Kalamazoo Backyard Yogis exists to build community, support well-being, and make the practices of yoga more accessible to people who have often been left out of Western yoga spaces.

We believe yoga asks something of us beyond what happens on the mat. It asks us to pay attention to how we move through the world, how we care for one another, and what we do with the resources we have. Our work at KBY is rooted in community care, accessibility, equity, respect for yoga's roots and lineage, and the belief that everyone deserves access to practices that support their well-being.
You are good.

honoring the roots of yoga.

Yoga did not begin in Western studios. We understand yoga as a living tradition with deep South Asian roots and a history much larger than the physical practice most commonly associated with yoga in the West.

We work to appreciate rather than appropriate. We name teachers and teachings when we know their source, continue learning about the history and philosophy of the practice, and examine how we teach and share practices that are not culturally ours. Whenever possible, we seek to learn from, compensate, recommend, resource, and amplify South Asian teachers and scholars.

We know this work is ongoing. We expect to keep learning, listening, and correcting course.

affinity + belonging.

Sometimes belonging means having a space specifically created for you. We offer affinity and identity-centered classes because Western yoga spaces have not been equally welcoming or accessible to everyone. Some of our offerings intentionally center Black and Brown students, LGBTQIA+ students, people in larger bodies, and people exploring a different relationship with their bodies. We believe these spaces are part of inclusion, not an exception to it.

In every KBY class, community is something we create together. Our instructors commit to respecting names, pronouns, boundaries, lived experiences, and each student’s authority over their own body. And we ask students to help make room for one another, too.

access.

We want money to be as small a barrier to practice as we can reasonably make it. KBY is completely sustained by the people who practice here, allowing us to offer sliding-scale pricing, reduced-cost plans, donation-based offerings, and individual solutions when the options on our website still don’t work for someone’s budget. We would rather have a conversation than have someone assume they cannot afford to be here.

Access is more than affordability. People arrive with different bodies, abilities, sensory needs, identities, histories, and relationships with movement. Our physical space has limitations, and we are transparent about them. Within those limitations, our instructors commit to offering choice, respecting consent and autonomy, and helping students participate in ways that work for their bodies.

community care.

Community care is something we practice. Our community pantry and refreshments are free. We fundraise, share resources, partner with local organizations, and respond when members of our community need tangible support. Our community has supported neighbors through medical recoveries and unexpected loss, sponsored families during the holidays, helped meet transportation needs, raised money for local organizations and individuals, and brought yoga beyond our studio through community partnerships.

Sometimes care is a large fundraiser. Sometimes it is a snack, a more affordable class plan, sharing someone’s fundraiser, or noticing that somebody needs help. We believe resources are meant to move through a community.

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accountability + practice.

We don’t expect ourselves, our instructors, or our community to get everything right. We do expect ourselves to listen, remain teachable, take responsibility, and respond when something isn’t working.

Our instructors commit to teaching with awareness and care, protecting students’ autonomy and privacy, remaining within their scope, welcoming feedback, and continuing to learn. Our role as a studio is to hold ourselves to those same expectations.

Our values aren’t a declaration that we’ve figured out how to create the perfect yoga space. They’re a commitment to keep practicing. We show up, we learn, we repair, and we keep practicing.

the work that shapes ours

These values were not developed in isolation. Our understanding of cultural responsibility in yoga, appreciation rather than appropriation, affinity spaces, community care, and the relationship between personal practice and collective liberation has been deeply shaped by the work of Susanna Barkataki and Michelle Cassandra Johnson.

Their work continues to challenge us to ask better questions about who has access to yoga, whose knowledge is centered, whose voices we learn from, and what our practice asks of us beyond ourselves.

We encourage our students and instructors to learn directly from the teachers whose work has helped shape ours.

learn from Susanna Barkataki →
learn from Michelle Cassandra Johnson →

how to find us

kby studio!

enter!

We are located in the South building at Jerico. Park on the south side of the building and enter through the front entrance of Jerico, and we are the 2nd door on the left in Suite 2!

how we started

Backyard is the name… because this started as friends and neighbors doing yoga in my backyard in the summer of 2021. I managed an Instagram account that had a small following. Including my best friends…and my mom. On Sundays, I posted a schedule of classes and for the first few weeks, we did yoga in my backyard to raise money for the First Day Shoe Fund. And then we started popping up at local parks and on the beaches of South Haven. And in fancy barns, and historic buildings, breweries, coffee shops, wineries, farmsteads… if we can put a mat down, we will be there to help bring some awareness and additional income to your business—all while giving back to the greater Kalamazoo area…and our dream is to move into other communities like ours within Michigan.

So, while it was “Backyard” in the literal sense and has since expanded beyond that…the word “Backyard” has grown into an adjective or maybe just a feeling. My backyard is a place of familiarity, safety, and a place to show up authentically. And as the pandemic unfolded and the extrovert in me found some relief in the simplicity of just being outside of my home (to the best of it’s ability)…the backyard became the place where I began to challenge myself. I was upset with the state of…humanity and the injustice and the devastation. I recognized my privilege and decided to use the skills I had to try and bring some good. Because, at that point, I had only a vote and a social media account and very little money as my only mediums for engaging in real change. So, I improvised. Now we’re here. Backyard isn’t literal anymore. But it sure as hell is a vibe.

We are here to have some fun, move our bodies & breathe. Participants find inclusive community & help make our community an even better place to call home. Yes, there really is a Kalamazoo and we love it here.