Yoga in the Black Community
April 13, 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Featuring: Daheia Barr-Anderson, Gail Parker, Jennifer Webb, and Ericka Jones
In the U.S., yoga has become increasingly popular in recent years. Although heavily westernized and white-washed, yoga’s origins not only trace back to India, but this sacred practice has African roots. For centuries, Black people have faced marginalization, discrimination, and social injustice in the U.S. The unjustified deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black lives have created a level of racial and social trauma that few other communities have experienced. Coupled with the physical, mental, financial, and social disparities that exist in the Black community, a collective healing is needed. Many people are drawn to a yoga mat as a means to address imbalance or heal trauma experienced in their lives. Although in the U.S., yoga has the reputation of attracting college-educated, white populations and can be exclusionary to BIPOC communities, yoga has become increasingly popular among Blacks with the growth of Afrocentric yoga (i.e., focusing on Black or African culture), establishment of Black yoga organizations (i.e., Black Yoga Teachers Alliance), and expansion of social media presence of Black yoga practitioners. In this panel discussion, Black researchers and yoga instructors will discuss yoga in the Black community: why is it important to help reclaim health, how can it be used to address trauma and healing in the Black community, and what has been the impact of COVID-19. Register for this event through Zoom.
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