#SmarterInSeconds: Yoga Is Political starring @susannabarkataki and @su9nah ❤️🩹✨
Yoga is not neutral. Its history and present are deeply political.
Like any tool that can be used to heal or harm, yoga has been and still is used for both.
In the west, yoga is often culturally appropriated. Centering whiteness, thinness, and wealth.
But yoga was first appropriated centuries ago by the Brahmanical casteist patriarchy that falsely believes that only a select few should have access to the divine. Casteist oppression, or oppression based on caste, meant that certain people couldn’t do yoga because of the caste they were born into.
Decolonizing yoga means deconstructing both the western appropriation of yoga and the Brahmanical casteist patriarchal appropriation of yoga.
Practicing yoga as social justice is part of its roots of Ahimsa as a tool of antiracism, anti casteism, and as a tool for liberation from systems of oppression.
If you’re not doing these things you’re not really doing yoga!
To learn more about caste oppression read The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition by @dalitdiva
Whiteness and white supremacy culture constantly feed into capitalism which is where “aesthetic” culture comes from IMHO. It convinces us that we don’t have enough but with the right yoga clothes, props, accessories and goodies, we can eventually become “perfect”!
In reality, these practices which have been passed down for thousands and thousands of years are whole and complete as they are. Just like you. We come into this world naked and we sure are going to leave naked too! No taking any of the material things that you have with you when you die!
This aesthetic has also been sold BACK to the originators of this practice, namely black and brown people in ways that completely blow my mind (ie: goat yoga, wine yoga, cat yoga etc) !!! I also have come to honor and understand the deep intersection between North African culture and Indian culture which CAN NOT be erased as that is another way anti-blackness creeps through the cracks. Black, brown AND white people need to stay united through these times if we want to come together and liberate all of our people. If this is your fight, then it’s mine too.
💪🏾 In what ways do you see yoga used as an “aesthetic”??
💪🏾 Why do you think western yoga likes to pedestal only the digestible parts of our culture and erase the rest??
💪🏾 How do you want to see YT folks show up in yoga spaces moving forward??
#abcdyogisunaina #yogicculture #honortheroots #southasianyoga #desiyoga #kemeticyoga
[Image ID: Rainbow gradient slide that reads with white font “Whiteness uses yoga as a spiritual aesthetic”. A cat in a forearm stand is depicted on the left and another cat standing on one foot is depicted on the right. In the center is a Hamsa hand with more text underneath that reads “Yogic tradition is deeply rooted in south Asian and Kemetic cultures to liberate all people!”]
We’re so elated to announce that our work "A Slow Burn" has officially been accepted into the 2026 Denver Fringe Festival 🔥
For those unfamiliar, Fringe is an internationally recognized performing arts festival model known for uplifting experimental, independent, boundary-pushing work across theater, dance, music, immersive art, and multidisciplinary performance. 🤍
A Slow Burn is a movement exploration investigating cultural memory in the body, the intimacy of language, and the complexities of translation.
This work asks:
- How do we reclaim our heritage?
- How do ancestors & community show up for us, seen & unseen?
- How do we find pleasure in our liminal identities?
Join us for a sensual & sensorial experience through memory, migration, and metamorphosis. ✨
📍 RedLine Contemporary Art Center - Denver, CO @redlinedenver
🗓 Thursday, June 4, 2026
⏰ 7pm
75 available tickets through the link in bio 🔗
Bring your lover, your best friend, your family, your curiosity. We can’t wait to share this with you. Let's sell it out((:🫀
Team 🤍
Harveen @harveengilldance
Sunaina @su9nah
Divya @_floatingthruspace
Vidya AKA Seven @sevenloveproductions
Vinita
#DenverFringeFestival #PerformanceArt #SouthAsianArt #SomaticArt #DanceTeam
🌹Meet the collaborators & performers of A Slow Burn 🔥
🌹Introducing ✨Sunaina Madhav Dasi (they/them/she)✨
🌹”Sunaina Madhav Dasi (they/them/she) is a multidimensional practitioner walking the sacred paths of yoga, devotion, and collective liberation. Born in Bangalore, India and currently based on the unceded lands of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute Nations (colonially known as Denver, CO), Sunaina’s work is deeply rooted in their lived experience as a neurodivergent, queer South Asian of mixed Indo-Aryan and Dravidian ancestry, with Tamil as their mother tongue.
Initiated into the Hari Bhakta Sampradaya by Sri Paramahamsa Vishwananda, Sunaina’s spiritual foundation is grounded in Hinduism, Bhakti Yoga, and a commitment to social justice. They have mentored over 1,000 yoga students—primarily BIPOC—on their journeys toward 200- and 300-hour teacher certification with cultural reverence and integrity.
Sunaina specializes in somatic dance coaching, ancestral healing, and decolonizing yoga spaces through a trauma-informed, heart-centered lens. They believe that liberation begins with self-awareness—and that the body holds the ancestral wisdom we need to return home to ourselves.
Through 9A Yoga, rooted in Tamil ancestral knowledge and modern mindfulness, Sunaina is creating new models for reclaiming traditional practices, restoring cultural memory, and dismantling energetic and systemic oppression.
Beyond their healing work, Sunaina thrives as a creative in modeling, photography, dance, and artistic direction.”
🌹 Please join us tomorrow 5/8/2026 at @spacespace.art for an intimate performance ~
🌹 Doors open at 6:30pm, Show begins 7pm, followed by an Artist Talk ~
🌹 Bring your bestie & lover (parental advisory) See you there 💫
🌹 Photos by @worksamplethis & @partyy_boyyy
✨ Really excited to share that on May 17th, Pandita Nikunja Dasi will be joining us in Denver for an evening of satsang, storytelling, and kirtan.
There’s something really special about gathering together in person... singing, reflecting, asking questions, sharing space, and reconnecting to what actually matters in life. Nikunja carries a beautiful way of making these ancient teachings feel real, relatable, and deeply heartfelt.
After years of traveling, studying, and sharing around the world, it feels meaningful to welcome her back home to Colorado for this gathering.
Whether you’ve been on this path for years or you’re simply looking for deeper connection, community, and an uplifting evening, you're warmly invited. ❤️
May 17th • Denver, Colorado
TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE ON EVENTBRITE 🙏
DM for more info!
Would love to see you there!!!!
As a true expert in the diversity of Hair, I never take for granted how blessed I am to encounter all the different types of beautiful people that trust me with their curls!! Look at this woman! Look at how beautiful she is! Oh my gosh, right here with me in Denver! 😍 her and her curls are so beautiful. She takes such good care of them!
Comment GUIDE to receive my free nighttime and refresh routine
"Educate, Agitate, Organize." Spoken by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar are words to light the path forward, not just this month, everyday ongoing.
Popping in to tell you about the in-person and online special events at Tejal Yoga. Real conversations. Real engagement. Real community. Drop-in or explore membership options below 👇🏾👇🏾
Upcoming Special Events:
Rooted in Regulation class 4 of 6 with Sunaina @su9nah
Monday 20th | 4–5:15p PT
BIPOC Restorative Yoga: "Rest for Each Other" with Tejal
Wednesday 29th | 3:30p-4:30a PT
📍 In-Person Park Yoga 4 Pal with Collective Tarot
with Tejal @tejalyoga and Yamuna @hinduitive
Fundraiser class for @jawadcamp2
Sunday, May 3rd | 11a PT | Santa Monica, CA
Free Talk: The Harms of Appropriation in Yoga with Tejal
Reservation Required | Livestream | Replay
Choose: May 4th 2-3:15pm PT | May 5th 9-10:15am PT
Embody Yoga's Roots YTT 300 Online @susannabarkataki
Guest Faculty Tejal Patel @tejalyoga , workshop:
Private Yoga and Compassionate Care
Learn more at link in bio.
👉🏾 Book-in for these practices and so much more, at:
TejalYoga.Com/Events
Bring your questions, cares, and your whole self. See you soon!
#NervousSystemReset #BIPOCYoga #AppropriationInYoga #DalitHistoryMonth #Yoga4Pal
/tides/article/educate-agitate-organize
"As you prepare your breakfast, think of others
(do not forget the pigeon’s food)...
As you think of others far away, think of yourself
(say: “If only I were a candle in the dark”)."
–Mahmoud Darwish
Join for asana, for meditation, for nervous system reset, creativity, and learning, and stay tuned for more upcoming Special Events, like:
Rooted in Regulation class 3 of 6 with Sunaina @su9nah
Monday 20th | 4–5:15p PT
Quarterly Creative Expression Workshop
with Jotika @jotikart
Sunday 26th | 12–1:30p PT
BIPOC Community Restorative Yoga with Tejal
Wednesday 29th | 3:30–4:30p PT
📍 In-Person Park Yoga 4 Pal with Collective Tarot
with Tejal @tejalyoga and Yamuna @hinduitive
Sunday, May 3rd | 11a PT | Santa Monica, CA
Embody Yoga's Roots YTT 300 Online @susannabarkataki
Guest Faculty Tejal Patel @tejalyoga , workshop:
Private Yoga and Compassionate Care
(for teaching 1:1, small groups, and semi-privates)
Learn more at link in bio.
👉🏾 Book-in for these practices and so much more, at:
TejalYoga.Com/Events
Be a candle in the dark with us.
#NervousSystemReset #Yoga4Pal #ParkYoga #ArtWorkshop #BIPOCYoga
sunday = doing what feels like me 💃🏽✨
just having fun, moving how i want, and leaning into the things that light me up 🤍 nothing perfect… just real joy
a few reminders while you’re here:
1. You’re allowed to enjoy your life while building it
2. Doing what you love is never a waste of time
3. Your purpose doesn’t have to be loud to be real
4. What feels right for you *is* right for you
more joy, more play, more being present 🌿
that’s the energy i’m keeping 🫶🏽 Dance with me tomorrow @tejalyoga for my Rooted in Regulation Somatic Movement Class!! #dancevibes #creatorsoftheday #dopaminedressing #joyfulmovement
![Whiteness and white supremacy culture constantly feed into capitalism which is where “aesthetic” culture comes from IMHO. It convinces us that we don’t have enough but with the right yoga clothes, props, accessories and goodies, we can eventually become “perfect”!In reality, these practices which have been passed down for thousands and thousands of years are whole and complete as they are. Just like you. We come into this world naked and we sure are going to leave naked too! No taking any of the material things that you have with you when you die! This aesthetic has also been sold BACK to the originators of this practice, namely black and brown people in ways that completely blow my mind (ie: goat yoga, wine yoga, cat yoga etc) !!! I also have come to honor and understand the deep intersection between North African culture and Indian culture which CAN NOT be erased as that is another way anti-blackness creeps through the cracks. Black, brown AND white people need to stay united through these times if we want to come together and liberate all of our people. If this is your fight, then it’s mine too. In what ways do you see yoga used as an “aesthetic”?? Why do you think western yoga likes to pedestal only the digestible parts of our culture and erase the rest?? How do you want to see YT folks show up in yoga spaces moving forward?? #abcdyogisunaina #yogicculture #honortheroots #southasianyoga #desiyoga #kemeticyoga [Image ID: Rainbow gradient slide that reads with white font “Whiteness uses yoga as a spiritual aesthetic”. A cat in a forearm stand is depicted on the left and another cat standing on one foot is depicted on the right. In the center is a Hamsa hand with more text underneath that reads “Yogic tradition is deeply rooted in south Asian and Kemetic cultures to liberate all people!”]](https://sp1.picnob.com/p/pt_6860586362701836295510_0_77f581b9e328718c1895b88c98b6e012.jpg?o=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&h=cb564aa0c2f9b44f04b5c1d55c252a16)
