Yoga in the Black Community: Healing Practices and Principles

Charlene Marie Muhammad, MS, CNS, LD, E-RYT500, C -IAYT serves in a variety of leadership capacities within the yoga world: Chair of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force at the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT), Secretary on the Board of Directors at the Black Yoga Teachers Alliance and member of the yoga advisory council for the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation. She is a wellness practitioner, and has been practicing yoga for over 30 years. She served as the lead trainer for the 200-hour yoga teacher training lead for Love Yoga, a Black-owned studio in Hyattsville, Maryland, and facilitates YTT 200- and 300-hour core requirements workshops for yoga teacher training schools around the United States. She is also a licensed dietitian and certified yoga therapist. Since 2006 Charlene has been teaching weekly yoga classes for communities of color, and she serves as a mentor teacher for the Yoga for Arthritis teacher certification. She has presented workshops and lectures at local, regional, national, and international venues, including at the 2021 Global Yoga Therapy Day Conference. She lives in Columbia, MD.
Marilyn Peppers-Citizen, PhD, MS, MBA, C-IAYT is president-elect of the Black Yoga Teachers Alliance board of directors and is a board member of Integrative Rest Institute (iRest) and Aromatic Research Quality Appraisal Taskforce, a grassroots effort to appraise and create meaningful standards for nonpharmacologic aromatic research. She is a certified yoga therapist, national board-certified health and wellness coach, and faculty for the Maryland University of Integrative Health Master of Science in Yoga Therapy program. She has presented at national seminars and conferences and has more than 35 years of military and business leadership experience in various senior-level capacities. Marilyn is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel experienced in strategic planning, international and interagency collaboration, logistics planning and integration, and program management. She studied holistic health and wellness and embraced the practice of yoga 26 years ago, studying multiple traditions. She has taught accessible fitness, yoga, and meditation to various communities and to veterans and their families and caregivers through the Art of Movement and the Military in the Arts initiative at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, VA. She approaches achieving health and wellness through yoga and lifestyle and is also a Brain Longevity(R) specialist and ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation yoga advisory council. She lives in Southbridge, VA.