Brown Girl's Yoga

miswritten:

by Chrystos

Those tears
of a white woman who came to the group for Women of Color
only
her grief cut us into guilt while we clutched the straw
of this tiny square inch we have which we need
so desperately when we need so much more
We talked her into leaving
which took 10 minutes of our precious 60
Those legion white Lesbians whose feelings are hurt
because we have a Lesbians of Color Potluck
once a month for 2 hours
without them
Those tears of the straight woman
because we kicked out her boyfriend at the Lesbians only
poetry reading where no microphone was provided
& the room was much too small for all of us
shouting that we were imperialists
though I had spent 8 minutes trying to explain
to her that an oppressed people
cannot oppress their oppressor
She ignored me
charged into the room weeping & storming
taking up 9 minutes of our precious tiny square inch
Ah those tears
which could be jails, graves, rapists, thieves, thugs
those tears which are so puffed up with inappropriate grief
Those women who are used to having their tears work
rage at us
when they don’t
We are not real Feminists they say
We do not love women
I yell back with a wet face
_Where are our jobs? Our apartments?_
_Our voices in parliament or congress?_
_Where is our safety from beatings, from murder?_
_You cannot even respect us to allow us_
_60 uninterrupted minutes for ourselves_

Your tears are chains
Feminism is the right of each woman
to claim her own life her own time
her own interrupted 60 hours
60 days
60 years
No matter how sensitive you are
if you are white
you are
No matter how sensitive you are
if you are a man
you are
We who are not allowed to speak have the right
to define our terms our turf
These facts are not debatable
Give us our inch
& we’ll hand you a hanky

—

for MAV & DENISE, who guarded the door after the incident at the Lesbian reading & thus, didn’t get to hear the poetry

For everyone who asks us why Brown Girls Yoga.

(Source: deepfriedcoconutbutter)

bahutkuch asked: why am i just finding out about this?? this is exactly what i've been looking for!! yoga is something my mom used to make the kids do that was boring and annoying. since coming of age i've been wanting to get back into yoga for but too turned off by the commercial white sanskrit-butchering culture-demolishing avenues available. thank you so much for creating this!! looking forward to seeing y'all soon. :) -g

Ya! We can’t wait to see you! I love it when we find each other.

jumbieworks asked: Hello, Lisa Maharaj here. Some friends and I write the following blog The Coloured Collective. I also know Jamilah from Kula - fellow Trini/Canadian in practice. Our blog is for colourful women such as ourselves to share views and experiences. I would like to do a profile on your studio on my blog's wednesday feature. Since we have similar interests it would be fantastic to connect! We are also always lookng for contributors.

We’d love that! Can you send a link to your blog?

Brown girl’s yoga plays a critical role in the present future of decolonization: the naming and reclaiming of indigenous traditions that have been co-opted by white patriarchy and named “new age” in an attempt to re-define “freedom”, “awakening” and “self -awareness” without naming privilege, power and white male dominance.
The ongoing project of dismantling concentrations of power from the hands of white men must be located in our schools, politics, communities and yoga. Empowering, uplifting and including excluded voices will provide the creative solutions that will bring the world back to balance.
by recognizing that the language of yoga (surrender, oneness, divine light, freedom, letting go) and physical practice itself can trigger a myriad of forms of body dysmorphia as well as emotional and physical trauma related to shared social history, we ask our students to constantly give our teachers feedback on how our words land. We acknowledge our need for our students to monitor the teachings and share their experience - this is how we will best serve our communities.