A bodaciously Black and unapologetically queer conscious being, Eternity Philops works to educate and serve BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and QTPOC (Queer and Trans People of Color) communities in yoga wellness. Certified in both Hatha and Kemetic yoga, Eternity began teaching professionally in 2017, and has taught hundreds of students through community classes, university courses, private sessions, and wellness retreats. Addressing the limited options for Afrocentric forms of yoga, Eternity created Kamili Yoga™, a modern Pan-African system for Black holistic wellness. Kamili Yoga™ is Eternity’s answer to the need for more yoga systems that are culturally diverse, de-center Whiteness, and recognize the beautiful depths of Black and African being.
Oboma Alfred Olaa is a native of South Sudan, living in Kenya's Kakuma Refugee Camp since 2016. He was introduced to yoga in 2019 through a friend who did teacher training with the African Yoga Project in Nairobi. He began attending yoga class and a year later attended the same Africa Yoga Project teacher training program. He completed his O level in 2010 from Uganda's Kiradongo Refugee Camp, where he also lived for several years.
Sowmya Ayyar is the Founder-Director of Prafull Oorja Charitable Foundation, a Bangalore-based non-governmental organization (NGO), which trains yoga therapists to implement sustainable programs with communities in vulnerable conditions. Prafull Oorja has impacted hundreds of yoga teachers, special educators, and thousands of beneficiaries. Sowmya is also a musician (vocals, violins, keyboards) and performs Carnatic and global music, bhajans, and mantra chanting to bring peace and joy to those she serves.
Miranda McCarthy is a disabled yogi. She recently won an award from the British Prime Minister for bringing @adaptiveyogalive to the disabled community during COVID-19 and making yoga more accessible--especially for those who have injury, physical restrictions, or disabilities. Through the last 40 years of operations, rehabilitation and medication her focus was only on managing my disease. At the age of 42, after discovering adaptive yoga, she realized her ‘relationship’ with her body had only just begun. Yoga, for her, was about crafting a new healing, accepting, and loving narrative around her own body image. She no longer judged myself or compared herself to non-disabled people. Yoga showed her a way of re-inhabiting her body, with harmony and ease, no matter how painful. Learning to live with the body rather than fighting against it is truly the path to a richer, more satisfying quality of life. She hopes to help empower the disabled community through the practice of yoga!