Parks as Portals: The Stories Our Public Lands Have to Tell
Sometimes, an experience sticks with you long after you’ve left a place. For Milan Bush, Executive Director of Go Grow Be More, a visit to Mammoth Cave during the 2023 KAEE Annual Conference did just that. What started as a conference experience became the beginning of something bigger: a new approach to environmental education that brings together community, history, and the land itself.
Milan will bring that work to KAEE’s 50th Annual Conference this November through her session, Parks as Portals: Restoring Hidden Histories, Reconnecting Communities to Land. But the story behind the project is just as important as the work taking shape today.
The experience that started it all
When asked what stayed with her from her visit to Mammoth Cave, Milan’s answer was simple: “All of it! Seriously, it was such a great time.”
But two stories, in particular, helped shape what came next: those of Stephen Bishop and Jerry Bransford.
Stephen Bishop was an enslaved man whose knowledge and skill helped map Mammoth Cave, leaving a lasting mark on a place people continue to explore today. Milan also remembers Jerry Bransford, a descendant of the enslaved Bransford guides at Mammoth Cave, standing at his family’s cemetery and asking who would care for the people buried there.
That question stayed with her.
“It made me want to do something, and I didn’t know what or how yet,” Milan shared. “The experience was my portal entry; and I needed to do something about it.”
Milan began thinking about how she could bring together her background in environmental education, her previous work with Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, and the work already happening through the Association to Teach Black History in Kentucky (ATBHK). She saw an opportunity to develop interdisciplinary lessons that could bring history, literacy, and environmental education into the same conversation.
And just like that, the idea for Parks as Portals began to take shape.
What if the land could help tell the story?
At its heart, Parks as Portals invites educators and community members to look at familiar places with fresh eyes. Parks aren't just places to visit, and historical markers aren't always the end of the story. What can we learn when we take a closer look at the land, ask questions about the histories it holds, and invite the people who know those stories to help tell them?
Milan describes the project as “an adventure for all,” bringing people together to create place-based learning experiences that build community connections and extend learning beyond the classroom.
The curriculum, developed in collaboration with ATBHK, is a seven-lesson interdisciplinary unit. Walter Bradley Park in Midway will serve as its anchor site, with primary sources such as Stephen Bishop’s map of Mammoth Cave and the Negro Motorist Green Book helping learners explore the connections between people, history, and place.
Imagine a class visiting a historical marker, reading what it says, and then asking what might be missing. A community member shares a story that isn't included on the sign. Students observe the surrounding landscape. Suddenly, history, science, and literacy aren't separate subjects in separate lessons. They're all happening together, right where the story unfolded.
For Milan, that's part of the point. Too often, these subjects are taught separately, and communities are overlooked as valuable sources of knowledge. Teachers may not always have the time, resources, or support to bring everything together on their own.
Parks as Portals offers another way forward by bringing educators, community knowledge holders, and nature into the learning process together.
“I hope educators leave knowing they don’t have to do this alone,” Milan said. “The community and the land are teachers too.”
Telling the stories that belong to these places
An important part of Parks as Portals is bringing Black Kentucky histories into conversations about public lands and the environment. For Milan, this means going beyond the ways Black people have often been represented in traditional accounts of Kentucky history.
As she explained, Black people have too often appeared in historical records as unnamed individuals, numbers in a census, or people defined primarily by their status as enslaved or free.
We may learn that they were there without learning who they were, what they contributed, or how they were connected to the places around them.
Milan wants to help change that.
“These people and their stories help give a full picture of our land and our history,” she shared.
Stephen Bishop is one example of why those stories matter. His name and work have endured because of the map he created of the cave we still explore today. His story connects the history of Mammoth Cave to the knowledge, labor, and skill of a person whose contributions deserve to be understood as part of that place.
Parks as Portals creates opportunities to explore these histories where they happened, making connections that might be missed when learning takes place only through a textbook or classroom discussion.
It's also about recognizing that communities already hold valuable knowledge. When educators invite community members to help shape the learning experience, students gain access to more perspectives and a fuller understanding of the places around them.
And the process isn't just about what students learn. Parks as Portals also creates opportunities for preservice teachers to help develop and lead these experiences alongside community partners and experienced educators as they grow into their own practice.
A community effort, from the very beginning
One thing that stands out about Milan's story is how much this project has grown through collaboration.
She remembers sitting in Midway's public library, sharing her vision with Shaniqua Robertson, Executive Director of the Association to Teach Black History in Kentucky (ATBHK), and Dr. Keesha Greer-Effs, Assistant Professor at Berea College. They embraced the idea and helped move it forward. Soon after, Milan was invited to share the project with preservice teachers at Berea College.
She didn't even have a PowerPoint presentation prepared for that first conversation with the students. Still, their response was supportive and full of energy.
“Their ability to help shape this project in such an organic way has been validating,” she said.
That early enthusiasm helped affirm what Milan was building, but it also reflects the kind of work Parks as Portals hopes to encourage. Rather than treating community members as an audience for a finished curriculum, the model invites them to help shape the learning itself.
The project is still in its early stages, with curriculum units being piloted through ATBHK and preservice educators helping explore what this approach can look like in practice. There's plenty more to come, too.
Following its work at Walter Bradley Park, the project plans to move to Camp Nelson in spring 2027, where students will help design the curriculum. From there, Milan hopes to circle back to Mammoth Cave for a student and educator experience.
Looking further ahead, the team is exploring possibilities for training park rangers and volunteers, as well as creating a map to help teachers, families, and students discover portal sites throughout Kentucky.
Milan hopes the work will encourage people to look at their own communities differently and recognize the stories waiting to be discovered close to home.
“Every park holds hidden histories,” she said. “I hope people leave ready to find the ones in their own backyard, and I hope they call on their communities to help tell them.”
Continue the conversation at KAEE's 50th Annual Conference
For Milan, bringing Parks as Portals to this year's KAEE conference feels like a full-circle moment. In 2023, she presented a session called Activating Community Connections: Attaining, Engaging, Authentic, and Sustainable Relationships. Parks as Portals is an example of what those connections can become when people come together around a shared place and a willingness to learn.
This year's session will bring together perspectives from community educators, ATBHK, and preservice teachers, including Shaniqua Robertson and Berea College preservice teacher candidate Ebony Freeman. Participants will explore the model, hear different perspectives on its development, and consider how they might apply similar approaches in their own communities.
The session is also an invitation to be part of the process. Milan is excited to see what ideas participants bring forward and what possibilities they envision for their own communities.
Join Milan Bush for Parks as Portals: Restoring Hidden Histories, Reconnecting Communities to Land on Thursday, November 12, from 9:30–10:45 a.m. EST at KAEE's 50th Annual Conference in Lexington, Kentucky.
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