positive space initiatives

kula annex aims to be an anti-racist and fat, trans & queer positive space

FAQS (frequently asked questions):

Q | what are your positive space initiatives?
Anti-oppression committee, staff trainings, consent cards, more inclusive change room signs, gender neutral change pod, brown girls yoga & queer yoga.

Q | why do you talk about privilege and oppression at a yoga studio?
Even in a yoga community filled with good intentions, we recognize that we each have a unique set of privileges that have the potential to create further separation and suffering (the opposite of what we are often aiming to do within our practice). Sometimes when talking about concepts like oneness, collective enlightenment and the light & the dark we fail to truly celebrate/affirm diversity and/or honour the reality of many peoples' lived experiences in a world that continues to systemically privilege some groups over others.
We have been fortunate enough to have people from both within and outside of our community point out some of the places in our practice that we have neglected or are currently invisible to us. We believe that our yoga practice has the potential to interrupt systemic oppression, and we are aware that it can also perpetuate this very issue. There is opportunity here: to open up to what we don’t know. To ask the painful, complex and uncomfortable questions like: Why doesn’t our studio reflect the diversity of the neighbourhoods it is situated in? Together we are interested in valuing the questions over the answers and patiently awaiting the creativity and loving action that arise from this work.
We are lucky to have a practice that provides the necessary tools to cultivate compassion, love, integrity, attention and accountability.  Our hope is that kula annex transforms to hold safer space for all who wish to practice, to benefit from a diverse collection of voices and to authentically address our privilege to interrupt all forms of oppression including but not limited to classism, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, abelism, and colonialism.
Q | why did you add queer & brown girls yoga to the schedule?
We noticed that our student base wasn’t reflective of the diversity of the neighborhood/city we are situated in. The addition of these classes is an attempt to invite more people to practice as part of our intention to make the practice more accessible to more people (especially people who may already experience systemic barriers to studio practice).
Q | queer & brown girls yoga seems more exclusive than inclusive?
We recognize that our choice to add these classes as well as the use of the words queer & brown girls may make some feel uncomfortable. We are also aware that these choices will not meet everyone’s needs. However, we have made these choices to actively create safer space within a community that is predominantly hetero-normative and white. To make our space more accessible goes beyond reducing our class prices, by asking the uncomfortable question of why our student base isn’t more diverse. Part of the answer is that there are social and structural barriers to many people’s involvement in studio practice. We believe that different invitations to practice are required because our relationship to systems of oppression are not all equal. For example, a thin, white, cisgender woman who passes as hetero-normative will benefit from certain privileges that may free her from worrying about who else will be in a yoga class that she chooses to attend.
In addition, yoga spaces are inherently body centered which inevitably brings up all sorts of body image issues. In our experience these issues are true for almost everyone, but more often become a barrier to practice for people who do not identify within the dominant group of people practicing and/or when you live in between or beyond gender binaries.  Queer & brown girls yoga aim to cultivate safer space for more people to explore this embodied practice (specifically people who tend to be most marginalized in a studio setting). It is our hope that some of the students who participate in queer and brown girls yoga will also feel welcome to join other classes on our schedule.
Q | will queer & brown girls yoga be taught differently than the other classes taught at kula?
Not necessarily. The point is to consciously create a safer space where people who haven’t felt comfortable enough to come practice in our other classes have more freedom to explore the body and breath. The teachers are humble enough to know they will make mistakes, open enough to invite/encourage feedback, and  experienced enough to offer classes taught with the same love and intelligence as all kula offerings.
Q | what does queer mean?
Queer can be used as an umbrella term to include people who identify as lesbian, gay, bi, trans, intersex, two-spirit, asexual, genderqueer, etc., etc., etc. The umbrella under which all of these terms can fit serves to offer people more freedom to identity and express themselves with respect to gender, sexual orientation & sex. Queer is also considered by many to be a means of reclaiming a word that has historically been used as a derogatory term, by using it in a positive way that can empower rather than oppress us.
Q | is brown girls yoga open to first nation, asian, south asian & mixed race folks?
Yes. The class is inclusive of all who self-identify as women of colour.
Q | is brown girls yoga open to brown bois?
Yes. The class is inclusive of all people of colour who have had (or continue to have) the lived experience of being gendered as a girl, people who currently self identify as a ‘girl’ or a ‘grrl’.

Q | why did you name the class brown girls?
Brown Girls Yoga references a class taught years ago in Toronto by Anne Marie Hood, who taught Kim Katrin Crosby, activist/educator/yogi who went on to lead classes under this name. In 2012, Kim started the classes up again with Jamilah Malika, manager at kula annex, at community spaces; however when the positive space initiative began at kula, director Christi-an Slomka invited Jamilah to teach at the annex location in conjunction with the queer yoga class as special invitations to folks who self identify.
Q | what does fat+ mean?
We recognize that the culture we live in and the media that surrounds us perpetuate a fear of fatness and an obsession with thinness that enable many forms of body shaming and ongoing stigmatization. Many false assumptions and negative associations are made about people with bigger bodies. It is important to remember that: you can’t make assumptions about someone’s health status or habits by their appearance. A fat+ space
aims to accept and respect the natural diversity of all shapes and sizes and remembers that a person’s health and happiness are unrelated to their weight or body size. Check out these resources: Health at every size , Dances with Fat , Fat acceptence, fatphobia & fitness , Association of Size Diversity and Health & Fit Fatties Forum

Q | do you have gender neutral change rooms?
We have gender segregated change rooms and a gender neutral change pod. The gender neutral change pod was created to be a private, individual space that is accessible to everyone. Unfortunately it does not have a washroom or shower. We support our transgender & genderqueer students to use the change room of their choice.
Q | i have never had to think some of these things before, do you have some resources you might recommend?
This is a bigger project we are working on but in the meantime here a few links off the top of our head …
Q | if this matters to you so much why doesn’t your website reflect the diversity of the annex?
We’re working on it. We promise.
This is a work in progress. We welcome your ideas, experiences, thoughts, challenges, inspiration, reflections & critique. Help us grow by filling out our positive space initiatives survey .

Aardvark Design Solutions Inc.