WITH THE EARTH AS OUR WITNESS: A BODY-BASED CIRCLE FOR DISMANTLING WHITE SUPREMACY
I am filled with gratitude and humility to begin the launch of this project.
A short time after the murder of George Floyd, my dear friend and Yoga Therapy colleague Riley Skye told me about a vision she and fellow Yoga Therapist Nya Patrinos were manifesting: to create a “garland of light” of BIPOC yoga teachers offering practice around the clock on Juneteenth. That was the birth of Yoga Jubilee, which has hosted incredible programs and presenters for over a year. I was blessed to attend several wonderful offerings and they were great resources in this challenging time.
I am more than thrilled to be joining the faculty of Yoga Jubilee with this project using my trauma work in dismantling white-body supremacy in those of us living in white bodies.
This project began in a conversation between Riley and I, and I was magically introduced to my amazing co-facilitator, Rosa Vissers . Rosa and I have been developing this curriculum for over a year, in consultation with Riley, sharing our own journeys and humilities and working to create an embodiment practice space for white-bodied people to join us in dismantling the ways that systemic racism affects all of us, a place to work towards and understand our place as white folks in collective liberation from white-body supremacy.
There are many vibrant and brilliant pioneers approaching this work of racial justice from the standpoint of trauma, and the visionaries are largely Black and Indigenous, including Resmaa Menakem and Reverend angel Kyodo williams, to whom we owe deep debt and gratitude. We are not the originators.
As Rev said in a recent training: “There is no justice without embodiment.”
And Resmaa Menakem: “For most Americans, white body supremacy has become a part of our bodies. It’s the equivalent of a toxic chemical we ingest on a daily basis. Eventually it changes our brains and the chemistry of our bodies, which is why we need to begin not with guilt or blame, but with our bodies.”
We would love to have you join us in this journey.