Black Yoga Magazine Pushes for Stronger Black Representation Within the Yoga Community
Today, more and more people have been getting into yoga to find balance and rhythm in their own lives. Ashley Adams was one of those people. She dove headfirst into the yoga community and instantly fell in love, she then transformed her passion for yoga into her career by becoming a yoga instructor, and it changed her way of life, forever.
In such a calm and unifying discipline such as yoga, one would think that Ashley, who is a Black woman, would be fully accepted as she is. However, that was definitely not the case when she was starting out. She would often get weird looks from fellow yogis, thinking that a person of color would never practice yoga.
Ashley could feel the prejudice of other people as soon as she entered the room. She felt that other Black yogi should never experience that kind of discrimination themselves, and the entire yoga community should be made aware. The lack of representation of yogis that belong to minority groups has been a pressing issue within the yoga community.
In response to this, Ashley founded and created Black Yoga Magazine, a magazine that seeks to build awareness of yoga within Black communities, as well as to increase the representation of Black people in the yoga community and give them a platform to speak up.
Ashley, who is also the proud owner of Yoga Blue Fitness in Tarpon Springs, Florida, stumbled upon the idea after going to her local bookstore and skimming through 10 different yoga magazines and not finding a single brown person at all. It was then and there that Ashley knew that something had to be done.
The severe lack of representation among people of color in the media is one thing. It’s a bigger and greater issue that deserves to be changed as well. However, when it hits close to home, Ashley knew very well that she could take immediate action and fight for stronger representation within the community that she knows and loves dearly.
The team behind Black Yoga Magazine hopes to eliminate racial profiling within the yoga community to foster a better community of acceptance and freedom. The meteoric rise of the yoga population has been well-documented. However, the vast majority still don’t know how many of those people are people of color, so they assume based on what they know and not based on what is true.
Black Yoga Magazine’s first-ever issue was released back in September 2019. Since then, they have published seven catalogs featuring prominent Black yoga instructors from all over the USA. The magazine has had the likes of Jotholyn Mason, Valencia Folks, Danny Fluker Jr, and many more, grace its pages with their inspiring stories.
Ashley Adams is making a huge difference within the yoga community through Black Yoga Magazine. The fight might not be over, but this is a huge win for representation within the community that she holds very close to her heart.
Find out more about Black Yoga Magazine by visiting the official website. You can also learn more about Ashley Adams through The Yoga Blue Fitness website.