Seattle resident Alison Mariella Désir started marathon training years ago while living in New York as a way to benefit her physical and mental health. Once she became an active part of the Harlem running community, she began to examine how running as a sport and industry was largely built with white people at the center. Through this experience and education, running has become activism for her.
Désir’s journey as an activist and runner has paved the way for her work as an author and host of the KCTS 9/Crosscut series Out & Back with Alison Mariella Désir. Now Désir will be bringing her voice to the Crosscut Ideas Festival.
Every year, journalists, politicians, authors and newsmakers from our Pacific Northwest community and around the nation come together at the Crosscut Ideas Festival to take a hard look at the people, policies and events that shape our lives. The 2023 Crosscut Ideas Festival will take place in a hybrid in-person and virtual format. (Intrigued? Get tickets.)
Désir’s book Running While Black draws on her life experiences running as a woman of color and her work as an advocate and activist while weaving together historic context to explore why the human act of running has not been fully open to the Black community. And her series Out & Back continues to be a way for her to advocate for people of color to get outdoors.
Ahead of the Crosscut Ideas Festival, Désir took the time to chat with Crosscut about Out & Back, her book and her inspiration for it all.
A portion of this interview was previously published on Crosscut.com. This interview has been edited and condensed.
What was it like to see your KCTS 9/Crosscut series Out & Back broadcast throughout our regional community? Do you have any takeaways now that the first season has aired, or hopes for Season 2?
It was surreal! Every week I watched it air live with my husband and my son, and seeing my son point to the screen and say, "That's Mama!" made me teary every week. I won't have to worry about whether my son will see himself represented or know that he belongs in the outdoors because he's growing up with his mother doing it!
I was also really excited to learn that teachers have been using Out & Back in schools as a teaching tool and that folks all over the country have been streaming it online. My favorite story from a viewer – an older Black man (in his 50s) let me know that he had lived in Seattle for 20 years and never knew there were other Black people he could connect with to fly-fish. Watching the episode with Giancarlo Lawrence made him feel a lot less alone.
Do you have a favorite moment or episode from Season 1?
I loved the opportunity to learn so much from my team – Sarah Hall, Bryce Adolphson and Brooklyn Flowers. I came into this project knowing basically nothing about how a show gets made, and now have so much respect for (and a deeper understanding of) the process. I'm really excited for how the team will apply all that we've learned to Season 2.
My favorite on-camera moment has to be when I successfully climbed the bouldering wall with Jas of QPOC Hikers. Such a simple activity, but it made me feel so strong and accomplished.
You have been a part of the conversation about Black representation in running for years. What inspired you to turn your work into a book?
The birth of my son in July 2019 and then the murder of Ahmaud Arbery just seven months later really put into perspective what my future would look like as the mother of a Black son in this country: heartbreak, worry, always wondering about what might happen to him doing mundane tasks like going for a run. The pain of racism and white supremacy was already a part of my experience, but this murder put me on high alert.
I started to reflect on all of the ways that running as a Black woman had been complicated by living in a white-supremacist country. Running — an activity that I loved — could never just be that simple because of the fear and anxiety that comes with moving through space in a Black body. I wrote an op-ed that was published in Outside magazine that went viral, with many white people expressing shock and surprise that the experience of running while Black was different from their own. I knew right then that I had to write a book to provide a window into my experience and those like me, as well as provide tools and hope for ways that the running industry and community can truly make running safe and open to all.
What advice do you have for someone who is inspired by your work to run, but is intimidated to take that first stride?
Take it one day at a time and give yourself some grace. Never compare yourself to others' progress (or even your past self). Throughout my life, there have been many times when I've had to start my running journey again. Whether after injury or childbirth, each time it's been extremely difficult, particularly when I let myself ruminate on a previous version of myself. When I focus my attention on one run — or walk, run/walk — at a time, letting go of my expectations around what it "should" look like or feel like, I allow myself to be fully present to experience what it actually is.
You will be joining us at the Crosscut Ideas Festival in May. What do you hope to share with our audience?
I'll be in conversation with Lauren Fleshman and Alysia Montaño, two incredible athletes and activists who work tirelessly to achieve equity for women and mothers, and I'm hoping that our conversation is disruptive and gets audience members excited to reimagine the world of sport.
Join Alison Mariella Désir and more newsmakers at the Crosscut Ideas Festival. Get tickets now.