Black Men Run Charlotte

DID YOU KNOW?

Duke Ellington, the accomplished jazz musician from Washington, D.C., also composed classical music. He wrote the suite, “The River,” to accompany a ballet choreographed by the legendary Alvin Ailey.

Lamar Cousin, Black Men Run Charlotte (BMR CLT) vice captain (left), and Greg Washington, BMR CLT head captain (right)

Black Men Run Promotes Fellowship and Healthy Living

By Anders J. Hare

In October 2021, Black Men Run Charlotte (BMR CLT) celebrated its eighth anniversary — not with a big party and festivities, but with a commemorative morning run followed by breakfast. Current and original members of the organization attended the event, showing how dedicated the members from different generations are to changing the narrative of Black men’s health in the Charlotte area.

The Charlotte chapter is part of a larger network of Black Men Run organizations across the country, which was founded in July 2013 by Jason Russell and Edward Walton. The Charlotte chapter, founded by head captain Greg Washington and Frederick Jameson in October 2013, holds runs and walks on Mondays as well as the first and third Saturday of every month. Washington said he was inspired to start the chapter after he attended a race in Atlanta.

“I saw one guy come across the finish line wearing a Black Men Run shirt,” Washington said. “And it’s interesting because my wife was a part of Black Girls Run, but I had no idea about Black Men Run,” he said. “When we got home, I Googled it and saw that they were accepting chapters in different states, so I requested to be a captain. Oddly enough, another guy from Charlotte requested to be captain the same day, so we (Washington and Jameson) founded the chapter together.”

The first group run was held on Oct. 21, 2013, and it consisted of four guys — Washington, Jameson and two friends. Since then, BMR CLT has grown to 200 members, but about 25 active members participate weekly, Washington added.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease is the number one cause of death of African American men. With this in mind, Washington said he realized it was important to have an outlet to promote healthy activity for Black men after he had concerns about his own health. Washington moved to Charlotte from New York in 2006, and over

the years he started gaining weight because he wasn’t walking as much as he used to.

“It’s easy to gain weight because everything is spread out. You drive a lot. People don’t really have to get out and walk and stuff,” Washington said.

It is the driving mission to maintain sound physical and mental health that has helped BMR CLT gain such a great following in the Charlotte area. As head captain of the organization, Washington also works with the national chapter’s BMR Foundation to hold town hall meetings that promote health and wellness. The first meeting was held in November and covered hypertension.

BMR CLT’s mission also extends to young men and boys. The organization recently partnered with an elementary school where Washington, along with coaches at the school, organized a run and tried to teach students that it’s okay to be active and sensitive at the same time.

He emphasized that BMR CLT is about more than just maintaining physical and mental health. The group works to create an equitable space for members with all levels of exercise experience.

“We have a wide range of people, from collegiate runners to people who just walk, so everybody has a certain amount of experience,” Washington said. “We’ll meet you where you are, and we have guys in the groups who are certified coaches who can help; or, if you’re fine with just walking, we’ll walk with you.”

More than anything, Washington is grateful to the men who have supported his work over the last eight years. He explained the purpose of the anniversary run was to thank them for making the organization what it is today.

“It was just to show my appreciation for the guys,” Washington explained. “There were a few weeks when I was it. It was just me running, so I just wanted to show my appreciation.” P

Members of Black Men Run Charlotte

If you are interested in Black Men Run Charlotte, you can request to join the group via the Black Men Run Charlotte Facebook group page or on Instagram @blackmenrun_clt.

MLK Jr. Day Celebration

MONDAY, JANUARY 17 | 8AM Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day at Aldersgate with breakfast and service activities. We’ll be joined by Carola Cardenas, Aldersgate’s Chief Diversity, Inclusion & Equity Officer, who will speak on Dr. King’s legacy and how we can further the dream with courageous conversations and concrete actions for social justice. RSVP by calling (704) 318-2035 or visiting AldersgateLiving.org.

Aldersgate is a non-profi t Life Plan Community. 3800 Shamrock Drive • Charlotte, NC 28215

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What the Constitution Means to Me

Playwright and Star Heidi Schreck on Passing the Torch to Cassie Beck

by Leigh Scheps

It was “remarkably easy” for Heidi Schreck to offer the role of herself to Cassie Beck for the national tour of “What the Constitution Means to Me.”

“There are just few people I trust more than Cassie on stage,” the creator, playwright and Tony Award nominee said of the play’s new star.

The show, directed by Oliver Butler, centers around Heidi as she recounts her 15-year-old self tracing the relationship between four generations of women along with the constitution, the founding document that shaped their lives. At the end of the play, a debate ensues over whether to abolish the constitution.

Watching Cassie was like “seeing the play for the first time,” Heidi explained. “Like a play I didn't write, which is a remarkable feeling. I know those are my stories in my words, but I feel like I'm also receiving this other story, which is Cassie’s story, in a very profound way.”

The two have previously worked together and note they share similar traits and lineages from their blonde hair, age range and German ancestry. In a way, it’s as if they’ve “switched seats,” according to Cassie. Cassie feels she holds the “unique advantage that Heidi doesn’t have of understanding how the play impacts you from the audience point of view” since she’s seen Heidi perform it live.

Cassie said onstage she’s portraying 80% of Heidi and 20% of herself “sprinkled in” as she approached the script with “a fresh voice and a new set of eyes.” As part of her costume, she was gifted a beautiful family heirloom from Heidi to help feel Heidi’s presence on stage.

“Whatever I can channel of Heidi is what I know of her big heart, her smarts and her bravery.” Cassie said. “Because it is so truthful and raw, it's very accessible. I can insert my own mother and my own story inside these really beautifully written and exposed moments of what it is to be a white woman in this culture in this country.”

Heidi started working on “Constitution” back in 2008. The first full scale production was performed in 2017 before reaching Broadway in 2019. In 2020, a taping of the Broadway show was released on Amazon Prime TV.

“Full disclosure: I was actually very nervous about returning to it,” Heidi revealed of being scared to come back to the source material in “Constitution.” “It's been a long time since I performed it. I've given birth since then, there's been a pandemic, there's a huge upheaval in this country. It's been a very intense time.” Watching Cassie helped ease her fears. “The gift of watching Cassie performing it has made me feel really proud of it again, which is not something I say easily. So I'm very grateful to Cassie for that.”

What makes “Constitution” such an important piece of theater is that its impact resonates differently each time it's performed based on current events like bodily autonomy, freedom from violence and equality under the law.

“It's a little bit disheartening that it feels so relevant,” Heidi said candidly about her own work, alluding to recent national headlines. “Because the fourteenth amendment is so crucial to all of our lives in this country -- depending on what's going on in the country, it can seem like a certain section is about the moment we're living in. But it wasn't written with that in mind.” She emphasized that she didn’t write the play to intersect with current events. “The only part that changes more than other parts of the story is the debate at the end of the show,” Heidi noted.

The outcome of the debate, which on the tour will be performed by Cassie and teenagers Tk, TK on alternate performances, is different every single show. “There's going to be people in the audience who are going to be hearing things for the first time and maybe rethinking their relationship to civic duty or to the constitution,” Heidi said.

“What I love about the piece is it really does invite you, in the privacy of your mind, to break down what you think,” added Cassie. “I'm looking forward to seeing what other audiences outside of New York have to say.”