“I need you healed, I need you whole,” Yoga instructor DuShaun Branch Pollard repeated to a group of Chicago-area community organizers and activists at a Zoom yoga practice last year. 

This event was one of many organized by the Socially Engaged Yoga Network – an initiative that seeks to promote accessibility, diversity and social change within Chicago’s yoga community. Since its founding in 2013, SEYN has hosted free quarterly events centered around core topics like accessibility and antiracism. It is committed to uplifting nonwhite voices, as yoga practices have become whitewashed throughout modern history. Many critics say American audiences have oversimplified the traditionally Hindu practice. 

Before SEYN’s founding, Co-leader Yoli Maya Yeh said yoga studios were concentrated within the northeast area of the city. She felt like Chicago lacked a space for yoga enthusiasts from marginalized communities to find each other on their own, she said.

SEYN is a space for people to meet others and share tips, and Yeh said it emerged from discussions about the lack of networking opportunities in the yoga community. 

Each of the group’s events includes a yoga practice session, a panel presentation and a Q&A, which SEYN’s other Co-leader Marcelyn Cole described as a “web” of information powered by both participants and event organizers. 

“We use the metaphor of mycelium — the fungal networks that feed the forest and feed each other,” Cole said. “It’s a back and forth of information and connection.”

Social justice themes are implemented in SEYN’s yoga practices in a variety of ways, including how each pose is demonstrated, Cole said. She remembered one of SEYN’s events where an instructor asked participants to do a twist on one side, and pause and notice the uncomfortable imbalance. Then the instructor asked students to compare elements of their experience to the systemic discomfort created by racial injustice.

SEYN’s yoga sessions are often led by those who have personal connections to the day’s theme through their identity or community. The group has focused on using yoga to engage with themes like reproductive justice and antiracist practices.

“It’s a privilege every time because whoever’s leading the practice takes us into a very personal place,” Yeh said. “It’s very vulnerable and unique.”

Since March 2020, all of SEYN’s events have been virtual in response to the pandemic, which Yeh said has limited the group’s capacity to host in-person community building events like potluck dinners. However, that hasn’t stopped the group from moving forward with its mission to decolonize yoga, spark social change and facilitate networking, she said.

The switch to online programming has made attendance more accessible for some, including Chicago yoga teacher Peregrine Bermas. Bermas said she wasn’t able to attend many of SEYN’s in-person pre-pandemic events due to transportation issues. After the events switched online, they said they’ve been able to attend more panels, including SEYN’s panel on reproductive justice.

SEYN is part of a larger organization called YogaCare, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. For the last two years, SEYN has been funded by grants but still relies heavily on volunteering, according to YogaCare Executive Director Greg Van Hyfte.

Sometimes, though, volunteering can be counterproductive to the organization’s mission of uplifting nonwhite voices, Van Hyfte said. He explained many white yoga teachers want to teach in underserved communities, but it can be difficult to train and place them while minimizing harm to the communities SEYN and YogaCare serve. 

In 2020 and 2021, SEYN hosted virtual events focused on antiracism, participating in circles for nonwhite individuals to vent and for white individuals to reflect on their learning process. Last year, SEYN focused on yoga and the roots of healing justice, which has included environmental and reproductive justice.

Next year, Yeh hopes to devote three or four gatherings to the theme of yoga and collective liberation.

Yeh said she is excited to watch SEYN’s community continue to flourish.

“All of our activist friends have been resting through the winter, so it will be so exciting to share stories and talk about all of the initiatives that will happen this summer,” Yeh said.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @kelly_cloonan

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