many black folks that do that. But it seems like a very fun way to work out. So I'm like, why not check it out on the company dime?

Brian De Los Santos  00:49

That's the way to do it if you're gonna do it. [Aaricka: Yes, right?] Okay. Wait, wait. You climbed with your nails?

Aaricka Washington  00:55

Yes, I did. And I'm so surprised. None of them broke off.

Brian De Los Santos  00:59

Shout out to your manicurist. [Aaricka: Hey.] [music out]

Aaricka Washington  01:02

[gym ambi] Hi, I'm Aaricka.

Jaya Kang  01:04

Hi! I'm Jaya. I'm a Los Angeles local leader for Brown Girls Climb. And these are my co-leaders.

Indira Orozco  01:10

I'm Indira.

Shalaka Gole  01:11

I'm Shalaka.

Jaya Kang  01:12

Have you ever claimed before?

Aaricka Washington  01:14

Only once, only once.

Aaricka Washington  01:16

So there's maybe 15 or so women here for the meetup. We're kinda standing around near the front of the gym. [Brian: Mmm.] I'm lookin' around, and honestly, at this point, I'm feeling pretty confident.

Brian De Los Santos  01:27

Wait, you're not scared of heights?

Aaricka Washington  01:29

So what you don't know about me, Brian? I've jumped out of a plane before so nah, I wasn't afraid.

Brian De Los Santos  01:34

Ah, okay. Don't sign me up for that. I am not [Aaricka laughs] doing that for this podcast.

Shalaka Gole  01:37

[gym ambi: ...It is now time for the Brown Girls Climb meetup] We're about to get started. And so at the beginning of every meetup, we like to do intros, talk a little bit about what BGC is standing for, and meet each other. We also like to do a land acknowledgement. And then after a quick intro, we do a warm up, and then we go climb.

Aaricka Washington  01:58

We sat in a circle. We went around and introduced ourselves. And we had some bonding moments. You know, I just moved out here. [Brain: Mmm hmm.] And honestly, it's been really hard to make friends and find community. So I'm honestly really excited to be able to share this intimate moment with other women who look like me. [Brian: I hear that.] Anyway, you know me. When we get up, I am ready to start asking questions. [gym ambi] I turned to the girl next to me. Her name is Maddie Busby. [to Maddie] Why is this group so important to girls like you?

Maddie Busby  02:31

It can be really intimidating to climb, especially if you're new, and to be able to just immediately have someone to talk to or ask for help is super important.

Aaricka Washington  02:38

As we're talking, I'm looking around the gym. It finally hits me. This looks super hard.

Maddie Busby  02:44

Okay, let's go climb over here with the other group of girls. [Aaricka: Okay.] I'll show you the ropes without the ropes.

Aaricka Washington  02:48

Okay, I'm nervous.

Brian De Los Santos  02:49

Wait, hold up, hold up. There's no ropes on you or anything like that?

Aaricka Washington  02:52

We've got real thick landing pads under our feet. But no. No ropes.

Brian De Los Santos  02:57

Okay, how tall is the wall?

Aaricka Washington  02:59

It's about 15 feet.

Maddie Busby  03:00

You follow the colors on the wall. You start on the ones that have like a little number on it. A lot of the time your arms are very straight. It uses less energy. Uh, Bitsy the over there. She's reaching up. She's movin' her feet.

Aaricka Washington  03:12

Oh, why is she gettin' back down? She didn't make it up there yet.

Maddie Busby  03:15

So she's warming up for her. She's really good. So you do like levels. You start at zero and it goes to- in indoor gyms probably like a 12 or a 13. She can do like eight, level eight. [gym ambi: Let's go! Let's go! Hold it. Hold it. Hold- Yeah!]

Aaricka Washington  03:29

[clapping] She made it to the top! [gym ambi: Woo!] You go, girl! I want to do that. I want to get on top. All right, here we go. [clapping] Okay...

Brian De Los Santos  03:38

This on your first try?

Aaricka Washington  03:39

Yeah.

Brian De Los Santos  03:40

Damn, look at you. You strong girl!

Aaricka Washington  03:42

Okay, now what? [laughs] I didn't know where to put my foot. [at gym] Boy, this is harder than I thought it was. I might have to do the purple one. [Brian and Aaricka laugh]

Aaricka Washington  03:52

I didn't want to give up! I'm like, oh my god! [Brian laughs] Like, this is hard! [at gym] Can I do the purple one instead? [Aaricka laughs] I'm so scared to fall! [gym ambi: BGC members cheering and clapping for Aaricka]

Aaricka Washington  04:05

Okay, [laughs] so now I gotta get down. Okay. Woo!

Shalaka Gole  04:11

Nice climb!

Aaricka Washington  04:12

Thank you, girl!

Shalaka Gole  04:13

Yeah, how did it feel?

Aaricka Washington  04:14

It felt harder than it looked.

Shalaka Gole  04:16

Uh huh. The girls were all yelling at you. I don't know [Aaricka: Oh yeah, I loved it.] if that worked for you.

Aaricka Washington  04:20

No that did! They had my heart beatin'. [Indira laughs] And I was like, Oh my God. Like, I got a supportive team behind me of dope women. I love this. This made my day. This made my week.

Shalaka Gole  04:30

You could do another one. You could have another week. [laughter]

Aaricka Washington  04:33

So Brian, when I finally did catch my breath, I just wanted to know, how did she get started?

Shalaka Gole  04:38

When I was living in India, I was a part of an organization called Climb Like a Woman. I saw myself in climbing when I was starting out. Like, I could see myself in the people that were teaching me. That's what we're trying to build in meetup spaces.

Aaricka Washington  04:51

How many people are a part of Brown Girls Climb?

Shalaka Gole  04:53

People who come to the [Aaricka: Yeah.] meetup?

Aaricka Washington  04:55

Yeah.

Shalaka Gole  04:55

20? 20, 30.

Aaricka Washington  04:57

So now I want to find something hard. Like really, really hard. [at gym] Lordes! How you doin'? [Lordes: Good.] Good. What is somethin' that looks intimidating to you? [Lordes: So one of these two. What is the orange one? I think it's a V5.] Like this? [gym ambi: laughter, shouting] What the heck?

Aaricka Washington  05:20

Yeah, I give up. And I don't give up, okay? I give up! [Lordes: Look it.] Wow, she make it look so easy. All the way to the top. She makes me feel like I could do it too, but I know I can't. [to Brian] It was so cool to watch her do something I was thinking was damn near impossible. No surprise, it was Indira, one of the leaders.

Indira Orozco  05:47

Indira Orozco. I have been climbing for about six years now.

Aaricka Washington  05:52

And can you tell me how did you find out about this organization?

Indira Orozco  05:56

I started out climbing in Chicago, and I actually co-founded Chicago Brown Girls Climb. It's super empowering, right? I think that's why so many people are drawn to it. There's always something harder for you to work towards. Right? Like, you will never be able to climb everything. But you can find something harder.

Aaricka Washington  06:13

My heart is like so lit up right now. Because I had a group of women who look like me, who were cheering me on. [music in background] There was a moment that [ ] didn't think I would.

Indira Orozco  06:24

And you said you climbed once before. How does this experience compare to that?

Aaricka Washington  06:28

Harder! [laughter erupts] I think this is a little bit harder. Yeah...

Brian De Los Santos  06:35

What did you gain [ ] about the experience? Like how do you feel overall? Would you go again? And what's up?

Aaricka Washington  06:39

Yeah, I would definitely go again. They were really welcoming. And it was cool to see girls like me at a climbing gym. It's very intimidating. You see a lot of guys, and sometimes- Okay, so I have an example. While we were in our circle, there was a guy who decided to climb right above us. [Brian: Just 'cause he could.] Yeah, just 'cause he could because he thought that he had ownership of that space. [Brian: Yeah.] So he could have really hurt himself and hurt us if he would have fell down.

Brian De Los Santos  07:07

Damn, I didn't think about it that way. But you're right. It's- [Aaricka: Mmm hmm.] You're making space for yourselves, and you have to sometimes, right? Like, it is intimidating. I'm intimidated not only because I, I don't like heights. But also it's like, I'm not a bro. You know, like-

Aaricka Washington  07:20

Oh yeah, it was definitely a lot of bros there. [Brian: Oh. (laughs)] Yeah, yeah. But it's so cool when you have like a group of people who are watching over you. [Brian: Mmm.] [music in] By the way, there's another group that they told me about.

07:31

[gym ambi] There's a group called La [ ] for generally people of the global majority, like any gender.

Aaricka Washington  07:36

That means you're next, Brian.

Brian De Los Santos  07:38

You're gonna have to come with me 'cause I do not go anywhere near heights, okay. [Aaricka laughs] We said that at the beginning of the episode. We're saying it again. [whispers] I'm scared of heights. [Aaricka laughs] Shout out to Brown Girls Climb. You can find upcoming events on their Instagram @browngirlsclimb. Aaricka's got a link in the newsletter too, along with some really cute pics of the meetup. So definitely check that out too. But that's it for today. Catch y'all soon.

Aaricka Washington  08:01

See you in the newsletter.

Brian De Los Santos  08:03

From LAist Studios, this is How to LA. I'm your host, Brian De Los Santos. Catch us Tuesdays through Thursdays wherever you get your podcasts. Our producers are Evan Jacoby, Meg Botel and Kyle Chang. Aaricka Washington writes our newsletter. Chris Farias handles our social media. Check us out on Instagram @LAistpics and on Tik Tok @LAistvids. Our intern is Olive Bieni. Hasmik Poghosyan engineers the show. Our music is composed by Donald Paz and Austin Cross. Megan Larson is our executive producer. Shana Naomi Krochmal is the vice president of LAist Studios. Much love to the LAist engagement team who connect us with community members, and another special shout out to the LAist digital and marketing teams. Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes LA a better place to live. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people. See you next week. [music out]