There are some wonderful music events coming up in Atlanta. Among them is a tribute to Fela Kuti this Saturday with the legendary Roy Ayers and DJ Rich Medina and DJ Kemit. Apparently, there is also a Broadway musical in the works about Fela Kuti. I love Afrobeat and Fela’s music. It’s quite remarkable how much resurgent popularity it is getting these days. I wonder where the current fascination stems from. Is it simply aesthetic? Political? Astrological? Because black presidents are popular days, and that was one of Fela’s monikers? Whatever it is, I’m glad to have this music as part of the contemporary soundtrack of life.

Greetings Sharda,

I am disappointed to learn that you were offended in one of our yoga classes on Sunday.  As a regular student I hope you know that our daily goal at *** is to create a safe and welcoming environment for all of our students. In fact this is the first time in 6 1/2 years that I have received feedback like this about a class.  Please know that X’s intent for the class was to honor exploration as a concept, not Columbus as a person or hero, and the fact that the use of Columbus to illustrate the concept of exploration might offend someone did not occur to her.  X often brings themes into her classes, and unfortunately your perception and her intention were incompatible.

I sincerely apologize to you and hope that you will continue to share your yoga practice with us in the future.

Namaste,

After I had a few days to simmer down and get constructive criticism from my friends (some who thought angry asanas and blog posts were passive aggressive), I wrote a letter to my yoga studio about the teacher with the Columbus affection.

I am a customer in this relationship and, at the end of the day, should be offering honest feedback. This is probably more useful than festering with resentment. I’m still glad that I didn’t say anything in the moment.  I was way too upset. Let me know what you think of how I handled the situation. Here tis…

I am a regular student at your studio but never took a class with X until this past Sunday. Please pass the message to her that Christopher Columbus is a sensitive topic for many people. He helped lead the violent conquest of indigenous people and enslaved Africans. Although new nations in the Americas were born from this process, Columbus’ legacy is difficult for those who are also mourning and remembering his brutality.

Ms. X should be more careful about the themes and analogies that she uses in class, so as not to alienate her students or make them uncomfortable. I was extremely disturbed that she chose to decide for us that we would honor Christopher Columbus with our practice. Imagine, for example, asking descendants of slaves to honor the slave traders who brought their ancestors to this continent.

She didn’t just use Columbus once but referenced him throughout class. Even though I tried my best to focus on my practice, it was weird, disturbing, unnecessary and ruined my experience.

Please ask her to be more mindful of her students and remember to be sensitive to the fact that her hero might inspire very different emotions in others. I would not ever choose to welcome Christopher Columbus into my yoga practice in this manner.

At one point, Ms. X congratulated me on pushing myself in class and honoring Christopher Columbus. I can’t tell you how angry this made me. She then asked why people don’t honor him more these days?

Please read below from Columbus’ log and ask yourself how appropriate it is to relentlessly laud this man in a yoga class:

“They brought us barrels of cotton thread and parrots and other little things which it would be tedious to list, and exchanged everything for whatever we offered them…I kept my eyes open and tried to find out if there was any gold, and I saw that some of them had a little piece hanging from a hole in their nose. I gathered from their signs that if one goes south, or around the south side of the island, there is a king with great jars full of it, enormous amounts. I tried to persuade them to go there, but I saw that the idea was not to their liking…They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”

Just because it’s a legal holiday, doesn’t mean that I have to celebrate it.

Today I took a yoga class with a teacher I’d never learned from before. She told us that the theme of our class would be “exploration,” in honor of Christopher Columbus. That was a weird moment for me, in the middle of a room where I seemed to be one of few… actually, I might have been the only “non-white” person.

I thought about leaving right then and there. I figured that I’d already been offended, was pretty sure that I would have a tough time concentrating on yoga, and the heated room was not going to help me cool down.

For years, I was self-taught in yoga. I was serious but avoided classes because I thought it might have too many awkward moments. I may be only quasi-Indian (half black American and raised with little or no Indian culture) but it’s still weird to be in a room full of white people chanting in Sanskrit… or having a Western yoga teacher know more than me.

I got over it, and started taking classes – for the most part, really enjoying them and improving my practice. I would have even enjoyed today’s class for the poses themselves, but not for the commentary on Christopher Columbus. The class was well beyond  awkward; it was infuriating to the point of rage. I was practicing enraged yoga, which was paradoxical but motivating. My poses were deeper than usual. I imagined each of them as a big middle finger to the teacher.

You see, Christopher Columbus, was an explorer widely credited with helping Europe find and conquer the Americas. How you feel about him has everything to do with whether you identify more with the aggressors or the people who resisted the invasion. Some look at him and give thanks for the victory and other’s… well, not so much.

In the path of his conquest, many indigenous and African people were killed. A good number of us in the United States count those massacred among our ancestors or we empathize with their plight. True, we are also descended from Europeans and have a new national identity as part of the U.S. But we’re still connected to the memory of the atrocities.

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, a scholar and author of several books related to Columbus, including “1492: The Year the World Began,” said in the Associated Press recently, “Every hero is somebody else’s villain.” Part of me knows that my life is the legacy of Columbus. But that part is overwhelmed by sadness over the bloodshed caused by his “discovery” of the new world.

Even if my yoga teacher meant no harm–and it was just a coincidence that she happened to look right at me when she referred to Columbus being “open” to the “natives” — it still felt painful and humiliating to be in that situation. I was not getting any kind of bliss.

I imagined myself marching out in disgust, maybe slamming the door on my way out. But this was a yoga class. That would look extra crazy, as would cursing, spitting or any of the other things I felt like doing. Maybe this was just some sort of cosmic test for my ability to concentrate and continue with my practice.

After all, she wouldn’t bring up Christopher Columbus again would she? Yup, she did. Again and again. Among the most difficult moments, she said:

- to squat and reach our hands in an offering, like the native people to Columbus
- explore our poses like we were exploring the new land
- lift our knee up high like we were posing at Plymouth Rock
- do three versions of camel and the boat pose in honor of the Nina, the Pinta and Santa Maria
- when I did the full camel pose, “Good for you. Really pushing and honoring Christopher Columbus. People don’t celebrate him much these days. I wonder why…” (I eff you not)

Anyway, you get the picture. It went on and on… for the entire class. I would have been annoyed at seeing any analogy pimped this gratuitously but Columbus? The Indian killer, apologist for slavery, and ruthless opportunist? Really? In a yoga class? At the same studio with this quote in the women’s bathroom: “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. – Jimi Hendrix”? Yoga class isn’t supposed to make one leave in serious need of a stiff drink.

Have you ever had an experience where you witnessed a real professional and then suddenly understood what people in that field are really supposed to be capable of? I had an experience similar to that last Friday night when I saw Buckshot at the A3C hip hop festival in East Atlanta.

Buckshot is seasoned, he’s real and he is master of ceremonies… an actual MC. He controlled the crowd, the stage, freestyled on full blast, and had a powerful rapport with the DJ, legendary Evil Dee. He was absolutely hypnotic and ferocious. I don’t know if I have ever seen anyone do it quite as well. It was like, bam, that’s it, an MC – not just a rapper – but an MC. Phenomenal. I think he might be the new gold standard for what I think of as skills on the microphone. Respect well earned.