What I'm looking forward to in Black travel this year

There are some new openings and exhibits that are For The Culture this year and I can't wait to see them. Here's my 2026 list.

Hello everyone! I know many of you are here from my recent ‘from the editor’ newsletter for my day job at Afar magazine, where I highlighted some of our Black history month travel coverage and wrote a bit of a love letter to Durham, NC (I’ve also made an 18-page Black travel guide to Durham if you’re interested!). I’m so delighted you’ve decide to check out my corner of the internet!

There’s one thing I want to clarify for everyone who is reading this now or may read this newsletter in the future: The Road We Trod is in no way affiliated with Afar. All of my thoughts, research and musings here are my own, and if you try to reach out to me through my newsletter to get to Afar, I will not respond. I want to make it clear that there is a hard boundary between this newsletter and Afar, and when you’re reading this, you may as well forget I work there lol.

Cracks knuckles Now that that’s out of the way, here’s what’s been on my mind. In January I had every intention to publish a newsletter near MLK Day but life was life-ing. Still, as the holiday approached, and the world became more of a clusterfuck, I was reminded of the fact that one of my goal books to read this year is the last book Dr. King published before his death titled Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? So let’s just pause right here. Without even knowing what this book is about, isn’t it insane how prophetic the title is? As the United States descends further into chaos, I’ve found myself isolating out of fear, anxiety and dread. It has left me feeling exhausted from the moment I wake up, and in fear of nearly all of my fellow humans. Convinced that they are only out for themselves come hell or high water. Sounds like projection, no?

Chris and I at the MLK Day of Service (before I cried).

To try to shake myself out of my anxiety fueled depression, I signed my husband and I up for a MLK Day of Service at my former high school in Arlington, VA. We signed up to create welcome home bags for Affordable Homes and Communities, a nonprofit dedicated to providing quality affordable housing to low-income residents in Arlington. Before we assembled our bags, there was a kick off program where different volunteers were honored with service awards, and community leaders gave speeches about Dr. King’s legacy. During the program I found myself weeping uncontrollably.

I mean, I cried so hard I thought I might be pregnant because I didn’t understand why I was so emotional (i’m not, relax)! When my husband asked me if I was ok, all I could say was “I just haven’t felt hopeful in a really long time”. To be in a room filled with hundreds of people dedicated to serving each other, to lean into community and to practice love over hate (though there was a lovely amount of shade directed to that rat in the White House) was something I didn’t even know my spirit needed. The event was a turning point for my outlook, and as I think about Dr. King’s book, I’m working so hard every day to lean into community over chaos.

As this book hopefully becomes the theme for my year (I will be reading it next month), I’ve noticed that many of the Black culture-related openings I’m looking forward to this year carry a similar theme. Here are the ones that excite me the most.

My visit to the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis changed me on a cellular level. I will never get over how that place made me feel and I can't wait to go back.

Memphis

You all know how much I love Memphis and I cannot wait for the opening of the most recent addition to the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel. Opening May 15, the Legacy Building—the former boarding house from which James Earl Ray shot Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—will unveil a permanent exhibit that’s deeply rooted in the seemingly never ending fight for civil rights, and takes a close look at King’s mission as laid out in his book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Five galleries will carry the themes of poverty, education, housing, gender equity, and nonviolence, and guests will be challenged to explore the structural inequalities Dr. King warned of, and how those injustices still shape American life today. If I don’t make it to Memphis for the opening, I plan to take a trip later this summer to read every single museum placard.

Me looking super geeked before my hard hat tour of the Obama Presidential Library. Pictures were strictly forbidden inside.

Chicago

AMERICA’S BOYFRIENDDDD! HIS PRESIDENTIAL LIBARY IS OPENING!! Remember when we had a handsome, intelligent, witty, charming, Black President we could be proud of? I do, vividly. I’m not going to wax poetic about how much I miss him and Michelle because I’m sure that if you read this newsletter, you do too. Fortunately, we all can now get even closer to them and their legacy with the opening of the Obama Presidential Center on June 18. I got the chance to tour the building when it was still an active construction zone last summer and it was so exciting to see just another piece of his legacy in physical form. I don’t think we’ve ever had more of a community-minded president, at least in my lifetime, so I know that a visit to the center will fill me with so much hope and inspiration.

I've spent the last several Juneteenth's in Martha's Vineyard surrounded by both friends and visionaries who always remind me how truly blessed I am to be a Black woman.

Juneteenth, everywhere

In the context of all of the events taking place to commemorate the 250th birthday of the United States, it feels more important than ever to celebrate Juneteenth wherever you are. I was raised with a father who instilled in me the history of the famed 1852 Frederick Douglass speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?,” a fiery challenge to the well-meaning ladies of the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society to ask themselves, why should we celebrate the “birth of freedom” when not all Americans are free? It’s a question that so many of us Americans will be asking ourselves on this 250th anniversary. Instead, I personally plan to celebrate the 160th anniversary of the first Juneteenth celebration which was a grassroots celebration that took place in 1866 (the actually announcement of liberation was 1865) in Galveston, Texas. Today the city hosts one of the largest and oldest Juneteenth parades, plus there’s an unbeatable walking tour where you can visit the sites where the announcement took place. Luckily for us all, there are Juneteenth celebrations across the country, but some of the biggest ones take place in Tulsa, Buffalo, and Milwaukee but if you do your research, I’m sure there’s one even in your small town! Finally, as a reminder, this is not a “Black holiday”. If you are supportive of slavery being over, this holiday is important to celebrate as a full American holiday.

Of course my Queens-born man had to pose like a knucklehead in front of the Queens map lol

New York

Back in the fall of 2023, the first trip that Chris and I ever took together was to New York and we got the chance to experience a touring pop up of the Hip Hop Museum set to open in the Bronx. I posed in front of a recreated entrance of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, an apartment building known as the birthplace of hip hop; checked out a Run DMC gold chain; and looked through an old photo album with snapshots of Queen Latifah from the early 90s. And speaking of community, there’s no better party than a hip hop partyyyyy. Ever since that day, we’ve been patiently waiting for the opening of the Hip Hop Museum and I’m so excited to see that it’s finally slated to open to the public this fall.

*****

As you all know by now, I’m a big history nerd so it should come as no surprise that what I’m most excited for in Black culture this year skews towards museums and cultural spaces. However, I want to know what you’ve heard about. Is there something Blackity Black Black Black that’s on your list to check out this year? The second half of my year is wide open so I’m very ready to explore. Please let me know below!

x, S