Ryan Bowen was born to a Native American mother and an African American father in Oregon in 1986. Struggling to support him and his siblings, Ryan’s mother put him up for adoption. At two-days-old, Bowen was adopted by Phil and Lois Bowen, a white couple from Portland, Oregon. Growing up as a mixed race adoptee in a predominately white community made understanding his own ethnic identity difficult. He was, however, able to excel in both athletics and academics at Wilson High School. In fact, it was the combination of these elements (and the better weather) that led Ryan to enroll at Occidental College in Los Angeles in 2004.

While in college, he participated in NCAA athletics as well as organized educational programs focused on issues racial identity and social justice. Many of his experiences and outlook on life are shaped by his experiences outside of the USA. His passion for connecting with others as well as serving underprivileged communities is what led him all the way to Timbuktu, Mali to promote solar panels as a renewable energy source. Ryan has also photographed and volunteered in social justice projects in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba.

In his senior year at Occidental, Ryan was inspired by Barack Obama to run his own presidential campaign. Elected the second Black Student Body president in Oxy’s history, he spent his time serving to produce an official document that chronicled the history of multiculturalism at Occidental College.

Given his unique life experiences, Ryan has come to trust in the transformational power of education and honest dialogue. This is what propelled him to undertake the task of documenting American’s experiences as he crosses the nation on his bike. “While the answers to complicated questions such as ‘how to eradicate oppression and work towards a more just society’ are not simple”, he says, “without learning how to honestly speak to one another, we’ll never get there.”

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