A Queer Dharma with Jacoby Ballard

CHITHEADS with Jacob Kyle (Embodied Philosophy)

Jacoby Ballard is a social justice educator and yoga teacher who leads workshops and trainings around the country on diversity, equity, and inclusion. As a yoga teacher with 20 years of experience, he leads workshops, retreats, teacher trainings, teaches at conferences, and runs the Resonance mentorship program for certified yoga teachers to find their niche and calling. In 2008, Jacoby co-founded Third Root Community Health Center in Brooklyn, to work at the nexus of healing and social justice. Since 2006, Jacoby has taught Queer and Trans Yoga, a space for queer folks to unfurl and cultivate resilience, and received Yoga Journal's Game Changer Award in 2014 and Good Karma Award in 2016. Jacoby has taught in schools, hospitals, non-profit and business offices, a maximum-security prison, a recovery center, a cancer center, LGBT centers, gyms, a veteran’s center, and yoga studios. Jacoby's book A Queer Dharma: Yoga and Meditations for Liberation offers a distinctly queer lens on yoga and meditation. He lives with his partner, child, and innumerable plant friends on unceded Goshute, Ute, Paiute, and Shoshone land, now known as Salt Lake City, Utah. More at jacobyballard.net.

In this episode, we discuss:

1. What “queer dharma” means.
2. Working at the intersection of anti-oppression work and dharma practice.
3. Skillful attempts at social justice work that include healing and inner work.
4. The role of anger in anti-oppression and social justice work.
5. Differentiating apology versus forgiveness.
6. Discovering common ground by sitting in silence together.
7. What some of the unique needs are for queer and trans people in yoga spaces.

Liberatory models of yoga discussed in the episode:

• Holistic Life Foundation
• Yoga for 12 Step Recovery
• East Bay Meditation Center

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