Oliviah Franke grew up in Portland, Oregon, where biking is a big part of local transportation. It wasn’t, as Franke coined it, “joyfilled.”
After going through a national program for cyclists, Franke — along with Celia Denton, Sofia Petroni, Dev Pedacito, Charlotte Levy, and Christina Grande — founded B Spoke, a space to uplift BIPOC cyclists in Alaska through grassroots community organizing.
Current leadership consists of Franke, Denton Petroni and a small advisory group.
“It started super casually, like the six of us reaching out to friends and stuff to do monthly bike rides, we started in the winter,” Franke said. “We were doing night rides on fat bikes.”
Franke credits Kevin Sanders for helping them build a bike from Off the Chain, and helping them figure out what mountain bike trails in Anchorage were like.
“I had no idea of any of the trails in town,” Franke said. “So really great friends to support that journey.”
Franke was an athlete in Ride for Racial Justice, a nonprofit that supports a cohort of 25-30 BIPOC athletes. Her cohort had 26 people from all over the country, plus someone from the UK and another in Canada.
“We spent eight months on Zoom and then met in person and like, there are not good enough words to describe the feeling of being in the room, for the first time — all 26 of us,” Franke said. “BIPOC athletes of all of these different walks of life immediately became family, that whole weekend was really life changing.
Franke says they were really moved by that experience, and had been thinking a lot about how there wasn’t that kind of community in Alaska. Coincidentally, they were signed up for a course called public narrative, where students share personal stories.
After Franke shared their vision in the class for a space of finding a deep community around BIPOC cycling, a classmate approached them and said they would help.
“That really, really helped prompt it,” Franke said. “Then I reached out on Facebook, initially, to the Facebook groups like mountain biking, there are some women’s mountain biking groups or fat biking groups.”
B Spoke is very grassroots-driven, Franke says, and relies on a network of folks willing to loan out gear, drop off snacks or transport bikes for folks who don’t have the means.
“One of our biggest goals really is just opening the door for people who might not have access to a bike, or might be really intimidated because there’s a lot of specific language around bikes when you walk into a bike store,” Franke said.
Franke says they feel “so inspired” every month when it comes together.
“It doesn’t matter if two people show up to a ride or 25 people show up to a ride,” Franke said. “That impact and just being able to see people’s faces on bikes, it’s so beautiful.”
Sam Davenport is a writer residing in Anchorage. She's a leo and a plant-person, and loves spending quality time with her dog, Aspen. She is a Real Housewives fan and has been called a Bravo historian.
