The Education of Shelby Knox

Good morning, y’all, from beautiful Charleston, South Carolina! I am writing to you from the kitchen of NotSo Hostel, looking out over a southern style veranda at a beautiful red sunrise and a cluster of tents full of sleeping Wanderlusties. Yes, we’ve already established that my body wakes with the sun if it can only see it…and assigned me to breakfast duty so that the group can take advantage of that. We’ll see if that role changes after they eat something I’ve cooked…

The Wanderlust crew, I’ve discovered, is an amazing group of women, each with a unique story and perspective on reproductive health, rights and justice. We range in age from twenty to fifty, and come from all over the United States. We have strong contingents from Illinois, California, and Texas – including a fellow Longhorn who also got her degree in political science. (She even named her orange bike Bevo, after the huge, scary Longhorn that’s the school mascot!)

We have in our ranks a Baltimore teacher, several visual artists, a handful of students, two professional organizers, and a very cool reverend, Becky Turner, who is the executive director of Missouri Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. She was ordained as a Southern Baptist pastor just before the convention decided women were not allowed to be in the pulpit, so we had a fascinating conversation (over authentic soul food) about the shared experience of being pushed out that denomination. Check out her ride blog, 2000 Miles for Reproductive Justice. I am really excited about getting to know each one of these women, and I’ll tell you a bit about them as I do.

We spent the day yesterday in orientation mode, going over bike safety, group roles and processes, and putting together and servicing our vehicles. We also had our Charleston town meeting, which was frightening, enlightening and empowering all at once. About seven people showed up, and all had very interesting stories about fighting for women’s rights in the Deep South. One older couple gets up every Saturday morning to escort at the local clinic; the gentleman had us rolling on the floor when noted his tactic for deterring protestors is to play an accordion really badly. The laughter stopped when he told us he personally did it so he wouldn’t have to listen to the screams of “Why are you helping to murder your grandchildren?”

I have already said over and over again to various fellow riders that on this trip is right where I need to be right now in my journey. We’ve already had difficult and divisive discussions about race, class, and feminism – but we all respected each other’s voices and opinions and learned something from simply having the conversation. Over the past year, I have been on a truly spiritual feminist journey, figuring out what I believe, who I am, and how I will operate in the world so as to change it and make it safe and equal for women, and it turn, the whole human spectrum. This group and this trip have already challenged me explain, examine, and employ my feminist philosophy – which is quite different from much of the group because I self-identify as a Second Wave feminist, meaning that while I do not share the lived experience of that generation, I am a more ideologically aligned with them than the Third Wave traditionally represented by my generation. This can cause some tension at times, especially since the reproductive justice movement is generally believes that Second Wave feminism excluded many groups of women and is a backward and outdated philosophy – a claim that certainly has validity in some cases, but shouldn’t, in my opinion, be used to paint over the ideas and accomplishments of that movement. I think this is going to be big for me during this trip, so I’ll let you know how it’s going!

I have yet to pedal anywhere, but that will change today when we set off for the next campsite, about thirty miles away. Grace Artemis has a new saddle and is ready to rock and roll; I have a fantastic new Wanderlust jersey and biking gloves. I’m both excited and scared to get on the road, but I think it’s like ripping off a band-aid – do it quick and get it over with!

I have to go cook breakfast now, but I will be back soon!

Oh, and since I know you are reading: Happy Birthday, Mom! Happy Father’s Day, Dad! I love you both and thank you so much for helping me be here!