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Humidity and long drives don’t keep Minnesotans from gathering with friends and family to enjoy the outdoors. But for Black communities in rural Minnesota, gathering outdoors isn't always easy.
“This rural place, I love it. It's beautiful,” says Victoria McWane-Creek of Fergus Falls. McWane-Creek loves being outside almost as much as she loves being with people. "I want to flourish right where I am.”
Unfortunately, her reality doesn’t always support this desire. “The last time I gathered people outside was in 2018,” she recalls, after being targeted with racial slurs while setting up a student gathering, “until starting the Onyx Collective in 2024.”
The effects of being exposed to derogatory behavior like this can be detrimental to the Black community, who have to deal with mental health issues and isolation — often in a vacuum without local community or support networks.
"It’s very harsh when it comes to being a Black person who is enjoying all of the beauty of Minnesota because while I may be hyper visible, my needs are typically invisible," McWane-Creek says.
Her personal need for safety and belonging pushed her to found the non-profit group, Onyx Collective, where Black people build spaces of belonging in predominantly White rural communities of Minnesota.
In 2025, at the suggestion of Dr. Jennifer Aranda — Onyx Collective’s founding board chair, present Onyx Collective member, and University of Minnesota Extension educator in leadership and civic engagement — McWane-Creek was awarded an idea brief through the University of Minnesota Extension Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (RSDP) Central Region to support numerous events, including the launch of their Seasonal Mobile Resilience Hubs.
Jan Jackola, outreach specialist with Central RSDP, worked closely with McWane-Creek and says that the benefits of the partnership go far beyond monetary value. Thanks to Jackola’s assistance, the Collective established multiple new partners and is now working with University faculty, staff, and students from various colleges and departments. Together, they are imagining, building and documenting spaces where more Black people can show up authentically and safely.
Being Black outside in every season
At the Seasonal Mobile Resilience Hubs, the Onyx Collective invites and welcomes rural Black Minnesotans to come together and enjoy the outdoors.
Over 100 people from 26 counties attended last year’s hubs, many driving over two hours each way. “They're traveling hundreds of miles to get to a cultural space that welcomes them radically, just as they are,” says McWane-Creek.
The Onyx Collective operates on a foundation of radical hospitality, the practice of intentionally removing financial, logistical and emotional barriers standing between a neighbor and community. They offer attendees Visa gift cards for gas and food, as well as payment for Black-owned vendors and services at the events.
The seasonal gatherings use Minnesota's landscapes as a backdrop for healing and joy. At the spring and summer hubs, people found quiet moments around campfires at Frog Tree Farm — one of the first Black-owned farms in Minnesota — shared dance and movement through the woods at state parks, and planned for the Collective's future. In winter, participants gathered at Glendalough State Park where some experienced walking on a frozen lake for the first time.
While gathering in the woods to relax can seem rebellious amid daily pressures, McWane-Creek says it is essential for creating a space where the community could decompress and feel safe. “When we can just show up as who we are and not have to hold anything back, then we can be outside again, Black and well and whole.”
Demystifying entrepreneurship, clean energy, farming and more
At each seasonal hub, participants also have the opportunity to join self-directed community resilience circles focused on entrepreneurship, agriculture, arts and culture, and clean energy.
Like herself, McWane-Creek found that many Black community members are using entrepreneurship as a strategy to gain economic independence and curate a positive work environment. The business circle offers an opportunity to demystify the process and connect with mentors.
Meanwhile, the newest circle on clean energy took shape thanks to a connection with RSDP’s partner, the Clean Energy Resource Teams. Participants talk about practical ways to save money by reducing energy costs and gain an understanding of relevant policies and local utilities. As a result of the new partnership, McWane-Creek now serves on the Community Energy Collaborative at the Minnesota Department of Commerce.
While the outdoor hubs offer rest and the circles offer growth and expansion, the Onyx Collective also hosts weekly virtual meetings to provide year-round support and connection. For many rural families, these calls are the only place they have to process shared challenges, including isolation and discrimination.
Social connections are infrastructure for a just future
The Onyx Collective and RSDP know that relationships spur and guide social change. This is exemplified by the relationships born at the mobile resilience hubs and the new partnerships between the Collective and the University.
"What Jan has been able to do in connecting us and establishing those partnerships was monumental,” says McWane-Creek. Jackola provided key introductions to partners, helping the Collective build legitimacy and secure additional funding.
“The Onyx Collective,” Jackola says, “is making a space of belonging for Black folks in rural Minnesota with such careful and thoughtful planning that it is remarkably effective.”
With another RSDP Idea Brief in the works for 2027, the Onyx Collective plans to expand from four seasonal hubs to six, traveling further south to reach more rural neighbors.
"I don't want to have to leave this rural place," McWane-Creek says, “because where I put my foot down is where I belong, right?” This is a liberty she believes every Minnesotan should enjoy. Her work is building resilience within the rural Black community helping them to persist despite isolation and discrimination.
"What we are doing, we are able to do simply because it is needed," McWane-Creek says. “This is heart work, to create conditions for thriving."
A sense of belonging
Read one community’s experience
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