WHAT WE DO
IMPLEMENTING MANDELA YOGA
Six patients at the first clinic where MYP piloted our public health crisis intervention stepped forward to train to become Peer Facilitators of their own sessions.
MANDELA YOGA STUDIO AT SAN QUENTIN PRISON - COVID-19 EMERGENCY RESPONSE
Mt. Tamalpais College and MYP began to collaborate to create Mandela Yoga Studio at San Quentin Prison - a virtual studio in the form of a library of high quality yoga videos featuring BIPOC yoga teachers and practices that speak to the specific needs and conditions of incarcerated individuals. When the COVID-19 outbreak reached the prison in the summer of 2020, MYP quickly pivoted to create a smaller yoga video collection featuring yoga teachers from across North America to support prisoners quarantining in their cells.
THE HIPPOPOTAMUS WORKSHOP
We conduct immersive workshops for white identified yoga teachers and white identified folks who believe that the work of dismantling racism begins with a focus on the neurobiologically-imprinted whiteness in our bodies. We learn to sit in the deep discomfort of metabolizing race-based stressors. Participants will leave with tools for self-regulation and responsibility to use when engaging around race and cross-racially. This first small step provides the seeds of somatic fortitude to continue this work for life.
Named after one of the most territorial and lethal animals on earth and belying the myth of gentle, water-going giant, the Hippopotamus Workshop is designed for white identified yoga teachers and others who - rather than insisting that they are untouched by the water in which they are swimming - have decided they are no longer willing to flow with the deep currents of systemic white supremacy and racial oppression that often wound BIPOC within the mercantile model of yoga and our culture at large.
Our Supporters
Our fight to make yoga accessible is made possible, in part, by the support of 251 donors to the 2018 GoFundMe free yoga campaign and the David & Lynn Eikenberry Charitable Fund.
MYP's founding institutional supporters include: The Foundation for a Mindful Society (publishers of Mindful Magazine), Yoga Alliance Foundation, The Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation, Steve Phillips & Susan Sandler, and Kat Taylor.
Our current fiscal sponsor is Root Cause, a national non profit consulting firm that strives to eliminate disparities based on race, class, gender, and geography by partnering to design, implement, and measure strategies that enable more people to achieve lifelong success.
Mandela Yoga Project on Guidestar
