Racism and Yoga Study Group

Reading:  Embrace Yoga’s Roots: Courageous Ways to Deepen Your Yoga Practice by Susanna Barkataki

This group will meet for 10 sessions over the course of 20 weeks
Every other Tuesday at 7:15 to 8:30 pm PST on zoom

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

YOU ARE INVITED

The group will start with this book on Tues, Feb 22, meeting every other week from 7:15 – 8:30pm PST.  We will meet for 10 sessions over the course of 20 weeks ending Tuesday, June 28.

This is the fourth ongoing study group around yoga and racism that Adeline Yoga has hosted since June 2020. The first focused on histories and understandings of white supremacy, colonialism, capitalism, appropriation and the relation of these structures to yoga and embodiment. The second session focused on a close reading of Resmaa Menakem’s My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies.  And our most recent cycle focused on Restorative Yoga for Ethnic and Race Based Stress and Trauma by Gail Parker, PhD, C-IAYT.

WHAT TO EXPECT

This group meets bi-weekly to discuss a section of the book each time. It is an invitation to practice embodied mindfulness as a way of developing collective, anti-racist resilience while 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 and taking time to read and work with the material in each chapter, 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.

We welcome new participants at the start of each cycle; once formed, the group is closed so to allow for trust and connection to grow. Working in community has proved very beneficial not just in terms of easing the isolation we’ve all experienced over the last year. The group setting also provides the support and accountability we need to move through a process that can be both painful and uplifting.

This study group is a white-led group that developed and coalesced over the course of 18 months of prior work. We now seek to involve more folks from the yoga community to explore together what it means to practice yoga in a world dominated by white supremacy. All are welcome. By making a conscious decision to invite and encourage BIPOC yoga practitioners to join the study group, the leadership team acknowledges the responsibility/obligation to hold space for their needs, particularly if any of the work we do in the Group is triggering.

Pre-registration, willingness to engage the week’s materials and to sit with hard issues is required.

Tuition:

You can choose to pay the suggested donation rates:
$108 – for all 10 sessions
$10 – for a single session

OR

Send us via Paypal ANY amount you can afford here.
Add a note that it’s for the study group and we will register you on Mindbody.

Donations very appreciated but not mandatory, No one turned away for lack of funds.
100% of all proceeds go to Yoga Blessings Fund Scholarships.

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.

About your group facilitators:

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 and faculty at UC San Francisco’s Institute for Health & Aging. She has been involved in activism and advocacy related to the prison industrial complex and structural competency in healthcare settings for two decades. 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.

Sarah Harvey (she/her) is a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher and Certified Yoga Therapist with the International Association of Yoga Therapists (c-IAYT). She is a graduate of the 500-hour Advanced Studies/Teacher Training Program at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco. A long time member of the Iyengar Yoga community, she has studied and practiced yoga since 1991. She has been teaching classes and private yoga lessons throughout the Bay Area since 2002.
Sarah brings a light, humorous approach to her teaching, combined with direct, detailed instructions for each student. Although yoga is central to her life and key to her well-being, she is also an avid sports fan (Go A’s! Go Dubs!). Sarah lives in a small cottage in East Oakland with her two cats, and enjoys gardening and gourmet cooking.

Shari Ser (she/her) is a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher, a physical therapist and certified yoga therapist (C-IAYT). She has been practicing yoga for over 35 years along with working as a physical therapist throughout that time. She loves teaching yoga with students who may feel uncomfortable in faster paced yoga classes and need more personalized attention. Shari is a certified trainer in Dr Loren Fishman’s Yoga for Osteoporosis method and teaches an ongoing Yoga for Healthy bones class at Adeline Yoga currently on zoom. Shari loves teaching anatomy classes for yoga students and teachers and believes we can deepen our practice and teaching of yoga through a good understanding of basic anatomy. She is a graduate of the Adeline Yoga Sadhana Studies Program. Her additional certifications include RYT 500, E-RYT, Shari is an avid believer of the practice and power of yoga throughout the years. She believes in its immense value in maintaining mobility, independence and equanimity as we all age.

Laurie Freed (she/her/hers) is an Intermediate Junior 2 Iyengar certified teacher. She studied Iyengar Yoga first from 1988 – 1994. In 1994, she began studying and teaching Vinyasa and Ashthanga Yoga, obtaining certification through the Himalayan Institute. She returned to Iyengar yoga in 2003, and continues to study with local and national Senior teachers. She spent 2 months in India, and attended 5 National conventions studying with the Iyengar family. Laurie believes that Iyengar yoga is the best way to share yoga with others and to deepen her own practice.  She is a teacher at Silent Dance Yoga Center based in Honolulu.