D’Andre Quinerly: Providence, Rhode Island, USA

Yoga is an opportunity to meet and overcome resistance in human form. My experience began with me coming to yoga as an avid runner overly tending to the lines of the lane. My body was accustomed to going in one direction and providing the memory for the rigid movements required in running. I came to yoga as a self-care practice and as a challenge to overcome the inflexible possibilities of my body and mind. I was willing to be the only Black man doing yoga in my rough neighborhood. In many ways, it allowed me to express the audacity befitting any Black man actively practicing a form of self-care, especially in public, on a deck overlooking a neighborhood where self-destruction is more common. I saw it as a way of reminding people of their own power. Yoga became a way for me to get out of my own way. To stop considering a life of peace, love, and prosperity and to live one instead. I believe that for as long as we’re living, we will meet some resistance. Yoga has become one of my most valuable tools as a student and practitioner (alongside plant medicine, Reiki, meditation, and visualization) for acknowledging, accepting, and overcoming resistance and cultivating peace, love, and prosperity in my mind and body alike.

I have been teaching yoga for two years now. I came into teaching yoga because of the benefits it provided me in my personal practice. When I first began practicing yoga, I had no intentions to teach. I came into yoga with the intention to integrate my physical, mental, and energetic body. I knew I needed healing and alignment, and yoga spoke to me as an athlete also looking to incorporate more stretching into my routine. As I strengthened my personal practice, I began to consider teaching yoga to people in my immediate environment. My first students were friends, housemates, and then the general public. My target audience lives in communities that are not traditionally flooded with health and wellness options. Members of my target audience have had to leave their own communities in order to take yoga classes or be introduced to other wellness modalities. My mission is to make it accessible for people, regardless of where they are from. I continue to teach in order to bring health and wellness directly to the people who need it the most, but have largely been marginalized.

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