It’s dawn in Harlem, in the sleety cold of November. Youth activist and organiser Jamira Burley is returning from her morning run. As the Head of Youth Engagement and Skills at the Global Business Coalition for Education, it’s one of few moments in the day she’s able to spend by herself.
Text - Michael Fordham Photography - Natalie Keyssar
Jamira’s home is full of paraphernalia and keepsakes. On the walls of her living room is a triptych of American tragedies rendered in graphic art. To the left, a black woman is screaming, crying, wrapped in the stars and stripes, her face streaked with warpaint. To the right is a girl wearing a hijab rendered as Old Glory. In the centre is a native American woman in a spectacular headdress – she’s sporting an accusatory expression.
There are bare brick walls and a compact bookshelf (titles include: American Species, Unlearning Liberty and Notes of a Native Son). There’s a refrigerator with images of friends and family stuck to it, alongside the odd campaign sticker and ironic motivational message. But there’s something else here too – something that is key to all of Jamira’s activism. It’s the plan of service for her brother André, who was shot to death in his Philadelphia apartment.
“When I first started running in 2015 it felt like I was physically running from all the things that made me angry,” Jamira says. She’s in from the cold now, preparing for a radio appearance later in the morning. “Now, running provides me with one of the only times in my day when I don’t have to think about work, family or society.”
“With running I can just practise living in the moment. When I’m most frustrated, sad, feeling like I’m an imposter and my brain won’t shut down, I run. If more people ran, they might find moments of peace.”
Jamira is one of 200 people involved in adidas’s [FUTURECRAFT.LOOP] project – a programme built around the innovative idea of completely recyclable running shoes. The model functions like this: you get a shoe, use it, then, when you’re done, you return it to be recycled and swap it for the next iteration.
In response, we spoke to Jamira about her work helping society’s most marginalised – and why she believes social and environmental issues will always be entangled.
Tell us about your working life. I am the typical millennial in many ways: I’m the Head of Youth Engagement for Global Business Coalition for Education. It’s a membership organisation composed of over
