About Yoga For Black Lives
Our History
In response to the continuous state-sanctioned violence that Black people across the United States experience, Yoga for Black Lives was created in 2016 to support resistance to this kind of violence by giving people the opportunity to take part in a life-affirming and life-sustaining practice. Sessions include yoga asanas (poses), pranayama (breath work) and dhyana (meditation). We celebrate the lives of those in the room, as well as those who have lost their lives at the hands of the state. No previous experience with yoga is necessary, and proceeds are given to organizations preserve and regenerate Black life.
Our work aligns with the goals of #8toAbolition. We strive to dismantle oppressive systems, while providing community healing space for Black people, people of color, and allies to the cause of Black Lives Matter and Criminal Justice Abolition.
Read about our work in the Fall 2021 issue of the Yoga Chicago Journal
Our Methodology
Resist
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Restore
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Regenerate
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All Classes Are Offered For A Suggested Donation
Our Instructors
Founder & Lead Instructor
Stephanie Hicks
After many starts and stops on the mat, Stephanie Hicks, Ph.D., RYT-200 began practicing yoga regularly in 2011 at Moksha Yoga Center in Chicago. At first, a restorative practice gave her the tools she needed to find a sense of stability and calm, but what has sustained her practice is yoga’s regenerative and connective power. The practice has encouraged her growth, and it has deepened her connection to herself, her loved ones, and the world around her.
Stephanie completed her 200-Hour yoga teacher training under the guidance of Amber Cook, Diana Oppenheim & Rich Logan through Karuna Yoga School. She teaches yoga as an expression of gratitude and admiration: gratitude for all that she’s been allowed to experience through the practice, and admiration for students who have the courage to come - and return - to the mat. She hopes to help people recognize that they have the tools within themselves to create a home for their spirits and for loving relationships with people and communities.
Stephanie teaches strong, classic asana to help people to turn inward, notice their thoughts and emotions, sit with what they need to, and put the rest down. Students can expect good music too - from traditional chants to Jay-Z. Stephanie believes in using soul music in class, and our souls experience everything: joy, sadness, anger, trepidation, exhilaration...Music reflects all of this, so it's brought, respectfully, into the practice.
Students can also expect a class that is accessible, where they can get in where they fit in. Of course, each body, mind and heart is different. But in this practice, all of those differences are necessary. They lend something special to the whole. When we practice in community, we hold space for each other. Stephanie aims to creates a space in which you can find your place, connect to your essence, and know that it is integral to the class experience.
Amber Mann
Amber is a newer yoga instructor as she completed her teacher training in 2020. But she is no stranger to the practice, as she has been practicing yoga since 2013. Amber is a healer at heart as she provides emotional, interpersonal, spiritual, and physical care to her patients as a nurse. This has propelled her to give the same kind of healing through yoga to her minoritized community. Her main goal is to promote healing in a fun and healthy way.
Raina LaGrand
Raina is a somatic trauma therapist and yoga and mindfulness teacher living in Ann Arbor, MI. She is the host of The Yoga Praxis Podcast, which you can find on Spotify and iTunes. Raina feels most alive when she is able to help others be in their bodies with presence and agency.
Find her on Instagram @roottorisesomatics
Emily Na
Emily has been an avid yoga practitioner since 2015, and completed her teacher training in 2017. Yoga has been really stabilizing for her mind and body during stressful periods of her life. It's taught her to have compassion towards herself and others, on and off the mat. She loves sharing the practice with new people, and is excited to bring a deeper, communal intention to it through YBL.
Angela Lagon
Chicago native and racial equity advocate, Angela personally knows what a consistent yoga practice does to the overall health and well being of one’s mental, spiritual and emotional health. She received her 200hr certification in 2016 and has since taught across the Chicagoland area for various studios. She is also a certified pre and post natal yoga teacher where she hopes to raise awareness to Black mothers on how to tap into their body and mind as it shifts during that phase of their life. She loves amplifying and supporting other Black yoga teachers to shift the dynamic of the once Caucasian dominated industry. Outside of yoga, Angela is a marketing guru with over 8 years of experience and works with Black owned businesses in an effort to elevate their presence within the market and expand their consumer base.
Siphilile Khumalo
Siphilile is a Performing Artist, Activist, movement and certified yoga teacher.
She is a co-founder of Future Femela Africa, which provides a platform for women to share their experiences, discover and express their voices in order to develop and establish a healthy sense of self and assert their self-identity. She holds a Bachelor of Arts From South African School of Live Performance and motion Picture (AFDA).
Siphilile holds gentle and loving space for people to investigate their patterns and identify trauma while tapping into their Emotional and physical Body intelligence inorder to heal and unleash their unique talents and positively influence the world.
Tran Doan
Tran hopes to specialize in trauma-informed yoga and yoga for teen depression. She is a service-oriented person and a current PhD Candidate at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. She is the daughter of Vietnamese refugee-immigrant parents and a first-generation college graduate. Tran is constantly curious and fueled by a strong light to give back and do more. Most importantly, she loves to learn from people from all walks of life!
Find her on instagram @trantdoan
