Hi Friends! I hope that this message finds all of you and all of yours safe & well during these challenging times.
Some of you know me from pre-Shelter-In-Place (SIP) days when I regularly taught Bhakti Flow at Nest Yoga. To those of you that I have not met, please accept my heartfelt introductions to you here.
Dear friends, I am writing to you for many reasons. One reason being that at the request of the owner of Nest Yoga, Kim Lally, I will soon be returning (post-furlough) to the Shala to teach a (virtual) Vinyasa class that I have chosen to call, Yoga for Solidarity. Incidentally, Yoga for Solidarity is a class that aims to provide Sangha (Yogic community) a milieu for Asana practice that offers-up intentions to end violence against and/or systematic oppression of black people, people of color (POC), and any other marginalized groups.
On the one hand, I feel that Yoga for Solidarity is a type of class that is much needed at Nest Yoga at this time. On the other hand, however, in returning to Nest to teach Yoga for Solidarity, I will be one of very few black and/or POC Yoga teacher(s) employed at this Oakland-based Shala. It is this detail that largely influences most of the reasons that I am writing to you all. I want to write to you before I return to Nest to make clear that I notice this “detail,” I am exasperated by this “detail,” and that voicing of my exasperation to Kim about this “detail” has been met with her expressed willingness to change things at the Shala in the context of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion guidelines for fair workplace standards.
Most of you that know me as your Bhakti Flow teacher also know that I follow dual career paths as a Yoga instructor, as well as a professor of African American & African Diaspora Studies at Cal. To all of you, I cannot stress enough how I am absolutely dedicated to both of the career paths that I pursue. I am returning to Nest confident in my ability to hold peaceful, non-conflicted Yogic space for the forthcoming Yoga for Solidarity class. Yet, please know, dear friends, that the confidence I have in terms of truly being able to hold peaceful space for Yoga for Solidarity would not be possible had I failed to express the discontents & protestations that pepper this message.
Sending light and supportive energy to you all!
Gabrielle Williams, PhD.
A Personal Message from Gabrielle Williams