The Sonya Looney Show

Alison Desir and Amir Figueroa are on a mission for social change.  The two individually found their love of running – Amir’s father died of HIV when Amir was 4 and Alison was struggling with depression and some very hard life challenges with a bad break-up and a very sick father.  And from there, they found running through seeing others lead by example.  Amir saw a friend with HIV walk a marathon and raise money for Harlem United.  Alison saw a friend on social media who was a black man training for a marathon and felt empowered to do it too. And now?  Leading by their own examples is changing the world.  Before they met, Amir and Alison started their own running groups to build community in Harlem and met because of similar hashtag they were using.  They decided to join forces. Not only did they join forces, but they got married and had a beautiful baby boy named Kouri about a year ago.  For Alison and Amir, it’s not just about running, it’s not just about having a club.  It’s about running for social chang