Jessamyn Stanley recounts her complicated history with yoga as a Fat, Queer, Black Girl in the lily white world of the yoga industrial complex in the United States. She reflects on her ongoing practice of yoga. Filled with short chapters recounting stories from her life, she lays out the history and philosophy of yoga. She does not flinch from talking about race, privilege, or appropriation.

This is a book about why she does yoga.

I savored this book. I ended up reading a chapter every few days, letting the words and ideas swim in my body. I want to love myself like Jessmyn loves herself. I loved her practical, non-judgmental, inclusive approach to doing yoga.

I am going to purchase a physical copy of this book, event though I read it as a eARC. ( )

Loved this book & glad to have stumbled upon it while I’m going through YTT. I wish I would have read Every Body Yoga first, but the library had Yoke available to me to read first, so it is what it is. Would definitely recommend for anyone who is interested in practicing (or teaching) yoga. ( )

The only yoga class I ever took was over twenty years ago in my little town’s rec center, and I hated it and never went back. Since then I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of money on yoga without actually doing any yoga. I think the closest I’ve gotten is the PT exercises I had to do after my back went out four years ago. But there’s always something in me that wants to try, and I thought Jessamyn Stanley would be a good guide.

I don’t follow anyone on IG, so all I know about her I’ve read. I appreciate her deep honesty here as she straight up says she doesn’t have the answers. I resonated with her talking about yoga’s issues with capitalism and white supremacy, but it was then weird to read a whole chapter going off on cultural appropriation right after she talked about using palo santo in her rituals.

I was fascinated with her Yoga Journal cover debacle and her feelings on it, and I did some looking at covers after the fact. It seems she and others might have gotten through to them as they got a new editor in chief and actually seem to be showing more diversity in their covers which is great.

In the end I’m not really liking this read and feel bad about it. Stanley goes deep into some of her past experiences but then barely seems to skim the surface of the issues behind them. She doesn’t make yoga any more appealing, even though it obviously helps her in her life. A lot of her words seem to be a big eff you to assholes she’s dealt with in the past, yet she can’t burn them down completely as she should because yoga is her livelihood. I hope that she continues to use her voice and that it gets louder as she grows even more. ( )