Event Description
The Leonard Pearlstein Gallery is proud to partner with Drexel's Africana Studies Department to present a special one day event centered on wellness through Yoga, reflection and healing.
Join us for a 90 minute program blending yoga, writing and conversation lead by Jean-Jacques Gabriel and Sheena Sood.
This event is free and open to the public.
Please bring your own yoga mat.
Biographies
Jean-Jacques:
Jean-Jacques is a Haitian-born artist, father, and teacher living in Philadelphia. He started painting in his father’s studio, before he could walk, and later studied at the University of the Arts, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He found yoga while at art school in 2001, and has delighted in consistent practice and study since. In both art making and asana, he honors the power and potential of rituals and inspired creativity. Jean-Jacques studied Ashtangta in Southern India, receiving his first yoga teacher certification in 2007, and became a certified AcroYoga teacher in 2008. He completed an Anusara teacher training in 2011, and completed YogaHour Teacher Training with Darren Rhodes in 2013.
He is a Level 2 Certified AcroYoga instructor, and teaches immersions, workshops and classes that foster play, power, pliability and presence. He has also enjoyed teaching compassionate communication workshops to young people, teens, and adults, in prisons, public schools, summer camps, yoga studios, and workplaces. Jean-Jacques paints portraits, in oil and gouache, that aim to capture bits of beauty both inner and outer. He loves the opportunities to steep in story that live portraiture provides.
Sheena:
Sheena Sood carries much love, passion and commitment for the preservation of ancestral knowledge, holistic health, and social justice. On multiple occasions, she has journeyed to her homeland to learn about yoga and spirituality under her Guru-ji Yogi Sivadas at Kailash Tribal School. While Sheena is currently pursuing a Doctoral degree in Sociology at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, she is working to manifest Sunshine Shanti Healing—a community center that offers holistic healing methods such as Yoga, Ayurvedic therapy, Reiki, and Sound therapy at affordable rates to her local community. She is currently organizing Decolonizing Yoga as an Ancestral, Artistic and Life-Affirming Practice, a Philly-based workshop that seeks to preserve the artistic elements of yoga by connecting young women of color to their ancestral and mythological histories. |
