BENDING TOWARDS JUSTICE

Expanding Skills in Yoga communities

Lezlie Frye

Lezlie Frye is a yoga teacher, political educator, poet and performance artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She is committed to slowing down, making room, and holding space for the diverse community of practitioners at Third Root. Lezlie was trained in the lineage of Swami Kripalu, whose heart-felt practice inspired the “yoga of compassion.” Kripalu yoga emphasizes the wisdom of each person’s inner teacher, the cultivation of non-judgmental witness consciousness, and the impact of yoga as a tool for transformation. Lezlie’s classes integrate conscious breathing with a balance between gentle and vigorous postures, movement and stillness. They are often structured by themes based on seasonal changes, precepts from secular Buddhist studies, or a wide range of personal inquiries. Lezlie’s teaching also emphasizes the use of modifications and props to craft a safe, dynamic practice space. She seeks to offer inviting, accessible instruction to people of all bodies, capacities, and experience and commits to ongoing learning in this area. Working from an awareness of how yoga circulates unevenly in the US, often in ways that contrast starkly from its origins and current practice in India, Lezlie seeks to tread softly and humbly in practicing these sacred traditions.
 
Lezlie fell in love with yoga at Third Root Community Health Center in Brooklyn from its opening in 2008, and is honored to give back to the community of healing that sustains her. She comes to this practice from a background in organizing and social justice work, dance and other artistic endeavors, healing practices that include movement-based story-telling and western herbalism, and from an embeddedness in communities practicing interdependence and collective care. She leads workshops around the country, facilitates conversations about difference and power, and regularly teaches on a broad range of topics including gender and sexuality, race and US Empire, and disability studies. Lezlie is indebted to the legacy of so many teachers who have spoken the language of her heart and directed her attention towards healing within and without. First, gratitude to the teachers and community of Third Root, where she found her love for yoga and found her center in Brooklyn. Also, gratitude to Brian Liem, Christine Aziz, and Eric Pettigrew, who planted the seeds for her own path towards teaching. Finally, to Kate Johnson, Sharon Salzberg, Larry Yang and Maddy Kline, and Jacoby Ballard, who so honestly and consistently draw together their love for justice/compassion in the world with their practice of justice/compassion on the cushion or the mat.