The name "Still I Run" was inspired by the well-known Maya Angelou 1978 poem "Still I rise". If you're unfamiliar with the poem, it's a beautiful and powerful piece about survival, hope, and self-respect from the personal viewpoint of Maya Angelou, a Black woman growing up in the Jim Crow South of the United States. This poem, along with much of Angelou's work is centered around the themes of  triumph and celebration of oneself despite a history of oppression, hate, and discrimination. While discrimination against those with mental illness is not comparable to the discrimination the black community faces, Sasha, who personally deals with depression and anxiety, resonated with the idea of rising above.

 

Mental illness has a long history of discrimination and stigma: people with mental illness were outcasts, denied full participation in society and often labeled as dangerous or criminals. Early "treatments" were borderline torture with exorcisms, enforced malnutrition, isolation and segregation, and folks were often institutionalized into places that resembled prisons with the intent to punish rather than hospitals designed to treat. This discrimination was compounded and much worse for marginalized communities, particularly for Black men, women, and children. The stigma, isolation, and segregation continues today due to systemic discrimination: weaponizing mental illness as cause for mistreatment, using mental illness to describe violent or aggressive behavior, and a general assumption that mental illness is not a real illness.

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In 2011, when Sasha discovered running helped her cope with mental illness, she realized at the same time that she is stronger than she thinks. Running is hard, and being able to run on the days when depression and anxiety hits hardest made her feel like she was rising above. Running grounds her in reality and reminds her that even though she has depression, she still has the strength to get out of bed and go for a run. ​The name "Still I Run" draws strength and inspiration from Angelou's poem to rise above the stigma and thrive while also promoting running as a tool for coping with the daily struggles of mental illness.