Critical Yoga Studies with Roopa Bala Singh: Race + Liberation + "Yoga"-logo

Critical Yoga Studies with Roopa Bala Singh: Race + Liberation + "Yoga"

Arts & Culture Podcasts

Roopa's nationwide SAAPYA panel discussions broke ground and provided the foundation for ongoing efforts in "decolonizing" yoga. The first person to publicly raise the issue of yoga and cultural appropriation from a desi perspective, Roopa Bala Singh is a licensed attorney (NY State Bar) and faculty in Legal Studies and Civic Engagement at California State University, Monterey Bay. Roopa has been organizing around yoga, race, and culture since 2013 when she launched the first public panel discussions at UC Berkeley and the Brecht Forum (NY) featuring South Asian diasporic voices and teachers in yoga speaking out about racial, cultural, and commodification related tensions in U.S. industrialized yoga. Roopa is a founder of Critical Yoga Studies (CYS), which centers the study of race, and engages legal scholars who formed Critical Race Theory as well as indigenous writers who formed Indigenous Studies. (BA in Political Economy and Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh; JD, UC Berkeley School of Law, MA, Cinema - Tisch School of the Arts (NYU), PhD, Justice Studies, Arizona State University). @roopabalasingh (IG and Twitter); @roopadidi (TikTok)

Roopa's nationwide SAAPYA panel discussions broke ground and provided the foundation for ongoing efforts in "decolonizing" yoga. The first person to publicly raise the issue of yoga and cultural appropriation from a desi perspective, Roopa Bala Singh is a licensed attorney (NY State Bar) and faculty in Legal Studies and Civic Engagement at California State University, Monterey Bay. Roopa has been organizing around yoga, race, and culture since 2013 when she launched the first public panel discussions at UC Berkeley and the Brecht Forum (NY) featuring South Asian diasporic voices and teachers in yoga speaking out about racial, cultural, and commodification related tensions in U.S. industrialized yoga. Roopa is a founder of Critical Yoga Studies (CYS), which centers the study of race, and engages legal scholars who formed Critical Race Theory as well as indigenous writers who formed Indigenous Studies. (BA in Political Economy and Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh; JD, UC Berkeley School of Law, MA, Cinema - Tisch School of the Arts (NYU), PhD, Justice Studies, Arizona State University). @roopabalasingh (IG and Twitter); @roopadidi (TikTok)

Location:

United States

Description:

Roopa's nationwide SAAPYA panel discussions broke ground and provided the foundation for ongoing efforts in "decolonizing" yoga. The first person to publicly raise the issue of yoga and cultural appropriation from a desi perspective, Roopa Bala Singh is a licensed attorney (NY State Bar) and faculty in Legal Studies and Civic Engagement at California State University, Monterey Bay. Roopa has been organizing around yoga, race, and culture since 2013 when she launched the first public panel discussions at UC Berkeley and the Brecht Forum (NY) featuring South Asian diasporic voices and teachers in yoga speaking out about racial, cultural, and commodification related tensions in U.S. industrialized yoga. Roopa is a founder of Critical Yoga Studies (CYS), which centers the study of race, and engages legal scholars who formed Critical Race Theory as well as indigenous writers who formed Indigenous Studies. (BA in Political Economy and Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh; JD, UC Berkeley School of Law, MA, Cinema - Tisch School of the Arts (NYU), PhD, Justice Studies, Arizona State University). @roopabalasingh (IG and Twitter); @roopadidi (TikTok)

Language:

English

Contact:

3479711944

Episodes

Stephanie Yvette Evans: New Book, "Black Women's Yoga History" + Black & Brown Sisterhood + Self Preservation in Academia

6/2/2021
Greetings and namaste. Please don't let anybody ever convince you that namaste is a good bye. Literally, my entire life it has always been a greeting, a hello. I understand that uses change, but it's all good. Welcome to the Critical Yoga Studies podcast. This conversation with Stephanie Yvette Evans is full of life, and sisterhood. There's testifying here, stories here, about how people come for your neck when you, as a Black or Indigenous woman, decide to center your own health - decide...

Duration:00:49:09

Prakash Charuman: On the Liberation of a Desi Child, Now Man, Wrongfully Held in U.S. Prisons

5/2/2021
#freeprakashalliance Critical Yoga Studies: Yoga, Children, and the Carceral. May 3, Rally at Queens County Supreme Court, DA Melinda Katz, Drop All Charges! This is the first of three episodes with Prakash Charuman who is a Guyanese American young adult. After immigrating from Guyana, and escaping an abusive parent, Prakash managed to make it to Queens, New York to be with his mother (whom Prakash describes as having low to no literacy). When Prakash was a child, 15, he was abducted from...

Duration:00:26:05

EP 11: A Yoga Teacher Training Can't Make You Better, Let's Discuss: Felicia Lane Savage + Roopa Bala Singh (Final Ep of Season 1)

10/1/2020
Welcome to the final episode of Season 1, the Critical Yoga Studies podcast prototype season. This episode examines powerful myths associated with yoga teacher trainings, with critique and love. For example, can becoming a certified yoga teacher make you a better human? Not exactly. The yoga teacher training is not going to change you for the better, only you can do that, with time and focus. This podcast will be especially helpful for anyone who is going through a yoga teacher training,...

Duration:00:55:52

EP 10: Online Yoga Education, Best Practices & Cultural Competency, Yoga Alliance and Roopa Bala Singh

9/3/2020
Welcome to Episode 10 of the Critical Yoga Studies podcast. The workshop conversation here was originally titled: Online Yoga Pedagogy: Technical and Cultural Competency. In it, I sketch out best practices for online yoga teaching. I apply guiding principles from Paolo Friere's Pedagogy of the Oppressed to online yoga instruction. I also integrate long term forecasts for the crises and phases of online higher education. Christa Kubery, Vice President of YA Standards, introduces me. In this...

Duration:00:58:25

EP 9: Listen, Be Flexible - Best Practices in Online Education, Roopa talks w/Shaunak Roy, Founder/CEO of Yellowdig

9/3/2020
Welcome to the September 2020 episode of Critical Yoga studies, the podcast. I am honing the direction of this podcast toward best practices in online education, including online yoga education. In this episode, we talked about best practices with online education. Some main takeaways: Those are just some of the really helpful takeaways from this conversation. The yoga space is going to be a really important realm for best practices with online education to develop. Episode 10 of the CYS...

Duration:00:30:10

EP:8 Spectrums: With Dr. Scott & Kara Brooks on Black Love, Race, Sports, Academe & the Risks of Getting Free

8/8/2020
Welcome. Salaam alaikum. In this episode of the Critical Yoga Studies podcast I talk love and strategy with the matriarch and patriarch of the Brooks family, Scott and Kara Brooks. Dr. Brooks is an authority on sports and race. He is the director of the sociology department at Arizona State University. Kara Brooks is a visual artist and lecturer in drawing at ASU, working on the impact of climate change in the global South. The guiding question of our conversation: What are the spectrums we...

Duration:00:46:37

EP 7: Lumumba Bandele, Movement 4 Black Lives National Strategies & Planning Director , discusses tactics with Roopa Bala Singh.

7/2/2020
In this episode with the brother Lumumba Bandele, we discuss tactics. This is a beautiful dialectic on tactical considerations. We address the questions: (1) What defines this moment of global uprising, what are the peaks and the valleys we see unfolding for now and for the future? (2) What are the pluses and minuses of a tunnel vision focus on the United States and the social change that needs to happen in this colonial center? (3) Black citizenship? (4) How do you define:...

Duration:00:40:57

EP 6: Rajni Perera, Sri Lankan, Toronto based artist, talks multiverse & motherhood.

5/30/2020
In this episode of the Critical Yoga Studies podcast, two desi sisters, one Indian American and one Sri Lankan Canadian talk sci-fi, race, motherhood, and multi-scalar power. Rajni Perera is definitely a favorite of a few of your favorite hip hop artists. Her work is world-renowned, her style is ever-evolving - but one thing does not change, she is dedicated to racial solidarity between Black and Brown peoples of this world. Her very name is an interruption, an unlikely bridge between...

Duration:01:40:03

EP 5: Jill Louise Busby On a New Book, Race, and I Don't Know

5/1/2020
(A few deep breaths to start and then...) In this episode of the Critical Yoga Studies podcast, Roopa Bala Singh speaks with viral writer, Jill Louise Busby, who is the author of a forthcoming book, a collection of essays that spends time noticing what goes unsaid. Jill is one of those unique influencers who grapples with the power and powerlessness of having gone viral, with having access to a #hashtagbag. Jill and Roopa build on their ongoing conversation on yoga, race, being Indian,...

Duration:01:45:11

EP 4: Karen Rose (Black, Indian, & Chinese) Talks w/Roopa About Herbalism & More

4/1/2020
In this episode, Roopa Bala Singh (founder, CYS) speaks with New York Times featured master herbalist, Karen Rose (Brooklyn based founder, sacredvibeshealing.com). Karen and Roopa have been knowing each other from off the Flatbush block for about a decade. In their heart to heart conversation, Karen demystifies plant-based medicine. She talks about the importance of getting your medicine from right where you are, from local grocery stores, from your kitchen. Karen shares about her struggles...

Duration:00:40:08

EP 3: FULL CONVO w/ @BLINDIAN GIRL - Bree Simran & Roopa Bala Singh Talk Black, Indian, and Some Yoga

3/1/2020
"This was so enlightening, I loved every minute of it." - Bree This redemptive episode on yoga and Black and Indian relations features host, Roopa Bala Singh, and guest Bree Simran Darby (@blindiangirl on ig/@BreeDarby2 on twitter). Roopa writes, "In this episode we talk truth, SPREAD LOVE THE BK WAY. We get political, intimate, we talk about mothering and daughtering, and our mentors, and lack thereof - we talk love and hate. As all the warring escalates, this conversation reminds me that...

Duration:01:17:43

EP 1 Highlight Reel: Convo w/Felicia Lane Savage, Black Yoga Teacher, Mom, Sister Survivor

2/1/2020
Critical Yoga Studies Podcast Prototype Season: Pilot Episode 1 Guest: Felicia Lane Savage Friedman of Yoga Roots On Location (@yogarootspgh, @yogadiva3) In this HIGHLIGHT REEL conversation with Felicia Lane Savage Friedman, we get down to the brass tacks of the hour-long discussion edited down to 15 minutes. Highlights and gems include:

Duration:00:15:04

EP 2 Full, Uncut: Convo w/Felicia Lane Savage, Black Yoga Teacher, Mom, Sister Survivor

2/1/2020
Critical Yoga Studies Podcast Prototype Season: Pilot Episode 2 (Full, Uncut, Hour-Long) Guest: Felicia Lane Savage Friedman of Yoga Roots On Location (@yogarootspgh, @yogadiva3) In this hour-long conversation with Felicia Lane Savage Friedman, we get down to the highs and lows of being on the yoga path as Black and Brown women. Highlights and gems include: How she defines yoga.Her own path in becoming the first Black woman yogi she knew in her own community of Lincoln-Lemington,...

Duration:00:58:04