Known for teaching powerful free yoga classes to over 6,000 people in marginalized communities each week, Africa Yoga Project (AYP) Teachers’ talents extend far beyond yoga. In celebration of their 10 year celebration on November 25 at the popular Alchemist Bar in Westlands, organizers are extending an open invitation to be part of the #AYPDAY.
Africa Yoga Project operates under the principle that “Yoga is for everyone.” The AYP community center and yoga studio, the Shine Center, provides a space for everyone to come together and enjoy the benefits of yoga and community. At the Saturday community class, some 300 people from all walks of life and from all over the globe gather weekly for a free 2-hour community yoga class. While many participants and AYP teachers come from impoverished backgrounds, the Shine Center provides connections and a community that show each person the possibilities in their own lives and teach them to not let poverty define them. To be eligible for the AYP Academy, youth must come from marginalized communities, and to receive the training, they must return to these communities as role models providing free well-being support and an example of what is possible for others.
To mark the upcoming celebration, organizers will be putting on a Africa Yoga Project Talent Show, which will be part of a wider AYP DAY that will also feature some of the types of classes and services offered by the program.
Rufus Ngugi, who is one of the project’s silent yoga instructors, will showcase a “silent yoga” class as part of the AYP DAY program. Certified as a Level II Baptiste Yoga and an Ashtanga Yoga teacher, Ngugi, who is deaf, leads classes using movement and eye contact to energize and inspire his students, batting the floor when it is time to move to a new pose. His dance performance for the Talent Show relies on the audience to clap out rhythms that he senses through the vibrations.
Partner yoga, acro-yoga, arm balances, and yoga stretches that can be done during conferences or work meetings in normal street clothes round out the AYP DAY program, which will feature both afternoon and evening performances of the Talent Show, followed by a dance party.
This event is suitable for all ages and participation in workshops is included in the entrance fee! Ksh 500 Adults, Ksh 250 for Children. Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Africa Yoga Project Shine Center or at the door.