Yoga for Folks of Color
MEET OUR TEACHERS
Main Space Holders:
The core group of teachers is currently shifting, but Calia, our founder, is still holding it down! Those of us who are Main Space Holders have made a commitment to create welcoming, intentional, empowering, healing community space for people of color. You can expect to see one or all of us at each practice as we hold the container for our individual and collective growth. We want to acknowledge that the practices we are sharing come from teachings that have been passed down through generations, as well as from our lived experience. These are practices that bubbled up in what is now called India, as well as other parts of South Asia and Africa. We are honored and humbled to be able to share what we know, as well as to own what we don't know. We thank you for the opportunity to serve.
Guest Space Holders:
There are so many incredible people in our community who hold deep wisdom and knowledge, so we like to invite them in to share their gifts with our community.
Main Space Holder
CALIA
Calia Marshall (she/her) is a yoga instructor, musician, doula, Reiki practitioner and workshop facilitator, as well as being a dance instructor/choreographer and Equity Advocate at National Dance Institute. Her first of many yoga certifications was received in 2002 and she has been teaching movement and healing practices to children and adults for even longer. Calia strives to honor the roots of yoga, while making it relevant and accessible for the people she is sharing it with. She founded Brown Sugar in 2014. www.caliamarshall.com
Main Space Holder
MAISAH
Maisah (she/her) came to yoga trying to maintain her body as a dancer, but stayed for the calm she found for her mind. Her classes focus on exploring how yoga can help us to meet our lives, on & off the mat, with creativity, curiosity, & a sense of play. In her classes expect to steadily learn a bit more about yoga & a lot more about yourself. She believes there is space in yoga for everyone; feel free to reach out to her with questions or access needs. www.yogawithmaisah.com
Main Space Holder
ALEJANDRO
A/Alejandro (they/xy) is a first-gen Bushwick-born, queer and agender, interdisciplinary creatrix, advocate, educator, and healer with Haitian and Puerto Rican roots. A invites us all to interrogate and disrupt discrete narratives that create social barriers to wellness. As a yoga practitioner, they strive to make their practice inclusive and approachable for folx in varying bodies and stages of life.
Guest Space Holder
SHAWNA
Shawna Wakefield has practiced yoga for 18 years and taught for four. She is passionate about mindful, embodied practices that support trauma healing and social justice among folks of color and activists - be they in Brooklyn or anywhere else in the world!
Guest Space Holder
SHRI
Shri Diehl is a certified yoga teacher (E-RYT 200, RYT 500, YACEP) and recipient of the Yoga Alliance Advanced Training Scholarship. She has been teaching since 2007 and uses her additional training in trauma-informed wellness as a critical tool in healing spaces. Her inspiration comes from remembering that yoga is not only the asana and that this a practice, not perfection.
Guest Space Holder
KEVIN NATHANIEL
Kevin Nathaniel creates magical music using voice, mbira, kalimba, shekere, and a variety of percussion. He approaches music as an experience to be shared by all, a healing force that can bring people together as one. www.kevinnathaniel.com
Guest Space Holder
MONA
Mona Chopra, MA, MS, L.Ac., is an acupuncturist, hypnotherapist, meditation and therapeutic yoga instructor who lives and practices in NYC. Mona is grateful to all her teachers in the myriad forms they appear. www.peopletreewellness.com
Guest Space Holder
NIRMAL
Nirmal Chandraratna is a Kirtan artist and composer with a passion for nurturing connection– to spirit, to community, and to one's deeper self–through music. Using the voice, the harmonium and the cello, he creates music for Kirtan and meditation, and works for communal performance. www.NirmalC.com
Guest Space Holder
ANDRE
Andre Ignacio Dimapilis is a Filipinx-American culture-bearing performing artist, peaceful warrior and educator. Andre has been sharing spirit and spreading love through the Yidaki (didgeridoo) since 2007. Andre is intentional about sharing the Yidaki’s cultural origins of the Aboriginal people and transparent about his purposes to use it for meditation and setting intentions. instagram: @gagamba88