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zaakiyah yaasameen

@_zaakiyah

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untitled, unmastered.
@southcentral.run
@southcentralwellnessclub

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Clout chasing is killing us. How do I know? Because I know all about clout.
Clout is what made South Central Run Club — a run club I co-created — a recognizable name in Los Angeles. Its namesake, after South Central Los Angeles, is an area that has faced not only long-term divestment but some of LA’s most violent upheavals. Due to the neighborhood’s portrayal in popular media, a run club is not what you picture when you think of South Central. You think Nipsey Hussle. Maybe Boyz-N-Tha-Hood. Outsiders don’t visualize health, let alone a run club.

By: Zaakiyah Brisker
Zaakiyah Brisker is the founder of South Central Run Club and a civic organizer and activist based in Los Angeles. She writes about race, place, and the liberatory politics of Black wellness.

Edited and designed by @29cents by @_zaakiyah

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5 months ago

God forbid I say I’m lonely.

I wrote a Substack about it.

I’m not making the point you thinking I’m making.

Link in bio. by @_zaakiyah

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3 hours ago

Zaakiyah Brisker, founder of @southcentral.run, breaks down the ongoing ripple effect of the Barrio Athletics 5K run that was supposed to take place on Sept. 6 Leimert Park.

The 5K run was ultimately moved to Elysian Park.

“A handful of people arguing over a 5K became the story that defines South Central, while Leimert Park itself — home to roughly 12,000 people — got reduced to the backdrop for everybody else’s argument,” Brisker wrote.

Beneath social media, trends and noise — there is a deep history embedded into this conversation.

So, who gets to speak for LA?

🔗 Read the full story in the link in our bio!

Editor’s note: This is part of our “LA Views” series — commentary that provides perspectives on our neighborhoods and the issues facing them.

✏️ + 📸 @_Zaakiyah

#barrioathletics #crenshaw #leimertpark #southcentral #run by @_zaakiyah

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6 days ago

crouching tiger, hidden dragon - 2022
#timelinecleanse by @_zaakiyah

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21 days ago

Update:

[this is not straight forward]

TRAK with @southcentral.run. We eventually find our seats on the turf and shoot the breeze, laughing about the absurdity of life. So much ease there.

This week is bringing me closer to people and teaching me how to receive.

What’s been put on my table, I’ve only studied in books. And while I may have been prepared to recognize it and respond to it, the self-regulation it requires is something I’m learning in real time.

The affirmations have come in person, through emails and DMs, from friends and strangers — every crevice you can find.

And at some point I have to admit: this is beyond me. The faith is built in. There’s nothing to do. My only job is to play my part.

Like Earl said, I’m not okay, but I’m gon’ be alright. So thank you for keeping me, South Central, or both in your thoughts. by @_zaakiyah

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a month ago

y’all want to laugh with me real quick?

eeeeeemagine you’ve spent the better part of 8 years trying to unionize the hood by building Black and Brown solidarity through running. like actually piecing it up with people. running together. eating together. collaborating. learning each other’s neighborhoods and histories. making mistakes, having disagreements, coming back to the table, trying again.

eeeeeemagine you and your coalition literally create Ghetto Running Day to strengthen pride and confidence between neighbors because you believe in working-class power — and then you actually witness it change material conditions. over 200 people of all cultures pop out to support one another.

and then one day, one completely repairable conflict turns into Black vs. Latino discourse across the whole damn internet in like 48 hours.

and I’ve been sitting with why this has felt so consuming for me. what is pulling at my emotions?

it’s not like i’m naive about the histories between our communities. not like i think solidarity means pretending anti-Blackness, xenophobia, displacement, gang violence, immigration, cultural erasure or any of the other shit between us doesn’t exist.

i’m sad because i know another way is possible because I’m living it.

i’ve watched people from different parts of this city show up for each other, share space, share resources, learn each other, disagree and still remain in relationship. i have years of memories of that.

so watching people reduce all of us to racial teams and drag every historical grievance into one conflict has been wiiiiiild, to say the least.

it’s also very humbling because reality is reality. there is clearly still so much work to do.

and we keep leaning in and getting stronger together.

because everything else is corny and boring.

#SOUTHCENTRALFOREVER by @_zaakiyah

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2 months ago

#timelinecleanse

Siblings running together as adults.
I have really great brothers. by @_zaakiyah

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2 months ago

#timelinecleanse

discussing the power of propaganda and meaning making with strangers. by @_zaakiyah

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3 months ago

#timelinecleanse

hugging @ascendinglibra

📸: @findyourrhythmm by @_zaakiyah

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3 months ago

17 years later. Some chapters don’t close because they resolve. They close because you finally have the language.

Good Looking Out — a meditation on colorism, femme friendship and the harm of binaries.

Link in my stories and bio.

The photo is the late great Noah Davis’ Untitled (2015). by @_zaakiyah

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3 months ago

New essay. Read it when you’re ready. 🖤 by @_zaakiyah

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3 months ago

#outtake
📷: @beenshmikler by @_zaakiyah

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4 months ago