My Grandmother’s Hands Reading Group

A continuation of Adeline’s “Yoga and Racism” discussion series

Meets every other Tuesday 7:30-8:30pm PST

Starts Tuesday September 22, 2020

In My Grandmother’s Hands, author, social worker, and somatic healer Resmaa Menakem invites us to recognize how the trauma and oppression of racism is experienced in our bodies and minds, both for people of color and for white people. The book provides both discussion of trauma and race, and also body centered practice exercises designed to help us examine our relationship with racism and to enter into a healing journey. This group is a place to engage collectively in these practices. We will follow Menakem’s book at the rate of approximately one chapter a week, and come together to practice and to reflect on the material.

As an embodied practice of liberation, yoga provides us with tools for increasing awareness of our bodies and our capacities for perception. And yet, we can not separate our practice of yoga from the larger context of racism, colonialism, and white body supremacy in the United States. This group is an invitation to practice embodied mindfulness as a way of developing collective, anti-racist resilience and moving towards radical change and racial justice. This is difficult work. It is even more difficult when done alone or in isolation. By holding this group, we seek to deepen our relationships with each other, increase our accountability to each other, and thus increase our impact in our yoga communities and beyond.

This reading group is geared toward white yoga practitioners who are committed to deepening anti-racist practices so that we can work to undo the ways that racism and white body supremacy live in and through us. We recognize that, as Menakem emphasizes, we have to do this work ourselves so as not to put the burden of undoing racism on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color). By “white” we are referring to people with European ancestry, ethnicity, or religious backgrounds, who are “white passing” or benefit from racial/light-skin privilege, or who otherwise benefit from white privilege.

If you are a POC or of a mixed-race background and wish to participate, please reach out to the group facilitators through info@adelineyoga.com so that we discuss ways for you to be comfortable and safe in this virtual space.

Note:  Adeline Yoga does offer BIPOC-only space through our Monthly Restorative Yoga for People of Color class.

Tuition:

Prior to the session you will receive a unique zoom log-in and specific instructions.

First time on Zoom with us? Check out our tip sheet! Our tips will help you get ready for your first class with us.

Prior to our first gathering on 9/22, please read the introduction and Chapter 1 (through page 26)

Order a copy of the book:

Resmaa Menakem’s website: https://www.resmaa.com/books/

Black-owned bookstores, including Marcus Books in Oakland, CA: https://lithub.com/you-can-order-today-from-these-black-owned-independent-bookstores/

About your group faciliators:

Jacqueline Shea Murphy, Ph.D., (she/her/hers) (Welsh/English/Irish/French Canadian), has been teaching about race and dance for over two decades as a professor of Critical Dance Studies in UC Riverside’s Dance department. She is the author of “The People Have Never Stopped Dancing”: Native American Modern Dance Histories and co –director of http://icr.ucr.edu/. Jacqueline is a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher, and has been a serious practitioner of Iyengar yoga for over 25 years.

Francesca Nicosia PhD., (she/her/hers) (Italian/Irish/English/Ukrainian/Polish), is a medical anthropologist, faculty at UC San Francisco’s Institute for Health & Aging and researcher in integrative health at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. She is committed to advocacy and activism related to integrative health equity and structural competency in healthcare settings. Francesca has been a dedicated yoga practitioner for over twenty years and is a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher and certified yoga therapist (c-IAYT). She is a teacher at Adeline Yoga, specializing in asana, yoga philosophy and chanting.