Small World, Big Love with Faith Adiele: The importance of being Ernest

I saw the first episode of television docu-series, “Fly Brother with Ernest White II,” at an advance screening at the 2019 Cannes Film Fest. Afterwards I moderated a conversation between Ernest and the enthusiastic audience in Village International, a graceful cluster of white pavilions along the French Riviera where filmmakers and delegates from around the globe network. When Ernest told me he was emceeing the first-ever Pavillon Afriques at Cannes, I’d been thrilled for him and let’s be honest, a bit wistful. A few weeks later, I received my own invitation to the Pavillon. In the midst of preparing for the world’s most prestigious film festival and launching what was then the only travel series executive-produced by and starring an African American man on national broadcast television, he’d taken the time to fulfill one of my travel dreams.

It’s no surprise, then, that the friendships and communities we create while traveling is the premise of Fly Brother, currently available on PBS stations, Create TV, PBS.org and Revry. In Season 1, Ernest, who’s visited 71 countries, lived in six and filmed in 10, invites real-life friends in such locales as Bogotá, Addis Ababa, Stockholm, and Tajikistan to introduce him and viewers to their favorite insider spots. The series of ten half-hour episodes premiered nationwide exactly one year after that Cannes preview – right in the midst of a global pandemic. That first season was available to 93 million households across the U.S. and press like Black Enterprise, New York Times, Travel Noire, Forbes, Matador Network, Condé Nast Traveller, NatGeo, and Newsweek noted the timeliness and importance of seeing a Black, gay male travel show host during a moment when a racial reckoning was happening in the travel and publishing industries.

Ernest, who takes a downright spiritual approach to entrepreneurship and innovation, saw both Black Lives Matter and the pandemic as “opportunities for healing.” He was facilitating global conversations about race, while also figuring out how to survive as a travel professional in an ever-shifting environment. “I feel like those of us who were already working as independent producers and entrepreneurs had that extra tool in our belts when the pandemic came, because we already weren’t used to getting that regular paycheck,” White said. “We had to roll with the punches and balance on the surfboard. Now I’ve never gone surfing,” he admitted with a laugh, “but I have a feeling it requires a lot of adjustment and core strength.”

Those surfboard skills served him well as Season 2 filming trips dried up due to COVID-19, and the team pivoted to focus on domestic destinations like Alaska, Detroit, Nashville, and Puerto Rico. In 10 new episodes with an even larger market penetration than Season 1 (the show was available to 108 million households in the U.S.), Ernest decided to lean into what it means to be “a traveler who is both Black and gay” and to use the opportunity to tell stories historically underrepresented in tourism narratives. “There’s always an educational component to everything I do,” he explained, “because my parents are educators, right? I was born into it.” Raised by two high-school teachers in Jacksonville, Florida, Ernest started sending away for international maps and travel brochures as a child. At 16, he took his first solo trip, leaving his all-Black high school to become an exchange student in rural northern Sweden. And thus a lifetime of transformational travel was born. “Youth travel, student travel, is very, very important,” he said.

After graduating from Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University and earning an MFA in creative writing from American University, he spent years abroad teaching and freelancing as a journalist. His blog about his experiences — one of the first Black male travel blogs — was called FLY BROTHER. Its latest iteration and venture is FLY BROTHER & FRIENDS, a subscription-based membership community centering travel in entrepreneurship, relationships, expat life and holistic wellbeing. Once again he leverages friend-experts like visual storyteller Lola Akinmade Akerström, independent adventurer Rolff Potts, and GenZ travel influencer Gabby Beckford. “In the three decades that I’ve traveled,” he explained, “I’m just now getting to the place of feeling like I’m creating. I’m finding other creators and bit by bit, brick by brick, we’re building the life that we want - full of awe, wonder, and epic-ness.”

This story was originally published September 19, 2022 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Small World, Big Love with Faith Adiele: The importance of being Ernest."