Unionize Yoga Podcast

Hi everyone, welcome back to the Unionize Yoga Podcast. We are a clearinghouse on organizing, moving beyond the studio system, forming coops, and a space to share resources that help us make the world of yoga more just and equitable. We hope that this podcast lends itself towards your organizing and activism. 

In this episode we talk to the incredibly inspiring Michelle Cassandra Johnson. Johnson’s website details that she is “an activist, social justice warrior, author, anti-racism consultant and trainer, intuitive healer, and yoga teacher and practitioner.” 

 You probably know her from her amazing first book “Skill in Action: Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World”, which was published in 2017. “Skill in Action” is a book that asks yoga practitioners to use the lessons, that they find on their mat, in order to make a just and liberated world (heavily inspired by the Bhagavad Gita). Often her work is asking us to change real systemic injustices that are perpetuated by dogmas of racism, classism, sexism, and so forth other forms of bigotry. Her book broke through the yoga industry and demanded (in the most compassionate but strong voice) that people need to show up for justice movement work. And now, as Johnson discusses in this interview, there are many social justice and yoga workshops and discussions, that are happening in a mainstream way. And Johnson was a critical part this new era of many people realizing that the fruits of their yoga practice should not just be for them, in fact they should absolutely be for the collective good.

 Johnson has also recently come out with a her second book “Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief” .  Johnson’s books are always a mixture of reading and workbooks The workbook is a critical part of Johnson’s books; since she always asks you to be a participant in these discussions rather than just an observer.

 We’re so grateful to Michelle C Johnson for talking with us about her work and for being such a leading figure in calling for yoga practitioners to use what is learned in practice, to work towards a someday socially just world. Unionize Yoga’s very own, Alayna Gerald, interviews Michelle C Johnson. We hope you enjoy this special interview. 

 Ways to support Michelle C Johnson and buy her book: 

Michelle C Johnson’s website: https://www.michellecjohnson.com

Read “Skill in Action” : https://www.skill-in-action.com/the-book

Read “Finding Refuge” : https://www.finding-refuge.com/

Support Johnson’s anti-racism work at her Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/skillinaction

 Email us if you have any questions at: [email protected]

Our social media presence is on Instagram at: @unionize_yoga

 Link to Organize with Unionize Yoga! We're always looking for volunteers:
 Sign-Up to Organize
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfifsEptFTtYlHQHfSbPSDl-rMvc08aOGntdBTR0vXSvvjrQQ/formResponse

Welcome back to the Unionize Yoga Podcast. In this episode we have Part Two of our Interview Series with CorePower Yoga Union. The union has been working to organize throughout the majority of the pandemic. Unionizing is never easy, let alone in a pandemic where we have to stay apart from one another. There’s much to learn from them. Last week we talked with Alice Klein – a teacher-organizer out in Seattle. And this week we’re talking with Sam Winkelmann – another teacher-organizer in Georgia. This interview with Sam was recorded at the start of April – knowing that timeline can help make sense of some of the points raised. At the end of the interview, we’ll have an update from Sam on where they are right now in their organizing. 

 In this episode, you’ll hear some of the same (but not entirely) ground being covered as was last week. However, the topics are told from a different perspective and with different information. And these are the critical topics to discuss and organize around. We don’t just talk about them once with one person and then that’s enough. We have to think about them from different angles and perspectives, regularly and deeply. We’re trained for this as yoga practitioners. We don’t do the poses of our practice once and then never again. We practice them often. They can feel so different and teach us new things even if we’ve done them many times before. There are lessons to be learned here in how we approach our ongoing work and thoughts that must continue to be thought and rethought, and then acted upon.

Hope you enjoy.

 Note: Sorry everyone, there's 5 mins of empty audio at the end of this podcast. Sigh. We're very DIY over here and this is how the cookie crumbles sometimes. We'll work on it for the future to not happen again!

Articles to on CorePower Yoga Union's efforts:

The Defector article by Amy Pedulla:
Inside the Fight to Organize CorePower Yoga
https://defector.com/inside-the-fight-to-unionize-corepower-yoga/

The Guardian article by Sarah Jaffe (who will appear later this season):
Married to the job: how a long-hours working culture keeps people single and lonely
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/apr/15/married-job-long-hours-working-culture-single-lonely-love

Men's Fitness Article:
Fitness Trainers Are Organizing to Flex More Muscle in Their Workplaceshttps://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a34717653/fitness-trainers-labor-organizing-unions/?ltclid=4446a845-f894-49ae-a017-070d33144c50

Follow CorePower Yoga Union on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cpy.union/

Email us if you have any questions at: [email protected]

Link to Organize with Unionize Yoga! We're always looking for volunteers:
Sign-Up to Organize
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfifsEptFTtYlHQHfSbPSDl-rMvc08aOGntdBTR0vXSvvjrQQ/formResponse
---
This is the Unionize Yoga Podcast. We are a clearinghouse on organizing, moving beyond the studio system, forming coops, and a space to share resources that uplift teachers. At least once a month you’ll hear a conversation with someone doing this critical organizing of making our industry and working conditions more equitable. 

Welcome to our very first episode of the Unionize Yoga Podcast!

To start off our podcast series we’re leading with a 2 part interview series with organizers from Corepower Yoga Union (CPYUnion). We're starting out with CPY Union because they’ve been directly working to organize this massive company throughout the pandemic. There’s much to learn from them. This first episode we’ll hear from Alice Klein– a teacher-organizer. And next week we’ll drop the second interview with Sam Winkelmann – another teacher-organizer. Both of these interviews were recorded back in March and April, to help you understand some of the timelines referenced. But at the end of next week’s interview, we’ll have an update from Sam on where they are right now in their organizing. 

This episode traverses a great deal of ground, including the ever important question: when do we burn things to the ground and when do we organize within the place already built?