Our Story
What Is Beyond the Green Book?
Beyond the Green Book is a cultural experience and narrative strategy platform designed to expand how we travel, gather, and belong.
Inspired by the legacy of the original Green Book — a guide that helped Black travelers navigate safety on the road — BTG honors that history while reimagining what expansion looks like today.
Where the original Green Book helped us find safety, Beyond the Green Book invites us to find depth.
Depth in the places we explore.
Depth in the stories we tell.
Depth in how we see ourselves and one another.
BTG creates immersive, culturally grounded experiences that help individuals, communities, and organizations move beyond limitation — in travel, identity, imagination, and institutional thinking.
At its core, Beyond the Green Book is about expansion.
Expansion of where we go.
What we try.
What we believe is possible.
And how boldly we allow ourselves to take up space in the world.
Through curated gatherings, guided conversations, storytelling, and experiential programming, BTG transforms exploration into connection — and curiosity into courage.
Our Purpose
Why It Exists?
The original Green Book helped Black travelers navigate spaces safely during segregation. Beyond The Green Book asks a new question:
Where can we go now — and who can we become when we get there?
Travel has the power to shift perspective. So does sitting at a table with strangers who feel familiar.
We believe culture, conversation, and intentional gathering can reconnect people to themselves and to one another.
That’s what BTG was built to create.
What We Do
03 — Cultural Strategy & Guided Conversations
Intentional conversations and strategic support for teams and organizations navigating culture and belonging.
01 — Curated Experiences
Immersive gatherings rooted in culture, travel, food, and music.
The Founder
Tyra K. Hawkins
Tyra Hawkins is a cultural curator, community builder, and experience designer whose work sits at the intersection of travel, storytelling, and belonging. Originally from Tennessee, Tyra has lived and worked across the South, Midwest, and abroad — experiences that shaped her commitment to expanding access to opportunity, perspective, and place. After leading initiatives in higher education and community engagement, she founded Beyond the Green Book as a way to bring her love of travel, culture, and intentional gathering into one platform. Through curated salons, partnerships, and collaborative experiences, she designs spaces that shift perspective and deepen connection. Beyond the Green Book is both a professional platform and a personal offering — rooted in her belief that we are not confined by where we come from.
