Queer Yoga

Join host Jivana Heyman as he talks with Mookaite Jasper (Kite), a queer, trans, non-binary, and autistic yoga teacher from Middlesbrough, England, about their book Queer Yoga: A Guide to Well-Being Through Inclusive and Accessible Yoga. Kite shares their journey from discovering yoga in Thailand, coming out, getting sober, and how the queer community yoga nonprofit they founded eventually inspired their book. Together, Jivana and Kite discuss the concept of masking and the importance of creating safe spaces for marginalized groups and the role of yoga in mental health.

In the second part of the episode, Jivana and co-host Deanna Michalopoulos reflect on the parallels between Kite's story and Jivana's own early work teaching yoga to gay men with AIDS. They respond to a listener question from Verna about making ancient yoga texts more accessible, covering Sanskrit translation, the difference between scholarly and interpretive versions, and Jivana's key insight that Patanjali is not asking us to become something new, but to remember who we already are.

Topics include:

How nonprofit work and service can lead to burnout

How Queer Yoga was impacted by Kite’s participation in Accessible Yoga programs

Jessamyn Stanley's foreword and her opening line: "Yoga has always been queer"

Honoring queer elders

Different forms of meditation Rest as resistance: teachings from Tricia Hersey and Evie Muir on burnout and recovery

Navigating the Yoga Sutras and Bhagavad Gita: how to find translations that actually land

Check out:

Get your copy of Queer Yoga: A Guide to Well-Being Through Inclusive and Accessible Yoga

Julie Shipway's writing course: The Yoga Writer's Handbook