Written by Tasha from Black Girls Do Run.
Black Girls Do Run UK is a grassroots running community aimed at encouraging, motivating and inspiring more Black women to run for their physical and mental health. We host weekly, bi-weekly and monthly social runs. Fulham Palace parkrun in Bishop’s Park was the location for our final monthly meetup of 2023, on Saturday 9 December. Parkrun is a free, community event where you can walk, jog, run or volunteer. It’s a 5k event that takes place every Saturday morning all over the world.
On the day of our run, it rained non-stop; however, the rain did nothing to dampen our spirits—our energy was high as always. After the parkrun, hot drinks were part of our plan. We asked the lovely parkrun director/volunteers, Farah and Dawn, for a recommendation, and they highly suggested the drawing room café inside Fulham Palace. So off we went to find the Palace. It was such a relief to be indoors, away from the rain, cupping our hands around mugs of steaming hot drinks and enjoying delicious pastries. We thought this was the perfect end to our parkrun morning—or so we thought.
After finishing up at the drawing room café we stumbled upon the Fulham Palace museum. We love exhibitions as much as running, so we excitedly headed inside. We were greeted by a very welcoming and knowledgeable woman who gave us a detailed overview of the Palace’s history and the current exhibitions.
There was a thought-provoking exhibition called ‘The Bishops of London, colonialism and transatlantic slavery: resistance’. The exhibition was co-curated with Adisa The Verbaliser, whom we know from the cycling community. The exhibition touched on themes such as hair, dance, martial arts, Obeah and song. It was clear the museum sought the expertise of Adisa to approach this sensitive topic, and we appreciated the care that went into the research and curation.
As all our roots lie in Africa or the Caribbean, it was quite disturbing to learn how deeply involved the Bishops of London and the Church of England were in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans. Despite this, we felt the exhibition was crucial in educating visitors and preserving this history for future generations.
What we thought was going to be a perfect morning of running, hot drinks and pastries ended up giving us something much more—a peek into the past and a moment to give thanks to those who sacrificed so much. Fast forward to October 2024, and our chance encounter at Fulham Palace led us to connect with Sian Harrington, the chief executive at Fulham Palace which, in turn, gave us the opportunity to exhibit our Celebration of My Sisters exhibition for Black History Month and Black History 365 at Fulham Palace.
About Black Girls Do Run
Black Girls Do Run UK (BGDRUK) is an England Athletics-affiliated London-based running club/family founded in 2019. It is both an online and in-person community platform to show that everyday regular black women do and can run. Our goal for the community is to motivate more UK-based black women to run and to create a safe space that enhances the representation of regular black women to run for enjoyment, friendship and health reasons and be rewarded for their efforts by participating in races.