K: Adventures While Black was created to harbor a safe space for black, brown, melanated Africans and African-Americans, African Europeans, and those from the diaspora. What I personally feel as a person of color is that society has painted us in this way, Black people, no matter where we go. And I’ve felt it even with my husband when we were trying to decide where we want to go in the world. We're always concerned ‘Is it okay for us?’ We like to hear what influencers say when they're in certain areas. I wanted to create a space where you're in this country but you can find a community where you are welcome, you know you're going to be safe and be able to still explore this amazing country that we're in. But you can do it with people that look like you. That way you're not the only person of color that's on the speedboat when you're going to enjoy the islands. Hopefully I've created these spaces where people could come and I'm like ‘Hey can I do the playlist? Can I do this?’ I’m wondering how I can curate this environment to where you're gonna walk in and it's gonna be a whole bunch of black people but also you add the dynamic of your senses, have music on, the conversation you know you can speak, the ebonics, whatever it is—unapologetically you in a space where there's no judgement.  

 

 

K: Adventures While Black started when we left America it used to be a blog. I used to write stories, and then life started life-ing, and I stopped paying much attention to it. We always had the page and Instagram and everything. When we lived in Bali we didn't go around much. We just lived. So when we got here,  the deal was ‘Let's always make sure we stay tourists and let's always go somewhere, let's see a different place.’ So we would just go out and our friends would see us here and there, and they'd say ‘Hey next time you guys go let us know we want to come’. So that was pretty much how the meetups started happening organically without me even trying. ‘Hey we're gonna go trekking we're gonna go here,’ and people wanted to come, so we've been doing the meetups for a while without even calling them Adventures While Black. Then one day, I looked around and I was like, wait a minute these people are coming with us again and again. I talked to Joel and I was like ‘Maybe we should start doing meetups.’ 

 

So initially it was the meetups. Meetups are to the point where I don't have to push them so hard, and so with that, more people are starting to watch. Now we have event companies that are interested in collaborating with me and bringing musical artists here. There's Bangkok Comedy Club, they're doing the very first ever all-black American line-up and he (Chris Wegoda) picked me because he saw what I was doing. When I got off the phone I was like ‘Okay this is starting to become something’. Now I'm starting to have travel agencies in America that are doing big group trips that want to partner with me. We actually have a group of 50 that are coming at the end of the month.
 

K: Almost 20. I think I'm like 19.7. 

 

K: It's the most active platform for us. Yeah it's crazy. I've always neglected my TikTok. I've always spent more time on Instagram. Starting this year in January I was like, let me mess with this—I think the kids are on it. It started with the one where I say there's black people in Bangkok. That was my first one. I was just sitting in my office and I was like I want to record a video, and I didn't put any thought behind it, I just popped my phone up on a chair—that's why my head was like cut off the way it was because I just was like, ‘There there's black people here’ and then I posted it and I went to sleep and I woke up the next day and someone screenshotted it and said ‘Hey I think you went viral’. …I woke up the next day and just screamed. So I was like, let me ride the wave.

 

 

K: I don't even respond. No. And TikTok is my most negative platform actually. I've gotten a couple of times ‘What would you do if I started an Adventures While White group?’ comments. I’m trying to tell people, I'm like, dude, every group can exist in Bangkok, I'm just trying to create this space where we don't have to be apologetic about who we are. That's it. There's nothing racist about my group. It's not like that. I think if people understood the mission statement of that, then I think they would understand a little bit more, but when you just look at it from the whole and you see black people and you see me constantly saying ‘melanated community’, they are like ‘Wait what's going on here?’ 

 

K: One European told me something one time—this is an instance that sticks out to me—’You're not like the ones on TV.’ And I know what that meant because there's a way that we're portrayed that society perceives us to be, and so when you get an opportunity to meet us, you know, this isn't Love and Hip-Hop. Like, yeah, we actually have sense. But that's how they portray us and that's what people think that we are. I just said this in a speech that I gave at a brunch the other day, us, as Americans, and with (Joel) being who he is in America, he's taught me about being a diplomat. I try to remind people all the time, this is the East, even though you walk in a room there's a whole bunch of black people in there, don't forget we're not in America. The rules are different.

 

K: Never.

J: No, it's something that we chose that we needed to be, you know, the uncles of society that people can look up to so we chose to be that and that's just how it is.

 

 

J: Every space that I go into. Literally every space that I go into I feel welcomed and I feel appreciated. Even with Khela like when she goes and she sings, it’s like ‘Oh my gosh best thing ever.’ That's how I feel in those spaces that I walk into.

 

K: I've thought about having ambassadors. I think if I ever did leave I would probably leave it to somebody, but I would still always take it with me. That's what I love about the brand name. It's very general so I can take it anywhere. ‘Melanin is the vibe’, it's black culture. Black culture is copied and emulated in all countries; it's even here in Thailand. I see Thai kids with dreads. I didn't even know they could do that! When I saw it I was like ‘holy crap, that's witchcraft right there!’ I feel like we are the vibe, yeah. I feel like when we're in this space, we're pretty respectful, and I just feel like we have this energy that is just love. 

 

K: That there's a lot of skin whitening products here and as a melanated person it poses a problem sometimes. Haha. No! It's okay, I want to keep my color.

 

K: More trips. More more adventures. We started taking people out of Bangkok. The first time we did Pattaya, I took them to the Sanctuary of Truth and then we went to Qulture which is a black-owned bar, and we had lunch and then we came back. That was our first day trip. Then for the first time we did Kanchanaburi this month, that was our first overnight.

We got eight rooms in one of the floating hotels. I only did it one night because I was so nervous. It was my first time doing an overnight trip but everybody absolutely loved it and wanted to stay another night, so now that I know that those things can happen, we want more adventures. 

 

J: I just wanted to add one key thing: community. Everything that we're doing is for the community. The community being the melanated vibe, to be able to have a safe space in the community for people to come to and have a soft landing, it’s important to people, so that's what we want to continue to provide and let that continue to grow. That’s why we're doing this.