A Modern Day Yogini and Teacher

I started the practice of yoga 25 years ago seeking answers, seeking health for my body, seeking a deeper connection to myself, seeking knowledge of how to live in concert with nature. The journey to find myself and to answer these questions has not been easy but it has been stimulating, interesting, challenging and life altering. As anyone who practices yoga knows, it is a practice that connects body, mind and spirit. There is a heightened awareness that comes from becoming still, and an insight into self and others that guides and helps one to make wise, mindful choices and to take positive and meaningful steps forward in life - at least this was the effect that the practice of Yoga has had on my life.

Today, I have a life that honors who I am --a Black woman, mother, grandmother, friend, artist and yoga activist.

The practice of Yoga taught me to slow down and reflect, to take chances and live creatively, to take care of and nourish my body, mind and spirit with the practices of renewal and relaxation. As I have often been quoted as saying, “I came to yoga to live” and today. I now say, "I came to yoga to reconnect and relearn how to live soulfully!"

My History

Through the years I have taught yoga to all peoples, but I have always had a special interest in bringing yoga and its magnificent lifestyle and healing properties to people of color - particularly African Americans who are still largely absent from the wider yoga culture today.

Through the years, there have been some openings—success with the creation of the Teaching for Diversity Program at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health; participating as a supporting member of the International Association of Black Yoga Teachers; creating and directing the Yoga Retreat for Women of Color at Kripalu twice per year for the past decade; founding and directing the Santosha School of Yoga offering Yoga Alliance approved Yoga Teacher Training & Certification Programs.

Through the years

I have served as a member of the Board of Trustess of the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health and worked with others there to create opportunities for people of color to become certified yoga teachers and to gain access to all of Kripalu’s professional programs with the aid of scholarships and other opportunities.

My Dream

I still dream of a day when there will be a yoga teacher of color in every community in the United States. But now my dream is bigger—I think the sky is the limit. If there can be a President Barack Obama in the White House, then certainly there can be Yoga for People of Color everywhere — in American schools, and communities to help eradicate gun violence and gang wars; in the villages of Africa yoga can support families dealing with the disparity of deprivation caused by war and the ravages of AIDS; in African American communities in the US, where the death rate from hypertension, diabetes, stress and other lifestyle diseases create disproportionate illness and premature death; in communities of women of color everywhere where there is lack, abuse or violence — let there be the gift of yoga to help all cope, change and grow with the practice of yoga as one of the tools to promote change, health and well being — no matter what!

Along with my interest in reaching out to bring yoga to people of color, I believe that yoga is for everyone. I welcome all people to participate in my programs, yoga workshops, retreats and teacher training programs.