By Williamena Kwapo | OBSERVER Staff Writer
In July, local artist Michaela Stewart launched a wellness initiative that quickly resonated with Black women in Sacramento.
The inspiration behind the movement was deeply personal. Having just completed four major art exhibitions, Stewart realized her own health had taken a back seat. Feeling overwhelmed by life’s demands and neglecting self-care, she began to wonder if others felt the same way.
“Just culturally and historically we’ve been known to take care of everything else and everyone else except for ourselves,” she says. “So I wondered if there’s anyone else that felt that way too.”
This realization sparked a desire for accountability to herself paired with a community of women who could relate to her struggles.
Her solution? A simple Instagram page for a running club, which she called Black Girls Run It, which soon became a hub for like-minded women eager to join the journey toward wellness.
“It is the perfect name because it doesn’t have to really mean just running, per se. But we run our mental health, we run our physical well-being, we run our emotional well-being,” Stewart says.
While the group centers around running, meeting Tuesdays and Saturdays at Crocker Art Museum, the mission extends far beyond physical fitness. It’s about fostering a health and wellness sisterhood in which Black women can support each other.
For members such as Victoria Viart, the group has been transformative. Viart says Black Girls Run It came at a perfect time in her life when she was healing from a breakup and trying to establish healthier habits.
“I got into running. Then from there, I started looking at YouTube videos and learning more about running clubs,” she says. “I specifically wanted to find a girls run club and I found this one. It was literally perfect.”
Viart believes groups like Black Girls Run It serve an essential purpose beyond fitness. “For me, it’s about community. After my breakup, it was nice knowing I could find other girls with similar interests,” she says. “It’s been such a great social outlet.”
Kiah Mims also discovered Black Girls Run It through Instagram page in November. She says she feels like she has finally found a run club she connects deeply with.
“I went to other run clubs and they were super cool. But nothing hit like this,” Mims says. “Personally, as a Black woman, I felt like we needed something where we saw a lot of our faces getting healthy and focusing on a lot of things that plague our community.”
Black Girls Run It is for now the only run club in Sacramento exclusively dedicated to Black women. Almost 20 women consistently show up for the Tuesday evening and Saturday morning runs. Beyond weekly runs, members gather socially for things such as dinner parties, friendsgiving, and coffee meet-ups.
Stewart says the ultimate goal is to integrate mental health panels, intimate group discussions, and partnerships with other health and wellness organizations in Sacramento.
“I want this to be a space where Black women feel seen, heard, and supported in every aspect of their well-being,” says Stewart.