INTRODUCTORY NOTE: This is part two of my interview with Briona Lamback. If you have not yet listened to part one, I highly recommend you go back and do that first because it provides some really important context for this episode. That was episode #292 of The Maverick Show. If you have already listened to part one, then please enjoy the conclusion of my interview with Briona Lamback.

Matt Bowles: Well, I also want to ask you about your journey with writing, journalism, and storytelling. And I think I want to start off by reading a quote from your website. On your website you say:

“The story of my life has long been about helping black people get free. My work, whether through workshops or writing, is rooted in liberation, education, and truth-telling. It’s about paying homage to our ancestry and shaping a future where our stories are heard and valued.”

Can you share a little bit, Briona, about the origins of your love for writing, language, poetry, and storytelling?

Briona Lamback: It’s an interesting one. I have a story for everything. So, when I was in 10th grade in English class, I had a teacher named Mister Ward. Shout out, Mister Ward. And we were doing a poetry section of the curriculum, and I was not interested.

I thought poetry was boring, but I had always been really good at reading and did well in English classes. And since I can remember at least seven or eight years old, I’ve always had a journal. I diaried and journaled about all my little elementary drama. And so, when I was in that 10th-grade class, Mister Ward went around and asked everyone what they wanted to do when we graduated in a few years. He got to me, and I said, I want to be an author.

I had never said that out loud before. I never talked about it with my parents or anyone for that matter. It just kind of came out. And I don’t think things like that are a coincidence. And so, not quite an author of my own book, but I have authored many things, published many things since then, and poetry specifically.

I was just heartbroken in college, and I started writing about it and I was like, oh, I’m kind of good at this. So, I feel like I’m still a poet. I don’t perform in things as much as I used to, but it’s always kind of woven into the writing that I do. I’ve always been a foodie as well. When I was nine years old, I went on a little mini hunger strike.

So always been a revolutionary. Me and my family would go to semi-regular family dinners, places like Fudd Ruckers if you remember them, from back in the day, and Outback. We liked to, and I was tired of the chicken tenders and French fries’ option, and I always could eat as a kid. And so, I basically told my parents, I’m not going to eat tonight if you don’t let me order off the adults’ menu. And they said, as long as you eat your food and don’t waste it, don’t waste our money, you can order what you want. And so, I started ordering off the adult’s menu at, like, nine years old, but I ate all my food. So, yeah, I’ve always been a foodie. And when I went on that first trip to California, I came back home and started a food blog. After London, it turned into a travel blog, and that’s how I started travel writing.

Matt Bowles: Well, I want to ask you a little bit about your food writing. And one of the things that I feel like you have really done uniquely and masterfully is interwoven themes of Black liberation into your food and culinary writing. And I’m wondering if you can give some examples of that and talk a little bit about that. And perhaps you could share specifically the award-winning article, which is outstanding, by the way, that you wrote for Atlas Obscura, called The Double Life of New York’s Black Oyster King.

Briona Lamback: Thank you for that. So, I can’t say that I’ve done it all alone. My full-time work and work that I’ve been doing for quite a few years is for a digital media company that everyone should check out. We do beautiful work. It’s called Push Black.

And all of the content is based on black history and culture with those themes of black liberation. And so that story, specifically about Thomas Downing, New York’s Black Oyster Kingdom, was a story that one of my coworkers wrote at work. And our content is a lot shorter, only 200 words, and it’s sent out around social. I read it, and I was just, whoa, I love this story. But I knew there was more.

And so, I started doing my own research. I pitched it to Atlas Obscura, and I got to write one of my favorite stories I’ve ever written. I say it’s the story that keeps on giving because I wrote it in 2022. In 2023, the year that I consider my “worst”, just in my personal life. I lost my dad and in my professional life because I wasn’t travel writing, and it won an award.

It ended up in the best American fool writing of 2023. And then soon, I’ll be on the Atlas Obscura podcast talking about that same story. So, it’s a beautiful story about Thomas Downing, who basically pioneered fine dining as we know it. And who took oysters from being every man’s food, a street food sold for a dollar to the fine dining seafood that we know them as today. And he just has an incredible story.

In his story, the Black Liberation was foundational. He and his son were hiding enslaved people in the basement, in the cellar of his oyster restaurant, and helping them escape to freedom in Canada. Like I said, black history and culture is just such a part of who I am, and I want so badly for black people to be free and liberated in every way. I can’t help but write things. And when I’m talking about traveling food, I’m always leaning into the black history of it.

Matt Bowles: Well, it’s an incredible piece. We are going to link it up in the show notes. I want to encourage everyone to go read that and then hopefully go down a rabbit hole and start reading the rest of your articles, which integrate food and black liberation and culture and travel and all sorts of really interesting stuff. As I started going through your content, I was just reading another and another, and it’s really a wonderful body of work. I’m actually curious if you can share now a little bit about your journey into travel journalism in particular.

Briona Lamback: Yeah, I started a food blog that then turned into a travel blog. And somewhere around 2018, I just started getting curious about it, at the time, I didn’t know how much money you could make from blogging, so I thought I could make money from it. So, I just started getting curious about how I could turn this into something that I could make money from and make a career out of. Nobody in my family is a professional writer or artist for that matter of any kind.

I didn’t go to school for journalism, and I just started googling stuff. I just started googling what websites pay you to write about travel. How can I get paid to write about travel? And I just started coming across folks that were getting paid to write about travel. And so, I pitched my first story about my very first solo trip that I took to Sperlonga, Italy during my study abroad experience in London.

The only reason I went to Sperlonga had never heard of it before was because it was cheaper than on Amalfi Coast and I was on a very serious student budget at the time. So I went, had a great first solo trip, and I pitched that story to PoPSugar at the time and they accepted it. And I was like, whoa, I didn’t get paid for that story, but I got that first byline with my name on it, and I was like, this is a thing I can do this. Rinse and repeat. Keep traveling. Keep writing about it. That story gave me the confidence to pursue travel journalism.

Matt Bowles: Can you share a little bit today about the writing workshops that you offer, who they are for, and what is unique about them?

Briona Lamback: So last year, I started doing writing workshops and building out a community that I call Write Your Legacy. And it’s just what it sounds like. I am helping black women specifically realize their professional writing dreams. Most of them are folks who want to be travel writers, but other types of writing are represented as well. But I’m helping black women go from these incredible unpublished ideas to paid and published ideas so they can realize their literary dreams and create a literary legacy.

I think it’s so important for Black people to tell our own stories for so long. We weren’t the ones telling our own stories. Travel itself still has a lot of remnants of colonialism and neocolonialism, and so a black person writing a story doesn’t automatically make it decolonial. However, I do think that when we are the ones writing about, especially the places that we’re from, if I’m writing a story about Baltimore, I don’t know everything, but my family’s been there for generations. I think I have some say on what great things there are to do in the city versus a random white man who’s never been, who parachutes in for one trip and then tells you what the best things to do are in Baltimore, the best Black-owned restaurants.

You know, it doesn’t make sense. And that’s what a lot of travel writing is. And so, one, I want more black people to be writing about travel and about the places we call home. I also want more black women to be writing about the places that we call home and that we frequent. And so, yes, through workshops abutting, email, IG, broadcast channel community, and in the future, 2025, a write and retreat, I’m helping black women become paid travel writers.

Matt Bowles: Can you unpack that a little bit more for us, in terms of the colonial dynamics that have historically been and are still oftentimes contemporarily embedded in travel writing or, broadly, travel content creation in general, and how all of us can be a little bit more thoughtful and conscious when we are conveying representations of the places that we are traveling to.

Briona Lamback: I mean, it can go so many ways, but one thing that comes to mind is the language that is used in travel writing and travel marketing and has been for decades. Certain words like exotic describe something as a hidden gem that isn’t hidden at all by the people who have been living there for hundreds of years and for generations. Right? So many words and the way we phrase things. And historically, media is a very white industry, like our world.

And so, for a long time, the people, and still the people who actually live there and who know that this local place isn’t a hidden gem and wouldn’t describe it as exotic, they’re not the ones writing the stories. And so, there’s a level of coloniality there, not just because of who’s writing it, but also, even if it isn’t a white person writing it, it can be a black person. It can be any person of color writing about a place. So often, people don’t realize how deeply rooted colonialism is in our everyday existence. Even as a Black person, there are things that I have done and probably still do. There are things that any Black person around the world can do, say, right, and it is becoming from a colonial teaching, a thing that colonialism brought to us.

And so, by virtue of that, you’re spreading inherently anti-Black ideas, steeped in supremacy, white supremacy. And it happens in travel writing because we’re going to another place that we’re not from and then reporting back on it. And so, one way, as a journalist, but also travel content creators and even everyday folks who are just sharing online about their travels, one thing we can all do is look into the history and culture of a place before you go, learn about the people that are there. So, when you get there, you’re not surprised.

When you get there, you’re not saying things that are disrespectful to the customs. That’s step one. That’s the baseline, right? And then as folks who are in the travel industry, writer journalists, DMO, PR folks, being intentional about who is telling the story. For a long time, I didn’t write about Ghana, because even though I have an ancestral connection to this place and I love it so much, and I’ve spent money there and I’ve brought people there, I still am not a Ghanaian person today.  Maybe I was 400 years ago, but I’m coming in with my Americanisms and my African Americanisms and placing them on this place and judging this place, perhaps, and inserting myself in the middle of this story when it shouldn’t be that way. And so, the first time that I…Second time that I ever wrote about Ghana, maybe all three times that I’ve written about Ghana, I’ve always interviewed locals. I’ve always done, according to locals, or done a diaspora story and talked to people about their specific experience traveling there as a Caribbean American or an African American so that we weren’t at the center of the story. So, it’s a conscious thing. It’s about being conscious about where we’re going, and who’s telling the story.

Matt Bowles: I appreciate that so much about your writing and your work, as well as the way that you design your trips and your travel experiences. Speaking of Ghana, can you share a little bit about the upcoming trip that you have for Detty December 2024 and what that trip experience will be like?

Briona Lamback: So as explained, Detty December is very lit, so the trip is going to be naturally lit. It is the fifth year that I’ve done this, so I’ve done it every year since 2019, except for 2020, so only getting bigger and better. Since it’s the fifth year, I plan on adding some special little surprises that I haven’t announced yet, but just different experiences that we can have throughout the trip outside of the itinerary. But with the itinerary, you get to go to the Afro Future Festival, the biggest music festival in Accra.

At that time of year, you’ll see famous Afrobeat artists. Two years ago, we had Burna Boy, so it was very much an experience. We go to Cape Coast, so we learn about that important ancestral history. We do a tour of Accra, so you get to tap into some local history where we’ll be spending most of our time and learning about Ghana’s connection to the diaspora and its importance.

And we always have a boat day. I don’t know, it’s just something about being on a boat in Detty December with some good music, and some good vibes. So, we always go outside of the city too, to get a little bit of a break from the nightlife and stuff and just rest and it’s just a good time. I know Ghana pretty well now. I have friends there, so there’s always a special local connection. Folks leave my trip knowing somebody in Ghana too, and it’s a special time and I’m excited for the fifth anniversary. I don’t know, I just feel like it’s going to be just extra good energy.

Matt Bowles: Well, I think going to Ghana with you would be absolutely incredible. So, who is this trip for? Who can join your trip? And if any of The Maverick Show listeners would like to join the trip, is there a special discount that you can offer?

Briona Lamback: Yes. So, all Buoyant trips are for black travelers from anywhere in the world. Any nationality, ethnicity, gender, anything. All black folks are welcome. And a discount code for Maverick listeners. You can just use the code MAVERICK and you’ll get 100 off the Detty December trip. We have four spots left, so don’t play.

Matt Bowles: You will not ever forget your first Detty December. I will continue to talk about myself on podcast episode after podcast episode. Listeners know I talk about it all the time. It is magical. It is incredible. And so, if you have not yet been and you are interested in going, this is an amazing opportunity. We will link up the direct link in the show notes for how to register for that, as well as how to get your discount.

Briona, I want to also ask for some reflections on your travels over the years. Can you share a little bit about your experience navigating anti-blackness around the world? As you’ve been to different continents and you’ve been to different countries and different places, what has that experience been like for you?

Briona Lamback: Well, this is a great question. Cause I think, first, some people don’t realize that anti-blackness is a global thing, right? We’re often made to believe Americans love talking about race. Race is just an American problem. Just like black people are everywhere, anti-blackness is everywhere.

So, knowing that, first of all, is a part of navigating, honestly, I don’t even know if there’s an exact tip I can give because it looks different everywhere. I’ve been in parts of Europe where I did not feel comfortable, where someone walked up to me and touched and pet my Fro like I was a zoo animal. And I’ve been to places where it was the complete opposite. And I feel like I never blended in, ‘but I felt like I blended in’. And so, it truly is different everywhere.

There’s no one size fits all. But one of my biggest ‘hacks’, to be honest, is traveling in groups. And I think a lot of black people already do this. But even though I love solo travel, for folks who want to get out there and see some of the world but are afraid of the realities of being black globally, traveling in groups is great. Either a public group trip with folks from around the world, or just traveling with a group of friends.

There’s strength in numbers, there’s community in numbers. There is a warmness and a sense of home in numbers. I think the biggest thing we can do is travel with other people and know that it could happen, something could happen. You could experience some form of anti-blackness around the world, and it’s not something you can prepare for it. You just got to go through it, get through it.

Matt Bowles: Well, speaking about community and connecting with other black travelers, you and I are both going to be at the upcoming Black Travel Summit. You are a featured speaker. Can you share a little bit about, first of all, just Black Travel Summit for folks that are not familiar with it, what is it going to be like? And then what is your talk specifically going to be about?

Briona Lamback: Yeah, so I went last year for the first time, had a great time. It’s a wonderful summit, a wonderful conference where black people from all over different parts of the industry come. So, you’ll have content creators, you’ll have journalists, you’ll have tour operators. Last year I met folks from the continent. There was a man there from Rwanda.

And you’ll get to meet execs from Hyatt. They sponsor the event. So, everyone’s in the room, black folks in the room, non-black folks who just care about us. And black travel and the movement are in the room. And it’s a great place to go and connect with folks.

And it was in Florida last year, Miami, this year, Fort Lauderdale. It’s just a good time. It’s good weather. If you’re on the East Coast or in the Northeast or somewhere where it’s cold in October is a good chance to escape the cold. And I had a beautiful time last year, excited to go back. We’re doing a workshop similar to the content that I teach in my workshops and in my Write Your Legacy community. I’ll be speaking to folks about travel writing and how we should be the ones at the center of our stories, why it’s important, and how they can turn their ideas that are floating around into paid published stories. So very excited.

Matt Bowles: There are going to be a lot of amazing people at this event, folks, including many of The Maverick Show guests. So, if you want to hang out with Briona and me and a bunch of other Maverick Show guests in person, we’re going to link up in the show notes how you can register for Black Travel Summit. It’s in October, it’s in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And we have a special Maverick discount for you for that as well. To get 10% off that link is going to be in the show notes.

Briona, let me ask you one more question and then we’ll wrap this up and move into the lightning round. When you think back about all of the travel that you have done up to this point in your life, how do you think all of that travel has impacted you as a person?

Briona Lamback: That’s a good question. Honestly, in so many ways.  I think that one thing I’m really proud of and I feel like has impacted my life is I’ve been able to create this ecosystem and travel is a part of every part of the ecosystem, right? So, having a travel company, writing about travel and black history and food and just being a traveler is really a central part of my life, whether it’s going to an event. I’ve never been to Baltimore that’s traveling somewhere. I spend a lot of time in the DMV area, just going to different festivals and events, seeing new places, and learning about what’s there.

Like in Brazil, I’ve created this ecosystem where travel is just a part of my life. And that feels good. It feels in alignment. So, it’s impacted me in a big way because nothing in my life feels like a stretch. You know, my day job matches my entrepreneurship, matches my passion for travel writing, and so everything is there.

And then beyond that, it always comes back to connection for me. I’ve met so many incredible people, people who have impacted me on a personal level. People have impacted the world and others and always come back to black folks. I’ve just learned so much that I could never learn from, even though it’s my favorite place in the world, from home in Baltimore, I had to get out there and meet those black people from other places who speak different languages, who grew up differently than me, to really see the vision, which is black liberation.

Matt Bowles: I think that is the perfect place to end the meeting. Main portion of this interview, and at this point, Briona, are you ready to move into the lightning round?

Briona Lamback: Yes.

Matt Bowles: Let’s do it.

All right. What is one book that you would recommend people should read?

Briona Lamback: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Great book. Bestseller. Gotta read it.

Matt Bowles: Who is one person currently alive today that you’ve never met that you would most love to have dinner with? Just you and that person for an evening of dinner and conversation?

Briona Lamback: Tracy Ellis Frost. She’s a traveler. She’s an actor. She’s great. I just love her.

Matt Bowles: All right, Briona, what is one travel hack that you use that you can recommend to people?

Briona Lamback: Okay, I probably shouldn’t say this, but I’m going to. You know how we can only have one carry-on luggage roller overhead bag, and a personal. So, I usually have my backpack that has my laptop in it and my makeup, and then I have a carry on with the essentials? Well, sometimes I also have a purse, and the purse won’t fit in the backpack, so I sometimes take my purse. Not often, but sometimes I take my purse and hang it around the handle of my carry on.

And then I drape my jacket over the handle, and they don’t see the purse, and I carry small purses. Anyway, I know I shouldn’t be telling people that, but I do it, and I’ve never gotten caught. I don’t plan on doing it all the time, but it works sometimes.

Matt Bowles: Amazing. All right, Briona, knowing everything that you know now, if you could go back in time and give one piece of advice to your 18-year-old self, what would you say to 18-year-old Briona?

Briona Lamback: I would say, let life unfold. Don’t force it. And the only thing you can control is yourself. Big lesson for me.

Matt Bowles: All right. Of all the places that you have now traveled, what are three of your favorite destinations? Places you would most recommend. Other people should definitely check out.

Briona Lamback: Okay, I’m biased. The ones we’ve been talking about. Ghana, Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, but all of Brazil.  And New Orleans, Louisiana.

Matt Bowles: Love that. All right, Briona, what are your top three bucket list destinations? These are places you have not yet been highest on your list you’d most love to see.

Briona Lamback: I really want to go to Johannesburg. All of South Africa, but specifically Joburg. Been on my list for a very long time. Senegal has also been on my list. Dakar, right there near Ghana. And I keep going to Ghana, and I keep not going to Dakar. Hoping to go this year. And then Colombia. Never been. Would like to go. I hear beautiful things, and so it’s at the top of my list, too.

Matt Bowles: Amazing. I have spent multiple months in all of those countries, so when you are ready to plan those trips, I will get you. Johannesburg is unbelievable. I’ve spent probably, like, five months or so in Cape Town. I’ve been going since 2015. And then a couple of years ago, I finally spent time in Johannesburg. Unbelievable. I mean, absolutely incredible. So, I’m really glad that’s on your radar. I put everybody onto it. It is absolutely an amazing city.

Dakar is just incredible. I’ve been there three different times. I’ve spent about three months in Dakar. It is one of my favorite cities in the world. So special. It’s another one that I really put people onto. So, it really warms my heart to hear that you have Joburg and Dakar on your list. And then Colombia, of course, is super special. I’ve been into Medellin and Bogota and Cali and Cartagena and all the spots.

So, when you’re ready to go, hit me up. I got you. It is a very, very special country. Have a lot of love for that.

Briona Lamback: Yeah, I will.

Matt Bowles: All right, Briona, we have now come to the most important question of this interview. I’m about to ask you to name your top five hip-hop emcees of all time. But before I do that. Can you share a little bit about what hip-hop music means to you and why you love hip-hop?

Briona Lamback: I do love hip-hop. I think the more I learn about hip hop because I’ve written a few stories about it. I just fell more in love with how it was born. Born in the Bronx, it was born in New York. It’s a very black American story.

There are folks in there who were a big part of hip hop’s origins that are from the Caribbean. It was a diaspora melting pot from the beginning. So, you know, I’m here for that. And it’s just always been a part of my life, naturally, on the radio, one of my dad’s, my dad was not a hip hop head, but when he found a song he liked, he wore it out.

And in the early two thousand, he had Nelly’s Nellyville, and he wore it out. It was one of the few hip hop albums. He was like a Luther Vandross type of guy, a temptations type of guy. But it’s one of the few hip hop albums I remember him having. So, it’s always been in my life in some form of fashion, and it always will be.

Matt Bowles: I love that. All right, Briona, who are your top five?

Briona Lamback: Okay. Lauryn Hill, singer and rapper. She does both well, so I had to put her on there. The miseducation of Lauryn Hill is one of my favorite albums of all time. Nipsey. Nipsey Hussle. Love him. Shmino, also a singer, rapper, but I love him a lot. J. Cole and Tupac. Classic.

Matt Bowles: Amazing. Love that list.

All right, Briona, I want to close this out by also asking you to name your Top 5 Afrobeat Artists, because you have such a close connection, obviously, with West Africa and Detty December and the Afrobeat festivals that you’ve been to, as well as with London, which is where a lot of these Afrobeats are also coming from. And I know it’s a very important genre for you.

Can you share a little bit, though, about what you love so much about Afrobeats and the impact that that has had on your life?

Briona Lamback: Yeah. When I was in London, like I said, first got put on to Burna Boy, it’s when I started learning about Afrobeats, and I was hearing it everywhere in the clubs, and I wasn’t listening to it before I went to London. So, I’m like, what is this? And I just started liking it and learning more. Came back home, and by the time I came back home, maybe a year or two later, it had kind of blown up or started to blow up in the US too, and got, like a lot of Ethiopian friends, West African friends in the DMV area who were listening to it all the time. So, he was just always around and obviously in Ghana.

And so, I have to say Burna Boy, first and foremost, love him down forever. I’m also a big Davido fan. I just like him. I don’t know why I love the music, but he’s had so many bangers and I know some people don’t like it, but I really love when he collabs with Chris Brown.  They’ve done a few collaborations and I think it’s the best mashup I’ve seen of American music and Afrobeats, so love that. Gotta shout out my girlies. Tim’s amazing, beautiful, and Arya star. And I like Asaki a lot too.

Matt Bowles: Awesome list. Another amazing list. You know what’s really interesting that I have found about spending time in both Nigeria and Ghana. So, I went to Nigeria before I went to Ghana. So, 2019, I spent a month in Lagos and then I flew from Lagos to Accra.

And I spent a month in Accra and then I went to Dakar. And I spent a month in Dakar, right. And went to Ivory Coast, like, and so forth, right. But when I went to Lagos, I was going and I was shazaming, like, every song. I would hear a song in the taxi, I’d hear a song at the club, I’d hear a song, whatever.

And I’m, like, making this playlist. And I had all the Nigerian Afrobeat bangers. I knew them all. And then when I went to Accra, I’m like, I’m going to know every song that they play at these clubs. I literally went out to one of, like, the most lit clubs in Accra. Like, local crowd, right? Like, no tourists.

Briona Lamback: Mm hmm.

Matt Bowles: I didn’t know a single song the DJ was playing. What’s even happening here? And the crowd was just going nuts for, like, a bunch of these songs. So, I’m, like, shazaming all of these songs and then I start looking up and I was like, oh, these are Ghanaian Afrobeat artists. Like, these are different from Nigerian artists.

It’s not just the same music that gets played in all these different countries. Like, there’s all of these unbelievable local artists from each one of these countries that is putting out unbelievable music. And so that really, I think, has really enriched my appreciation. And then, of course, obviously, when you go to Senegal into French speaking countries, it’s all these French language Afrobeats which are just unbelievable. And a totally different genre that you’re not hearing in Nigeria or Ghana, right?

Which is just another incredible genre for Afrobeats and so once you start going down this rabbit hole and getting into this music, I mean, it is really incredible. And traveling around, interspersing the travel and then learning about the music through the travel with these different countries, it’s really an amazingly special experience. But we’re going to link all of your Afrobeat pics as well as your hip hop artists up in the show notes. Everything will be there, folks. You can just go to one place at themaverickshow.com. There’s going to be links to everything we’ve discussed.

Briona, I want you to let folks know at this point how they can find you, follow you on social media, and also reiterate what your offerings are for folks are interested in learning more about travel writing and taking their travel writing to the next level. If folks are interested in traveling, maybe experiencing Detty December, maybe experiencing Salvador de Bahia in Brazil. And how would you like folks to come into your world? What are the opportunities for people to connect with you?

Briona Lamback: Yeah. So, let’s start with social. You can find me around the web, Google my name is the easiest way, but Briona Lamback. Briona A. Lamback and my old name, which I’m still on TikTok and I need to change, is B-R-I-A-R-I Poetry. But if you go to my website, brionalamback.com , you can find all of those things, all those links.

Yeah, come into my world. Come travel the world with me and go to some cool black-ass places and do black-ass things. We have a trip to Brazil, Salvador de Bahia, the inaugural trip, which is in November. The trip is sold out. However, things happen. Sometimes folks drop out. If you head to buoyanttravel.com, you can sign up for the waitlist or get on the waitlist for our 2025 version of the trip.

In December, going to Ghana for Detty December. And we have four spots left for that trip. So, you can join right now and it’s going to be a good time. For anybody interested in travel writing, I offer one-on-one consultations that I call Kinfolk Talks and you’ll sit down with me 101. We can chat ideas and I’ll help you turn your ideas into stories that you can pitch and land.

I’m working on an eBook right now called Pitches That Land, and I’ll be at the Black Travel Summit talking about travel writing and how you can get into it. But just keep up with me sign up for my newsletter on my website so you can learn about future opportunities, writing retreats, more trips, and anything else that pops up.

Matt Bowles: Amazing. Briona, I love what you are up to. I love what you are about. We are going to link up everything we have discussed in the show notes folks. So just go to one place at themaverickshow.com. Go to the show notes for this episode. There we’re going to have a link where you can register to attend Black Travel Summit at a discount. Hang out with me, Briona and a bunch of other Maverick show guests in person. We’re also going to have links to register for Briona’s upcoming trip to Detty December and Ghana and get your Maverick Show discount that’s going to be there, as well as links to everything else we have talked about. Just go to themaverickshow.com and go to the show notes for this episode.

Briona, this was amazing. Thank you so much for being on the show.

Briona Lamback: This was great. Thank you so, so much for having me. See you in Florida.

Matt Bowles: Yes. All right. Good night, everybody.