Season 1 : Episode 3 : Black Boys Om' : Black Men and Yoga

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Episode Transcript

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Learn more about fresh Books by goingto Black Yoga Magazine dot com slash
fresh Books. A huge thank youto our sponsors, and let's start the
show. Welcome, and this isthe Black Yoga Experience. Hey everybody,

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and welcome to the Black Yoga Experience. I am your host, Ashley Adams,
and on today's pod we interview theamazing founder of Black Boys Home.
Black Boy's Home is a movement bringingblack men to the yoga mat building community
and connecting with one another. Ihope you enjoy it. Hey everybody,

(01:17):
and welcome to the Black Yoga Experience. I am so excited about today's episode,
so excited for our guests. Iwill allow him to introduce himself so
I don't spoil the surprise anymore.Are so curious. Hi everybody, I'm
so happy to be here. Myname is Danny. I am a yoga

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teacher, a writer, and theexecutive director and creator of Black Boys Own.
Yeah, we're gonna be more happyto have you on this episode.
So Danny is an amazing soul.He's out there doing great things in the
world with Black Boy's Home and justbringing the practice of yoga to section of

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our community that is in need tospread the teachings of this practice and how
they can help us grow as people. So I could not be more excited
than I already am to have himon with us today. But yeah,
Danny, we just want to heara bit about the journey. What brought

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you to yoga in the first place, what got you on the map?
Yeah? Absolutely So. About sixyears ago, I had extreme anxiety to
the point where it was affecting mybreathing. I was having a difficult time
remembering to breathe because of my anxiety. And I remember visiting a Chinese herbalist

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and she kind of sat me downand kind of observed like the energies of
my body, which is really interesting. I've never experienced anything like that.
And she told me that I hadall these blackages, and she said you
should try and yoga. And Iremember thinking, okay, I didn't know
what that was. What what youknow? I knew about it, but
I didn't know what it was.And I kind of put it on the

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back burner. And it wasn't tooabout several months later that I was walking
in the park and I saw peopledoing yoga in the park and I remember
not having a matter or anything,but just walking out into the park and
just joining them and trying to mimicwhat they were doing. And I realized
that this was a free offering inthe park, and so I would go

(03:28):
every Sunday to this park and justdo it. And then it got to
a point where I realized I neededto join the studio, or wanted to
join the studio rather, and Iended up I just googling yoga studio,
and then the Google in the inthe Google search, and it pulled up
this yoga studio. And I wentto the yoga studio's website and I was

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looking at their teachers and I waslike, white woman and white woman,
white woman and white woman, andthen I saw a black man. I
was like, okay, I'm goingto his class. I told I'm going
to his class. I see myselfand I Wednesday's class, and you know,
it changed my life from there,Like that's kind of it was a
wrap from there. What is absolutelyamazing. And you did the same thing

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that many of us find ourselves doing. Right, You're growing through you,
Like, can I find just oneperson that looks like right? Because it
is so different and it feels,I guess so much safer in a way,
right because at bare minimum, youknow, there's a handful of things
that they could relate to you on, right, whether you know them or
not, you know the same Likefor me, I know, at bare

(04:40):
minimum, if I find another blackwoman that teaches yoga, you know what,
we can always talk about our hair. Yeah, cut our hair.
So even if we don't know,you know each other from a hole in
the wall, if you will,like there is one thing that we could
always at least relate to each otheron. And when you're in the vulnerable
space in a studio that that yourfirst time there can really be you kind

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of need some of that to likebolster you, you know what I mean.
So, so yeah, it's funnyto hear you say that but that's
a story for many of us,Like, is there one bright spot somebody
that looks like me that can helpme through this mess that I feel like
I'm carrying around? Absolutely? Yes, So that's so funny and so great

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to hear you say that. You'rejust it's like, how do I manage
this anxiety? I know I needthis anxiety? Right? Yeah? And
for you to go to an urbilistfirst, to know that that you didn't
want to necessarily be medicated the traditionalway and that that was your first like,
soare how do I solve this problem? And for them to guide you

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to a yoga practice that's really cool, you know, to say, hey,
there's a set of tools out herethat you can use, you know,
leverage this for yourself, but youdon't necessarily have to go to pharmaceutical
route first, right, that thatis your first path, right, So
that that's really neat to hear that. So in your first class, what
class did you end up taking?So this was a power of Vinyasa class

(06:15):
that I took, and it wasa studio here in Atlanta, and I
remember just again seeing like that particularblack male teacher and saying and seeing myself
and him and saying I want togo to his class, and you know,
it was it was power of Nyosin. So it was definitely challenging,

(06:40):
right like, but I don't know, it's it's kind of interesting, like
I grew to love it for me, It's not for everyone. I was,
well, it was it was definitely. It was definitely, uh,
the beginning of my journey and Isince that time, we've kind of navigated
different lineages, you know, andand see what is best for for me

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as I grow. Yeah, that'sreally cool. So it's my journey has
been similar is in terms of likenavigating like different lineages and trying to figure
out what what sings to my soul. If you will, I'm with you.
I'm one for the power of NASAclass or a hot class. Like

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the harder the better. I feellike that gets me out of my head
the quickest, right And there's somethingto be said for the fact that,
look, I'm slowly dying on thismatch, so whatever noise that's going on
in my head, I can't hearit. Anyways, it is really hot
in this room, and I justwant to get through this posture. You

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know, My my inner massacres isdeeply entertained by power. Absolutely, So
you're not only one, but youare right, and the fact that it's
not for everybody, right, weall find our path to our own practice,
and and I encourage people to dothat. You know, my yoga

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does not have to look like looklike Danny's. And and you know Danny's
a little like the person that's nextto him on his honest matt e the
same class. So, uh,but that's cool to hear you say that
power from yas was was your start. Yeah, yeah, that's really neat
for as far as uh, whatwould you say when you saw that other

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teacher? What would you say aboutthem inspired you to say, Yes,
I want to keep coming to yourclass and and hey I can do this
too. Wow, Well they werea phenomenal They are a phenomenal teacher.
And uh, it was the andof the room and the presence that was

(09:03):
held for the students that let meknow that this is a place that I
could continue to come back to.And it was also because that initial seed
of me seeing myself and him waswas that never left, right because I
like, he's still a black man, right, and I'm still a black
man, and like I still canhope, I can still find space where

(09:28):
I feel welcome and safe and seen. And so that was something that kind
of kept me back. And asfar as what kept me, call me
coming back, as far as whatallowed me to see that I could do

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it for myself, I didn't initiallysee that I could do it for myself.
It was. It wasn't until maybetwo and a half years later that
I had a conversation with the sameteacher about doing teacher training, and I
remember thinking, I don't I don'tthink I can. I don't think that's

(10:09):
for me. I don't think Ican do it. And then I didn't
ended up I didn't end up takingteacher training until a year after that,
and wow, yeah, and soI took I ended up taking teacher training,
and I took it with the initialintent of not not to become a
teacher, but to it was itwas lauded that this was a life changing

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next step in your yoga journey andthat many people would do it just for
their just for their betterment as anindividual, and not necessarily to teach.
And that's the kind of the approachthat I took to It was like,
all right, I'm going to takethis approach of going deeper into my yoga
journey, learning about the history,learning about anatomy, like learning all these
wonderful things, but not necessarily toteach. And so I went into it

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with that mindset. And at thetime, I was, you know,
traveling around the country for work,and I was really trying to get back
to Atlanta so I could take thistraining on time, and I was.
I ended up being a week anda half late for the training, and
I made it in and as Iwas going through the course, I was
making all these wonderful connections and learningall these wonderful things, and and slowly

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towards the end, like with twoweeks left of the training, I found
my teacher voice. And I didn'tknow. I was like, wow,
I didn't know I had a teachervoice, and I found it and I
and I realized that despite any insecuritiesI might have, despite any worry I
might have about being adequate or beingable to show up, I had to

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put that aside for the simple factthat I have people that are showing up
for their practice and it wasn't aboutme. It was about me serving them.
And that was the shift in mymind to say, all right,
I can do this. You know, I found my teach your voice,
and also I found that this isthis this is about serving the students and

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not about me. And that's kindof how a step in the space of
becoming a teacher, a yoga teacher. That is absolutely amazing to hear you
say that you felt this apprehension atfirst before moving into that space, but
the process of going through teacher trainingand having the opportunity to find your voice

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really allowed you to, uh,you know, make the move. And
in that direction, not all ofus come to it, you know,
with like we're gonna do this andwe're gonna be the yoga world vibes.
You know. That's cool to hearyou say that you kind of eased this
right that it found you as wellas as you finding it kind of experience.

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And what I like to tell peopleall the time is yoga has this
beautiful way of meeting you exactly whereyou are, right Like, it's it's
not gonna make you uh, itdoesn't seem to make you feel as though
you're any more or any less thatyou than you need to be right,
It's it's it's exactly where you are. At the time that you need it,
if that makes any sense. Looksabsolutely, yeah, absolutely one of

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those very interesting experience. And youdid touch on a bit about how,
uh the teacher training itself is transformativein general. So having that opportunity to
just experiencing it, experience it evenif you don't want to teach. I
always encourage people to do that aswell, because it will change you.
Uh well, that cannot be unwrong, right once you know you're you're

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in it, right, uh So, so to hear you say that you
you just took this on just justfor the experience is definitely neat and I
hope people find that inspiring as aswell. So for those of you that
don't know, Danny is the founderof Black Boy's Own and I find it

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to be one of the most upliftingthings that I come across on Instagram.
Whenever we see posts, whenever wesee the men that are part of your
group sharing their practice right and sharingit from a place of humility and from
a place of love and kindness andrespect and holding space for the community,

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because as a black woman, thatis not how we see black men typically,
if ever, so it is beautifulto and deeply appreciate it on a
level that I don't know that Inecessarily have the words for yet for you
to be able to you to havethe vision and the insight to share that

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with us in this way because inthis particular space, I don't know if
you know it, but as muchas you guys need each other, we
need you too. And really,really it's been really cool to see that.
And I didn't know I needed ituntil I saw it. I didn't
know something that was missing until Icame across your your post and what your

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organization was doing. So if youcould do this a little bit about where
black Boys on comes from and sinceyou down that path, yeah, it's
such a beautiful journey and it's socrazy, it's so awesome. Rather,
a better word is awesome that youmentioned just black women seeing it because the

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first so gosh, I'm excited justto share the first place that I ever
taught yoga, the first yoga studiothat hired me to teach was Yellow Matt
Yoga or it's called Yellow Matt Wellnessnow and it is a small black owned
yoga studio here in Atlanta is ownedby a black woman. Her name is

(16:02):
Cia and she hired me to teachhim. She you know, I did
an audition to teach at her clode, at her studio, and we became
friends. And she not only isa wellness advocate and a and a yoga

(16:22):
studio owner, but she's also abig meditation advocate. And so she had
this workshop called Men Who Meditate,and she asked me to co lead the
workshop and teach alongside her. Shewould teach the meditation part and I would
teach the yoga part. And sowe had this workshop and she everyone that

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showed up that day for the Menwho Meditate workshop were black men. All
everyone was invited, but the onlypeople who showed up were black men.
And yeah, yeah, So Iremember, you know, being in the
room and this studio. If Icould describe this studio, it's literally from
Florida steiling. There is open windows, so there's some like pouring into this

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beautiful wood floor, white walled studio, and the room is full of black
men meditating. They were about eighteento nineteen black men meditating. And I
just for me, there's an actualpicture that Sia took of me where I
was like contemplating, and I rememberthat sea being planning on my heart,

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like I have never seen anything likethis, this is this is we need
this and and then I'm thinking thesethings. And then Sea voiced it like
she she mentioned why she was talking. She was like, it's not lost
on me that everyone in this roomis black, and conversations around mental health
and trauma and stress that black menin particular face ben't begin to serve first.

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And there began began to have aconversation around that in that room that
day, and I just left that. I left that day very inspired,
and I remember thinking at the time, I was only connected to about three
or four black mail yogi's here inAtlanta, and I was, you know,
had a group chat and I waslike, we need to do something,

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Like I didn't know what it was, but like it was just like,
we have to do something. Andover time that grew to a collective
that grew by word of mouth andhigh and then it grew from that collective,
growing by word of mouth to highlightingthat collective, and then that grouve

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to highlighting the work that was alreadybeing done in our communities. And see
it was one one leg of thebeginning of the journey. But also I
had. I had a long distanceyoga mentor. His name is Brandon Copeland,
and he isn't in Washington, dC. But he's also a native

(19:07):
of Atlanta, and I remember goingto his I remember being excited to go
to his classes. Anytime you cometo Atlanta. It was like a treat
because he was in Washington, dC. Right, so I couldn't like
go to his classes. And hehe was. He was phenomenal in his
own right because he not only wasthe creator of trap yoga, which is

(19:30):
a phenomenon within himself, but hewas doing work within his community, like
he was teaching black boys in southeastWashington, d C. Consistently and I
remember seeing his work and being inspired, and I was like wow, Like
what if this network that's growing ofblack males were to to to do this

(19:52):
exclusively, like to to to bringthis practice to black boys and black men
in particular, and that that kindof and the collective group by word of
mouth, you know, from thatfour or five yogis here in Atlanta to
now it's two hundred brothers, twohundred black maled Yogis and all over the
United States, in London and SouthAfrican Nigeria, Ghana, Bermuda, Jamaica,

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Brazil, Canada, like all overthe world is two hundred and a
lot of a lot of these brothersare already doing work in their own communities,
but we wanted to focus it upunder our umbrella to do work specifically
for black boys and black men,to focus on schools, correctional facilities,
faith organizations, and community centers.And that grassroots movement grew to become a

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domestically incorporated nonprofit here in the stateof Georgia, and we are in the
middle of becoming federally recognized. Ourten twenty three application has been filed and
we're just waiting for the United StatesSTUS to say, hey, you're you're
a five O one C three Andit's of course a lot has changed right
with CONVID nineteen, but trying tonavigate how the best move forward from there.

(21:14):
No, it is amazingly, awesome, overwhelming and just flat out cool
to see, like, man,you know, like I said, like
we I didn't know I needed ituntil I saw it. Like this is
just it's absolutely amazing that it's grownin the way that it has, that
uh, the energy that people areputting into it, the place that everybody

(21:37):
is coming from the warmth, thekindness and having like just this uh,
this hub that that that men canfind each other in this way, you
know, not under the guys ofI'm gonna hang out and watch a game,
not under the guys of you know, we can play the sport.
To be able to talk to eachother, just to be there for each

(22:02):
other in this way is absolutely amazing. And one of the things that it
does to me as a black woman, it if we see, if we
see black men take up to spaceand be willing to heal trauma, hurt,
what have you and have these conversations, it gives us permission to do

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the same. It gives us space, and it bolsters our own journeys that
many of us are already on tosaying hey, it's safe for us to
do this together. And again,I didn't know I needed that, you
know, I didn't know that thatthat was something that was missing or important
or or a part of healing justtrauma as a whole. Like it's I

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think, I don't know if youknow it. What you're doing is so
much more than just the practice.It's so much more than just you guys
being a a collective together the UHthe energy that is being cut out from
this project is absolutely amazing, andall of the accolades and the love and

(23:08):
the appreciation that you have received isdefinitely well worth it. I'm sure that
it's hard, right that it's thatit's not always a road to toe to
to build something in this way fromgrassroots to where you all are now.
But just my hats off to youand all praise in the world to you,

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because this is absolutely and amazing andit's something that the community truly did
need. So for the organization,as you guys grow, what would you
say your primary focus is. Iknow you mentioned community centers, corrections,
religious organizations. Where do you seeyour focus as we kind of move forward?

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Yeah, so those those are stillour focus. When so, this
has always been a from the beginningfor me, it's been about affecting the
culture and affecting multiple generations. SoI want this to be takextend beyond my

(24:15):
lifetime and I want to make surethat black boys and black men embracing this
wellness practice is uh is is anorm and not foreign. And so with
that being said, the focus isstill on on that, but for the

(24:37):
time being, the focus is stillon serving in our communities and face to
face and in person, but forthe time being, since that can't be
done it is, there has beena digital online shift for as well.
You know, multiple online wellnesspaces hashave been shifted online. But I still
want that long time focus to beso when all of this is his passed

(25:02):
and this his changed, that's stillgoing to be the focus because and even
more so now, like hopefully whenwith people who are dealing with the stress
and trying to figure out what todo in lieu of Convient nineteen, that
they can see that these are practicesthey can do within their homes, like
saying they've never experienced before, likethis is an added level of trauma and

(25:26):
added level of stress that that canbe you that can be worked to be
worked through, you know, sothey can sit with themselves and see examples
of how do you sit with yourselfand how do you process and how do
you move through what you're dealing with. I don't know. I hope that

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as I don't know the esswage question, it did completely. We did,
because that's an important component that youbring up since the our experience of our
practice from any of us have havechanged drastically because we are used to being
in spaces with other people when wepurpose, right, So, how do
we manage this new landscape? Howdo we not only as teachers and practitioners,

(26:12):
but as uh as students ourselves?How do we hold space in this
new environment? How do we connectto ourselves when you know, in many
of our homes now we have kidsrunning around, and we have you know,
we have work from home, andwe have all these other components that

(26:33):
may not have necessarily been in oursanctuary in this day on a regular basis,
right, that we're all trying tocontend with. So you bring up
a really good point of what isholding space look like now that we can
necessarily control our outside surroundings in theway that we thought we could. Yeah,
yeah, absolutely, so yeah,so what would you say now as

(26:56):
we kind of work through this virtualspace? What would you say now you're
doing as a teacher as a practitionerto hold space for those that are in
your in your group. Yeah.So a couple of things that we've done
recently is have so we have aWhatsApp group chat that's that's been there since

(27:17):
the beginning, but we're doing morezoom calls now just so we can just
see each other's spaces and how andour voices. And so we're doing that
and we're also trying to as bestwe can highlight all of the online offerings.
So if you can imagine, there'sthere's two hundred brothers and like I

(27:45):
managed the online social presence by myself, you know, and so it's a
lot I missed things right, likeI'm trying. But yeah, just it's
just open honest communication with brothers likeand and seeing where there where needs are.
Like we have a brother Caesar.He's in Mozambique and he's lost ninety

(28:08):
five percent of his his clients becausehe was teaching. Now he's trying to
move online and now and now he'slike raising money to get soap to give
to people and Mozambique exactly. Yeah, like so like finding out something like
that, like finding out someone's need, highlighting that, you know what I'm
saying. Our brother Minos, she'sin Australia. He's partner with all these

(28:33):
psychologists and therapists and meditation teachers tohave these weekly free offerings on his platform,
and so just trying to highlight allthese different things that are going on
around the world for the good,right and just and just and just to
keep going because we we gotta wegotta keep going right right choice, but

(28:56):
right I'm with you there percent,there's no choice but forward. And that
can be very hard and very trying, because you know, all of us
are trying to figure it out.You know, we're collectively going, Okay,
you know what's next? What doesthis look like? What do we
uh? What do we do?You know? So I know that I've

(29:18):
been encouraging folks to stay connected asconnected as possible, and I'm with you.
I manage our social media for thepodcast and for the for Black Young
magazine, so and I'm the onlyone that does it. So I understand.
Oh sometimes I miss things right anddid I post? Okay? I
understand that. So even just whatlately I found myself doing is putting up

(29:41):
posts that just say, are youguys okay? You know, like I
saw one that you did the otherday that says don't worry guys or something
like it. Today's date is Marchninety seven. I'm so hard because I'm
like, that is exactly what thisfeels. Absolutely absolutely, Yeah. So

(30:02):
the struggle is is definitely real outthere. I'm so grateful to like to
have this conversation with you, Danny, like I like I said, I
didn't know I needed what you guyswere doing until I saw it, and
I'm like, yeah, this thisis just this is absolutely great, absolutely
wonderful. So where can we connectwith you? Where can we donate to

(30:26):
the causes? How how can wehelp these guys out? Yeah, So
we have our website is black BoysOwn dot org so and it's a Black
boys plural than O M dot org. And there is a donation place there
and then there's a section tap calledgive and you can give there. Our

(30:52):
cash is just the dollar signed blackBoy's Own. We're currently raising funds for
UH trauma and FORMED training for ourBlack Boys on instructors because that's one of
the offerings that that's one of ourpurposes and missions is to allow black boys
and black men to hold space fortheir trauma and to have our instructors UH

(31:18):
knowledgeable and to be able to holdthat spins. And so we're having we
were doing in person trauma training withConnection Coalition, but now we're having to
find online and trauma and form training. But we're currently raising funds for that.
You can follow us on Instagram.That's our primary online platform, where
we're on Facebook and Twitter. ButI gotta just focusing on one. So

(31:45):
what we'll do is we'll put allof these in the show notes and and
that way once you have it allstraight, like we could let everybody know.
So don't sweater guys. We'll makesure you get all the Danny's and
the show notes so you can connectwith them either pastiyature, be a cash
app, or going to black Boysdot org and make sure you donate to

(32:06):
those causes and help wherever we canto support one another in this crazy little
thing called the world today. SoJanny, I thank you so so much
for doing this with us today.I appreciate your time and this was just
beyond really beyond cool, more thanwhat I could have ever ever hoped for.

(32:27):
I really appreciate it. Thank youso much. Actially, thank you
very much. I'm greatly appreciate it. Thank you, You're welcome. Thank
you for tuning into the black Yogaexperience. A huge thank you to all
of our sponsors and our guests fortoday. We hope you enjoyed the show.
Talk to you soon.