On Sunday, June 14th, hundreds of New York City runners gathered at the East River Amphitheatre for a two-mile protest run against racial injustice and police brutality in America. The run was organized by Coffey – who was recently a guest on our show and has emerged as one of the city's most vocal activists in the fight against racism. He called on all New York City runners to come together and run together as one community. He initially expected 40 to 60 people to show up but there were hundreds. It was further proof that everyone in the running community will take the time to run together, protest together, listen together and make change together.
After the run, there was a speaker series with crew leaders sharing personal stories of their encounters with racism, what it means to be Black in America and how you can help make a change. Coffey granted us permission to share the audio from the conversation.
The speakers are listed below with timestamps so that you can pick up on hearing everything they had to share because it's important. We have also included their respective Instagram handles so you can follow them.
Coffey of DeFine New York Run Club: 3:44 (@thatcoffeyboy)
Pastor Craig Holliday of the Brooklyn Tabernacle: 13:08
New York City Parks Commissioner Mitchel Silver: 17:50 (@mitchell_silver)
Cheryl Donald of Brooklyn Track Club: 23:56 (@blackpearlruns)
Dao-Yi Chow of Old Man Run Club: 32:54 (@alldaydaoyi)
Mike Saes of Bridge Runners: 43:40 (@mikesaes)
Jessie Zapo of Girls Run NYC: 47:48 (@jessiezapo)
Hector Espinal of We Run Uptown: 56:36 (@hecisdead)
Julissa Tejada of Wilpower Fitness: 1:01:09 (@mrs._wilpower_)
Jason Fulford of The Running Edge & the cousin of Eric Garner (@jayfuf15): 1:05:59
Steve Finley of Brooklyn Track Club: 1:14:21 (@steve__finley)
Nova Church of Bronx Sole: 1:19:11 (@nova.church)
Power Malu of Bridgerunners: 1:28:00 (@powermalu)
Cover photo provided Steven Rojas | @stevenrojas