Black-led Community Spotlight: Felicia Savage Friedman of YogaRoots On Location

Originally published in Pittsburgh City Paper by Dani Janae

For many, the word “yoga” conjures images of watercolor sunsets and people sitting with their legs crossed, hands extended with palms up toward the sky. Yoga itself started as an ancient Indian cultural and religious practice, and as it became popular in the Western world, teachers began to alter and add on to traditional principles. For Felicia Savage Friedman of YogaRoots On Location, the practice still holds some of its spiritual roots, but she also adds social justice elements to it. For Friedman, yoga is an embodied practice that has roots in the self and in the greater community a person resides in. This is why she has combined the traditions of Raja yoga with anti-racism and anti-oppression frameworks.

Friedman came to yoga as a practice 32 years ago. She was a member of the East End Food Co-op, followed a vegan lifestyle, and prided herself on being healthy. She met her first yoga teacher at the co-op and studied under her for six years. She says her main focus was taking care of her body, and her family. She has two children (Maya and Cleveland) who were young when she started her yoga and meditation practice. Friedman didn’t start to teach until after those six years of study.

“I didn't get into yoga planning to be a teacher at all. I would look at and compare myself to my colleagues who were also studying,” says Friedman. “We were studying at the same time. I wasn’t as flexible as them. It took me longer to understand and conceptualize the concepts.”

YogaRoots On Location, a roaming yoga practice serving the Pittsburgh area, started 11 years ago after Friedman had originally been teaching yoga for the Healthy Black Family Project out of the Kingsley Center in Larimer….

Read more at Pittsburgh City Paper.