It started as an idea (Part 1)

The Why and How of Black Boys OM

I had been practicing yoga for few years. I started because my chest was tight and I was holding my breath for extended moments throughout the day, every day, and having to remind myself to breathe. I had anxiety because I had lost my dream job and missed several mortgage payments on my condo. This was 2015 into 2016.

At the suggestion of a friend I had gone to a Chinese herbalist who told me that I had a lot of energy blockages and recommended Tai Chi and Yoga. I think I may have taken one or two Tai Chi classes and months later I stumbled on free Yoga in the park.

From that first yoga session in the park (near the skatepark on the Beltline in Atlanta specifically ) I noticed I was breathing better. I ended up returning to the free park sessions for as long as they lasted that summer.

My first teachers after Tai Chi and the Yoga Park session were a Black man at a major franchise yoga studio that I would later end up taking my first yoga teacher training at. I deeply appreciated the fact that both my Tai Chi teacher as well as my Yoga Teacher in that major franchise studio were both Black men. I saw myself in them and felt comfortable attending their classes as I explored these modalities that felt foreign.

Another Black male teacher I was blessed to learn up under was, Brandon Copeland. Brandon had these phenomenal Trap Yoga classes that was the most embodied and connected I felt at the time. The music, paired with Brandon’s teaching and the energy of the full warehouse where we all practiced just elevated my experience and love of yoga. I also deeply enjoyed practicing with Black people, led by a Black teacher , with Black music. Brandon would just casually drop yogic wisdom that would literally change my experience of life. We would be in the middle of a challenging pose and he would say

“Don’t want anything”

I remember thinking, “wow, imagine not wanting anything, what freedom!”

I would later learn that Brandon was the creator of Trap Yoga as he found it life giving as he married his Yoga asana practice to Trap music during his time as a student at Howard University.

Brandon and I at a Yoga Studio in Decatur I believe this was 2019 (peep the vintage Black Boys OM Tee)

Brandon and I strategizing for Black Boys OM and enjoying a moment of joy. 2020

Video : Moving Art Experience Atlanta Georgia : I can’t remember what year this is from

I became connected with the Black Wellness Ecosystem of Atlanta, particularly, classes at a small Black Owned Yoga studio in Kirkwood, called Seviin where Brandon would sometimes teach when he wasn’t at the massive warehouse. Moving Art Experience, created by Rome Allen had these massive gatherings of Black Yogis celebrating art, music and movement along with pool parties and kick backs. I joined a group “Brown Yogi Meet Up” which was co founded by Leana Marshall who was one of my lead trainers at my first Yoga Teacher Training.

Brown Yogi Meet Up Gathering 2017 / 2018

I want to take this moment to name Paper Plane Yoga in College Park which is the first Black Male owned Yoga studio in Atlanta, created by Anthony Malone. I didn’t practice there but its history that I wish to name here as one of the foundations of Atlanta’s Black Wellness Ecosystem.

I would attend yoga class led by a Black male Yoga teacher named Jordan Hunter who would later help me connect with other Black male Yoga teachers when I sought to grow a network of Black male Yogis starting first in Atlanta and later nationwide. One of those teachers was Eazy, also known as Yogaplayground, Adric Samuels, and many others. Who would be some of the core contributors to Black Boys OM efforts locally in Atlanta before it grew nationally and internationally.

First photo : Eazy and I, Second Photo Jordan Hunter

I just grew in my practice through these different teachers, gatherings and offerings. The Black Wellness Ecosystem in Atlanta was thriving then as well as now and it would be years later when I would connect to the Black Wellness Ecosystem on national level.

Deeply inspired by the work being done in our communities in so many ways not realizing that I would be doing work of my own.

I want to take a moment here to share that I wrote “Yoga and Healing for Black Embodiment” as part love letter to the Black Wellness Ecosystem and part educational resource because there are tens of millions in our communities that are still unfamiliar with what Yoga is and its relevance for wellbeing for us specifically.

I ended up taking a job with Apple Maps that required that I travel the country and live on the road. I would be in different cities for months at a time and made it a point to visit yoga studios while on the road. I remember following Deandre Sinette on social media, and I was fortunate to be able to communicate with him through an app he had at the time where I learned Sun Salutation A for the first time. He would give me yoga asana homework that included several Sun A’s. I remember being so happy that I got to meet him in person when my job briefly had me and my team stationed in Dallas before transferring us all to LA.

In App Conversation after I completed one of my Yoga Asana Homework assignments

When I arrived in LA our hotel was near East LA and I would frequent People’s Yoga which became a yoga studio home for me while my job spent months mapping all of LA county.

We left LA and moved into Northern California, Oregon, and landed in Washington mapping most of that beautiful state. Our longest time was spent in Spokane where I fell in love with Coil Yoga studio and made it my home. I met a yoga teacher there that to this day I swear is a Bodhittsatva and I remember telling him how I wanted to do a yoga teacher training when I got back to Atlanta and asked him to bless my mala beads. During all this time on the road I kept telling myself that when my contract was up that I would return to that franchise yoga studio where I had my first Black male yoga teacher and I would take the yoga teacher training. He had told me that I would make a good teacher and I didn’t want to teach but I saw the training as a way to deepen my practice.

I returned to Atlanta and took the training, me and about thirty other individuals. My class was mostly white but my lead teachers were both Black and they were even managers of the franchise branch of that particular area of Metro Atlanta. Towards the end of the training

Stay Tuned for Part 2