Unpacking Culture, Identity, & Bias: On the Mat & Off

The first session will focus on culture, identity & bias from a personal perspective. Session 2 will take the concepts that we explore in session 1 and apply them to yoga philosophy. For the third session, we will explore a visioning exercise and collectively brainstorm action items for how both as Iyengar Yoga practitioners and as an Iyengar Yoga association we can do better with respect to diversity and inclusion.

The purpose of these sessions is to gather in community and explore what makes each one of us who we are within the diverse society in which we live. We hope to consciously explore the elements of our own identity (race, class, gender, ability etc.) in an effort to shed light on internal biases and develop new respect and appreciation for the experience of others. During these sessions, we plan to share with you ideas, resources and participatory exercises that have been particularly helpful to us.

We were inspired to engage IYAC/ACYI members in dialogue around these issues in large part as a response to the racial uprising that happened in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in the USA. In Canada we are not immune to racial biases and racially motivated hate crimes and there is much to be gained from revealing the systemic nature of culture, identity, and bias.

We hope that you will join us. These conversations can be challenging, unfamiliar, and sometimes sensitive but they are also almost always insightful.

To register, for the first session, please click here. The dates for session 2 and 3 will be confirmed shortly.

Sunday February 28th, 2021 (2 hours)
11:30 pacific / 2:30 eastern / 3:30 Atlantic