YOGA RESOURCES – NOURISHING COMMUNITIES

yoga for everybodyAfro Flow Yoga

Taught by the incomparable Leslie Salmon Jones and accompanied by her accomplished musician husband Jeff Jones, Afro Flow Yoga is an enlivening and soulful practice. They teach regularly in Boston and also travel the world. For more on this gift to the world see their website. www.afroflowyoga.com

Angela Farmer and Victor Van Kooten Yoga

They offer courses in Lesvos Greece and many venues in the United States, Germany, Russia, England, Spain and beyond. Classically trained by B.K.S. Iyengar for a decade before they ventured out, this dynamic pair teach the unlearning of yoga by encouraging practitioners to look inside ourselves for wisdom and awareness. Angela, perhaps the most revered elder yogini in the world, is also a humanitarian activist and a poet. Their studio in Lesvos is the most beautiful studio I have ever had the privilege of experiencing. For more, see, www.angela-victor.com/content/who-are-we-anyway

Hands to Heart Center: Yoga for the People

A breath-giving organization in Boston that provides free yoga to people affected by addiction, poverty and trauma. Founded by the extraordinary Susan Lovett—her name is so fitting—Hands to Heart Center offers high-quality yoga in hundreds of locations in Boston (transition houses, church basements, prisons, schools, community centers) while offering a model for the world of what grassroots yoga can look like. www.handstoheartcenter.org.

South Asian American Perspectives on Yoga in America.

Founded by yogi, scholar and lawyer Roopa Singh, SAAPYA sees attention to South Asian feminist voices as key to practicing yoga with integrity and respect. This site is essential for all people wanting to create yoga communities that are free of colonialist and racist practices. saapya.wordpress.com

Decolonizing Yoga

A resource-rich website that hosts writing and announcements for people seeking ways to keep yoga affordable and accessible. Its long-standing commitment to “decolonizing” yoga offers us models for building grassroots, liberatory yoga communities. decolonizingyoga.com

Shakti Yoga Dances

Samantha Cameron teaches dance at Wellesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts and also choreographs and performs beautiful Shakti Yoga Dances that celebrate divine feminine energy and cultivate creative movement expression. I have had the honor of performing in some of her dances. For more information see her website shaktidances.com

Dianne Bondy

Yogasteya is an online community created by Dianne Bondy that specializes in welcoming yoga practitioners of all shapes, sizes, and abilities. www.oneoeight.com

LifeForce Yoga

LifeForce Yoga is intentionally designed to work with and manage moods. The practices support students in self-regulation and many of the yoga techniques can be done in a chair, in bed, and do not require a yoga mat. See yogafordepression.com.

Nikki Myers and Y12SR

Nikki Myers founded the Yoga of 12-Step Recovery (Y12SR), a community organizing platform that integrates the wisdom of yoga and the practical tools of 12-step programs. For more on this healing practice see y12sr.com/. Activists on the Mat: Connecting the dots… yoga, neuroplasticity and social change is a six-week webinar series that Nikki Myers of Y12SR and I taught together.

Rolf Gates

Rolf Gates is the author of the acclaimed book on yogic philosophy, Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga. He teaches regularly at Kripalu and studios throughout the US.