Yoga Equity Resources
“Action is movement with intelligence. The world is filled with movement. What the world needs is more conscious movement, more action.”
—B.K.S. Iyengar
Many excellent community engagement resources exist, including diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ). We recommend that you pick a resource that has appeal and start exploring. Most resources will take you down a path that leads to further reading/watching/engagement. For example, if you read something that brings about a deeper understanding, you may choose to follow the author on social media, follow who that author follows, and explore the cited information.
We encourage you to read and view widely with curiosity and an open mind. Bear in mind; you may find that some voices contradict one another as you encounter new information. That’s okay! Understanding the value of multiple perspectives is an important part of this work.
Below is a list of resources that we hope you will consider. These resources are offered in no particular order, and this list is not comprehensive. The IYNAUS Yoga Equity Committee will update the list regularly, so we encourage you to check back regularly.
We hope that in addition to the texts below, which are mostly nonfiction, you will make it a priority to read literature, fiction, and poetry by BIPOC writers and poets.
As you learn, remember that consciousness-raising is not a substitute for action. Spend time contemplating what you learn, talk to your friends and loved ones, and engage in the process of sitting with what has shifted for you and consider what insight(s) you have gained. Then, begin to explore what meaningful action and change look like in your own life. At various moments you will need to stop, reflect, reevaluate, and adjust. This is an ongoing process. Stick with it.
Our Stories
Our IYNAUS DEIJ Story Map provides information about upcoming and ongoing DEIJ activities throughout the United States. Studio owners, teachers, and practitioners who are actively engaged as Community Builders that support the DEIJ mission to make Iyengar Yoga more inclusive and accessible can be found here.
To lend your voice to the growing chorus of yoga teachers, students, advocates, and activists advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in communities across America—on and off the mat—please share your story with us.
Glossary of Terms
The IYNAUS Yoga Equity Committee has compiled a list of terms and phrases to help you better understand the power of language. We hope that you will browse and download this list.
DEIJ Resources
We offer these resources related to self-learning on and off the mat, categorized by topics. You will find useful articles, videos, podcasts, guides, interactives, and more within them.
Ableism
Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice (BOOK) — Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, 2018.
Disability, Ability, and Ableism (ARTICLE/BLOG) — Mia Mingus, Leaving Evidence Blog
Resources On Disability And Ableism For Everyone (Disabled And Non-Disabled Alike) (ARTICLE/BLOG) — East Bay Meditation Center.
Anti-racism and Allyship
#StayWoke… Live Inclusively: Identity Groups and the “Other” (ARTICLE/BLOG) — Caroline Belden - The Inclusion Solution
Discussing the concept of "in" and "out" groups, identity groups, and the "other."
Ally + Partner Anti-Racist Resources (GUIDE/READING LIST) — Ally and Partner, Inc.
Anti-Racism Daily (INTERACTIVE) — Nicole Cardoza.
Anti-Racist Resource Guide (GUIDE/READING LIST) — Victoria Lynn Alexander.
Detour‐Spotting for White Anti‐racists (GUIDE/READING LIST) — Joan Olsson.
Guide to Allyship (GUIDE/READING LIST) — Amélie Lamont
An open-source starter guide to help you become a more thoughtful and effective ally.
Justice in June (GUIDE/READING LIST) — Autumn Gupta and Bryanna Wallace.
Me and White Supremacy (BOOK) — Layla Saad
An anti-racism education workbook to examine white privilege and stop inflicting damage, often unconsciously, 2020.
Reading List on Issues of Race (GUIDE/READING LIST)) — The Harvard Gazette
Harvard faculty recommend writers and subjects that promote context and understanding of issues of race, 2020.
Redesigners in Action Webinar Series (COURSE/TRAINING) — Creative Reaction Lab
A virtual learning opportunity that brings people together to increase their capacity for cultivating a mindset that produces DEIJ actions.
So You Want to Talk About Race (BOOK) — Ijeoma Oluo
Why it's so hard to talk about race and why we must do it anyway, 2018.
So You Want to Talk About Race | Talks at Google (VIDEO - 51:30) — Ijeoma Oluo
Narrated excerpt of Ijeoma Oluo's book and her presentation of why we must talk about race, 2018.
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race (ARTICLE/BLOG) — Reni Eddo-Lodge - The Guardian
May 30, 2017.
Withintrification (ARTICLE/BLOG) — The Jaxson
Revitalization that’s driven by the people already in a neighborhood.
HiStory, HerStory, and TheirStory
How Saidiya Hartman Retells the History of Black Life (ARTICLE/BLOG) — Alexis Okeowo - The New Yorker
October 19, 2020.
People Not Property: Stories of Slavery in the Colonial North (INTERACTIVE) — Historic Hudson Valley
Public history project in an interactive documentary that links our little-known past of northern slavery with today.
Teaching Hard History Student Quizzes (INTERACTIVE) — Teaching Tolerance - Southern Poverty Law Center
Accurate and scholarly information for all ages of people hoping to educate themselves on our diverse national past and present.
The Invention of White People (PODCAST) — Francesca Maximé talks with Jacqueline Battalora - ReRooted.
Intersectionality
Black and Asian American Feminist Solidarities: A Reading List (ARTICLE/BLOG) — Black Women Radicals and Asian-American Feminist Collective (AAFC), 2020.
Black Feminist Perspectives on Covid-19: A Reading List (GUIDE/READING LIST) — Black Women Radicals, 2020.
Celebrate Black Authors: LGBTQIA+ (GUIDE/READING LIST) — Powell's.
Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower (BOOK) — Brittney Cooper, 2018.
Intersectionality Matters! (PODCAST) — Kimberlé Crenshaw.
Queer Theory Reading List (GUIDE/READING LIST) — LGBTQ Center, Brown University.
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (BOOK) — bell hooks, 1994.
The Combahee River Collective Statement — The Combahee River Collective, 1977.
The Urgency of Intersectionality (VIDEO - 18:49) — Kimberlé Crenshaw, 2016.
Trans Studies in Higher Education Syllabus (GUIDE/READING LIST) — Z Nicolazzo.
Liberation
Brené with Sonya Renee Taylor on "The Body is Not an Apology" (PODCAST - 1:17:19) — Brené Brown with Sonya Renee Taylor.
Decolonization is not a metaphor (ARTICLE/BLOG) — Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, 2012.
Radicalize: Reading List (GUIDE/READING LIST) — Kenya Reynolds.
Race and the Spiritual Community
An Uncomfortable (But Meaningful) Conversation About Race | Lama Rod Owens (PODCAST - 1:21) — Lama Rod Owens on the Ten Percent Happier Podcast with Dan Harris, 2020.
East Bay Meditation Center: Resources for White People (GUIDE/READING LIST) — East Bay Meditation Center.
Racism and Trauma
My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies (BOOK) — Resmaa Menakem, 2017.
Why We're All Suffering from Racial Trauma (Even White People) -- and How to Handle It | Resmaa Menakem (PODCAST - 1:18) — Resmaa Menakem -Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris, 2020.
Whiteness and White Supremacy
Gentrification Explained (GUIDE/READING LIST) — Urban Displacement Project
Explainer-video and article about understanding gentrification, its history, patterns, impact, what’s next, and more resources.
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (ARTICLE/BLOG) — Peggy McIntosh, 1987.
White Supremacy Culture (GUIDE/READING LIST) — Tema Okun.
See more specific resources for teachers in our Yoga Equity Training section. To suggest a glossary term or resource related to yoga and equity on or off the mat, please submit your idea to equitychair@iynaus.org.