Why Is Unapologetically Black Yoga Dedicated to Black People?
After working in the UK mental health system for nearly 20 years, it actually seemed Black people had a right to have a nervous breakdown due to the cumulative levels of stress and white supremacy we ingest over generations. Traditional yoga and well-being practices, often spiritually bypass this - having little understanding of our racialised scars, our bodies, our vibe, our discomfort, or our ancestral vitality. In Unapologetically Black Yoga, we come together to witness & tend to ourselves with loving care.
Only we know our pain and we don’t want to keep explaining it.
Founder ~ Oya Heart Warrior The inordinate amount of systemic racial stress that Black people can unconsciously absorb, over generations, writes itself on our body and mind. By flooding the body with adrenaline and cortisol, chronic racial stress is seen as a silent assassin. It is linked to emotional, physical and energetic pain.
Racism and stress underlies many of the disproportionate health issues faced by Black people; from hypertension and heart disease to diabetes and fibroids. Chronic, insidious stress may also effect our mood, energy, relationships, life chances, self determination and potential to dream. Yet it is overlooked, minimised or completely denied - even by ourselves. We just keep on going, generation after generation, often until we drop, pop, or crack.
Managing systemic, racialised stress can easily become a way of life. It can show up as burn out, persistent fatigue, tension in the body, feeling on guard, social withdrawal and anxiety. These adaptive responses release powerful chemicals, designed to brace the body temporarily, to respond to perceived hostilities. However, chronic stress can wear our body out: disrupting or digestion; blood vessels and kidneys - leading to inflammation, and the depletion of our immunity.
What is Unique about Unapologetically Black Yoga?
We are not confined to a yoga mat or eastern linear movement and traditions. We draw on the soulfulness of dance to liberate our body. We open ourselves to welcome what moves us and what wants to move through us without trying to control it.
We connect to an ecstatic vibration that resonates throughout the diaspora through music, sound, movement and imagination. We listen, intuitively, to what is calling us to live who we are. We undulate with free movement and social connection: feeling seen and valued in loving Black spaces. We are wholeheartedly supported and belong in these spaces, without trying to fit in. We do not ‘bruk up ourselves’ to prove we are worthy. We reclaim our complex humanity. We reclaim our joy. We reclaim our right to rest.
Black Body Joy & Pain
Unapologetically Black Yoga is a nurturing space for Black (and mixed race) people from the African Diaspora to be deeply valued and self-expressed in our phenomenality. Our wonder-full Black yoga teachers bring great compassion and support for Black People’s lived experience and survival strategies. We gently uncouple strength from survival and vulnerability from weakness. We bring nurturing, stress releasing content to:- replenish the body, support the mind and celebrate our spirit.
We invite the vibration, rhythm and wisdom of our breath, body, mind & soul - calling forth the collective support of that which is seen and unseen. This is designed to release pain, and invite joy, vitality and peace directly into our senses. Choice is paramount, and we are always invited to connect with what feels good for us and to take away or add what feels right. Our intuition and agency are priority here. Every practice offers deep tension release using restorative movement, nurturing meditation and affirmations, accompanied by uplifting music.
Unapologetically Black Yoga recognises that to be Black, alive, and well is a radical act of liberation
You don’t have to be thin, flexible, fit, female, binary, spiritual, ‘natural’, political or feeling happy: All melanated bodied people, of African ancestry, are lovingly welcomed to belong and be themselves here.
Unapologetically Black Yoga for Black People, is not showy, precise or exhausting. It will not sculpt you into set poses, perfected by a thin, bendy white teacher in Lycra.
You won’t find the traditional yoga sequences or approaches here. You are invited to connect to freedom movement, collective breath, cathartic sound, and your own self expression, in a space of tender, powerful Black solidarity. This is alive with ancestral joy, compassion and support for each other.
white body supremacy and racism has to be abolished through the body first - Resmaa Menakem
