"I'm a Black Yoga Teacher in Appalachia" with Kristin Booker
Yogaland Podcast
Andrea Ferretti
4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 21 July 2020
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s guest is writer, illustrator, and yoga teacher Kristen Booker. For the past decade, Kristen has built a successful career as a freelance writer in New York -- her work has appeared in Elle, Marie Claire, Refinery 29, Well+Good, and more. A year ago -- just after finishing her yoga teacher training -- Kristen returned to her hometown of Charleston, West Virginia to care for her aging mother.
On this episode, Kristen shares her experience of going home and teaching yoga in a part of the world that has more traditional values than she’s used to. While she’s quick to point out that racism (both overt and implicit) is not a location-specific problem, her experiences have given her insight, which she eloquently shares in today’s episode.
Show notes: http://www.jasonyoga.com/podcast/episode202
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everyone, I'm Andrea Ferretti and this is episode 202 of Yogoland. |
| 0:08.6 | Today my guest is Kristen Booker. |
| 0:11.2 | Kristen is a freelance writer. |
| 0:13.5 | She's written for Refinery 29, L, Mary Claire, |
| 0:18.7 | self, real simple, you name it, |
| 0:21.0 | she's written for them. |
| 0:22.5 | She's also a yoga teacher based in Charleston, West Virginia. |
| 0:26.9 | She recently wrote a piece for Well and Good |
| 0:29.3 | that's called I'm a Black Yoga instructor in Appalachia. Talking about what it was like to move |
| 0:34.5 | back to her hometown in West Virginia from New York to teach yoga, well to take care of |
| 0:39.7 | her mother but also to teach yoga. And so I wanted to talk to her about her experience and we kind of cover it all. I really wanted to just hear her story from beginning to end of what it was like to grow up there where |
| 0:55.2 | there were not a lot of other black kids. She lived all over the world and |
| 1:00.0 | ended up ultimately in New York City where, you know, she enjoyed the exact opposite of just being |
| 1:07.3 | one of many different kinds of people. And then what that's like to come full circle and move back to your hometown and to a |
| 1:16.7 | place where that's still not you know highly diverse. So she was just a great person to talk to she shared so much of herself which I really appreciate and I think you will too and for those of us who are trying to educate ourselves about what it's like to be a black person in wellness spaces, |
| 1:38.8 | this interview is so important and she just shares so many just really vivid details that can help us to |
| 1:46.5 | understand empathize and hopefully keep pushing for change. So enjoy the interview with Kristen. |
| 1:58.0 | Well Kristen, thanks so much for being here and I also just want to say thank you for reaching out to me. |
| 2:05.4 | You DM me on Instagram a few months ago just to say like, hey, do you want to have a conversation? |
| 2:10.8 | It was when the uprisings, you know, for George Floyd started happening and I just |
| 2:18.3 | thought it was such a kind outreach and we talked a little bit and got to know each of a little bit and you kind of |
| 2:23.7 | nudged me forward in the right direction in terms of like reaching out to people |
... |
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