Queer Yoga Montréal

dear q***r yoga montréal followers,

it's been almost four years since i lost access to the space where i was offering weekly pwyc q***r/trans-posi yoga classes in st. henri from 2011-2014. up until last year, alisha mascarenhas was offering regular q***r/trans-posi yoga classes that i was directing y'all to, but she's moved out of the city.

these days, my work has moved away from yoga (though my asana and meditation practices remain foundations of my personal commitments), and into somatics. this is a better fit for both my context as a white person in this world, and for the kind of impact i am hoping to make: increased access to our own bodies' wisdom & increased resilience in relationships and conflict, especially for q***r folks, trans folks, and s*x workers (whose communities have always overlapped with q***r ones). i offer 1:1 and small group counselling and mediation, as well as workshops, and can be booked by organizations for trainings or classes. i invite you to follow this work on my page, if it interests you: https://www.facebook.com/bodywitchery/

i also would love to know where q***r & trans folks in montréal are practicing yoga these days, so that this pinned post can serve as a resource for folks who end up here hoping the class i used to offer still exists!

Hannah Harris-Sutro Hannah Harris-Sutro is a somatics practitioner, writer, tarotist, and birth worker based in Tio'tia:ke / Montréal. She offers 1:1 services, groups, and workshops, in person and online. Please use website, email, or instagram to find out more!

Registration for Moving With Colour is now open! This May series will be facilitated by Parneet and Alisha Mascarenhas, who offers beautiful Thursday morning meditation and yoga at the Centre for Gender Advocacy. It's a closed series for black & indigenous folks and people of colour.

To register, please email hannah@q***ryoga.com to get your registration form and to pay your deposit. Mindful Justice is a series where the group builds safety and trust to do deep work, so no single-workshop registration is available. The price is $80, and we have subsidies available, so please please let us know if you want to be there but $80 doesn't fit your budget. Questions? You can contact either me or Parneet anytime!

tuesday reminder

Correction! Alisha's class at the Centre for Gender Advocacy will be on Thursdays, not Wednesdays!

Q***R YOGA for all bodies:
this means we are working to collectively create yoga spaces that are more accessible to all bodies and genders, rejecting the colonization of this sacred tradition and its subsumption into the capitalist regime. class is open to everyone prepared to positively engage with this process.

Thursday, January 15th
11am-12:15pm
at the Centre for Gender Advocacy
1500 de Maisonneuve Ouest, Suite #404

pay what you can : $10 suggested

bring a mat if you'd like to use one

Alisha's class is up again this winter!

Q***R YOGA for all bodies:
this means we are working to collectively create yoga spaces that are more accessible to all bodies and genders, rejecting the colonization of this sacred tradition and its subsumption into the capitalist regime. class is open to everyone prepared to positively engage with this process.

Wednesday, January 14th
11am-12:15pm
at the Centre for Gender Advocacy
1500 de Maisonneuve Ouest, Suite #404

pay what you can : $10 suggested

bring a mat if you'd like to use one

after this week, couldn't you use some space to heal, hold, and be held? come sit with us. https://www.facebook.com/events/1503368993236998/

"THIS WEEKS TOPIC: Increasing Consciousness/Wisdom in the Real World Part I: Racism and white supremacy as reflections of fear.

This meditation is intentionally for people of colour, mixed race and indigenous peoples. White allies are welcome."

Tomorrow! Q***R YOGA for all bodies:
this means we are working to actively and collectively create yoga spaces that are more accessible to all bodies and gender identities, rejecting the capitalization and colonization of this sacred tradition. class is open to everyone prepared to positively engage with this process.

Thursday, November 20th
11am-12:15pm
Centre for Gender Advocacy
1500 de Maisonneuve Ouest, Suite #404

pay what you can : $10 suggested

bring a mat if you'd like to use one

Tomorrow morning I and Parneet (who runs Samādhi: Saturday Group Meditation, link below) will be on Dragonroot Radio talking about things that make yoga inaccessible and ways students and teachers can counteract that! Tune in at 8:30 am tomorrow to listen, 90.3 FM or at http://ckut.ca/.

Meditation group link--hope to see some of you here, any Saturday: https://www.facebook.com/events/1503368993236998/

Home | CKUT 90.3 FM CKUT has received $42,500 in donations. Last updated November 7th, 12pm CKUTs goal is to raise $50,000. It’s never too late to DONATE

A thing to definitely read, via my roommate: http://yashnamaya.com/reclaim-decolonize-yoga/

"As same-s*x loving, gender non-conforming, le***an, bi or however you may identify, q***r people, we often go through a process of feeling wrong. Wrong in our bodies, wrong in our hearts, wrong in our actions. We internalize this oppressive homophobia- it colonizes our bodies, our spirits. Yoga is a practice in which we can go deeper and unlock those chains. We create sit-ins through dhyana (meditation), and fuel our reserves with pranayama (breath), and march for mukti (freedom) with asanas (postures) and create a revolution from within through Yoga (union)."

Reclaim: decolonize yoga By Yashna Maya Padamsee Reclaim During the Raj in India, in 1860, British Lord Macaulay criminalized homos*xuality (specifically s*xual expression) under Section 377. Lord Macaulay is also attribut...

A project near & dear to my heart, now offering a beautiful, beautiful resource list!

Monster Resource List MONSTER ACADEMY MENTAL-HEALTH RESOURCE LIST FOR YOUTH IN MONTREAL* (Open PDF version here: Monster Resources) *List adapted, with gratitude, from Project 10 and the Centre for Gender Advocacy Publ...

Dearest q***rs and q***r-friends, I am so sorry to let you know that q***r & trans yoga will be on hiatus until further notice. Ambaa Yoga informed me this week that I could not keep teaching this class there. I will be keeping an eye out for space (let me know if you have any leads), and this class will return by January 2015, at latest. Thanks for your support, and I hope to see you in our future space together!

Good reads: http://www.decolonizingyoga.com/reasons-yoga-class-white/

(More) Reasons Why Your Yoga Class is So White - Decolonizing Yoga Plus, the “black people spend too much money on weave and expensive bags” argument can easily fall into shaming, judgmental, victim-blaming territory.