More than 15 years ago, Hempstead native Ebony Walden left her Richmond, Virginia home carrying a 50-pound backpack across five continents, volunteering in schools, navigating unfamiliar cultures and learning just how much — and how little — she knew about herself.
Walden, a 1998 Hempstead High School graduate, returned close to where her story first began, sharing her experiences outlined in her memoir released on Sept. 8, “Where I’m From: A Poetic Journey Across Five Continents,” with about 30 attendees at Uniondale Public Library on Sept. 23.
The library presentation was one of three stops on her New York visit, which also included appearances in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
“I think traveling really opens your eyes to the world,” Walden said. “It opens your eyes to different ways of being, different ways of living, different ways of thinking.”
During her eight-month solo journey in 2010, Walden put her career on hold as an urban planner and traveled across five continents and visited 17 countries, 15 of which are chronicled in her memoir. For about five months, she volunteered in schools, community centers and orphanages, teaching English and helping children with schoolwork.
“I’m a person that’s really big about making meaning,” she said. “I wanted to make this a meaningful trip, not having fun, (but) how am I helping people? How am I allowing myself to be immersed in experiences that are going to be transformative?”
Walden financed the roughly $30,000 journey through savings, fundraising and $7,000 she made selling her belongings.
“I had researched and planned, had this master spreadsheet, and then I said, ‘Okay, if I sell everything I own and my savings, I have about seven (thousand dollars). Where do I get $23,000 from real quick?’” she recalled.
Throughout her travels, she also used poetry to better understand the people she encountered, asking some to complete a “Where I’m From” poem reflecting upon their families, neighborhoods, joys, tragedies and favorite foods.
“I took this poem with me around the world, and I co-created it with the people,” Walden said. “That’s why the book is called ‘Where I’m From.’”
Her goal was to examine “what was beautiful and what was broken” around the world — and to find beauty amid brokenness.
During her library presentation, Walden recounted a low point about three months into the trip. Stranded in a small English town with a 50-pound backpack, sore feet and no cellphone, she sat on the floor of a red phone booth and cried.
“The burden of carrying that 50-pound backpack, and myself, had become too heavy,” Walden read. “This is a story of how I got to that lonely road, and how I gathered those pieces up and kept going.”
She recalled that the manuscript sat on a shelf for roughly eight years before she decided the lessons were worth sharing.
In Guatemala, she volunteered with children with disabilities and developed relationships with them through games, songs and everyday interactions, despite the language barrier. She explained she enjoyed a boy Mario who loved to sing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.”
In Kenya, she volunteered in youth programs where children were fascinated to meet a Black American volunteer, and Walden recalled one boy asking whether she knew she was “Black like us,” while others asked whether she knew Michelle Obama or was related to Barack Obama.
During her Sept. 23 presentation, Walden challenged library patrons with a few trivia questions about culture in the different countries she visited. She told them that if they correctly answered more than two questions, they would receive a free copy of her book.
Her story resonated with Uniondale resident Nicole Burke, host of the “Voice of Uniondale,” a radio show that broadcasts from Hofstra University. Burke also answered two or more questions correctly and received a signed copy of Walden’s memoir. Burke recently learned about volunteer opportunities in South Africa through the Only Love Foundation and said Walden’s experience made such a journey seem more attainable.
“If this Ebony can do it (to) all different continents, why can’t I?” Burke asked, adding that she hopes to volunteer in South Africa in 2028.
Walden also created “Black Beyond Borders,” an award-winning documentary series exploring Black culture, creativity and cuisine across the African diaspora. The first season grew out of a six-week stay in Dakar, Senegal, with a second season focusing on Colombia, Walden said.
When a patron asked what’s next in store for her, Walden said traveling to Antarctica and to more West African countries connected to her ancestry. She also hopes to eventually adapt her memoir into a miniseries.
“As you travel throughout the book, you also learn where you’re from, so I hope people travel, of course, but I think the deepest journey is within,” Walden concluded. “It’s about finding out who are the people, what are the places, what are the experiences, for better or for worse, that created who you are.”
