If you’ve walked around Capitol Hill lately, you’ve likely seen the above
Published 7:00 am Wednesday, June 17, 2009
If you’ve walked around Capitol Hill lately, you’ve likely seen the above scrawled on a stretch of sidewalk. The explanation: Equalityoga will be Seattle’s “largest ever outdoor yoga class” (probably larger than any indoor class as well), a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, the event often cited as the birth of the modern gay rights movement. The brainchild of a woman named Genessa Krasnow, who was formerly the creative director with the Dalai Lama’s Seeds of Compassion, and co-organized by Kyler Powell, the guy behind Seattle’s anti-Prop 8 rallies, the event is intended to create “unity and community,” says Krasnow. Why yoga? “There’s this energy takes place during yoga class, a really focused energy,” says Krasnow. “When you walk out, you still feel it, this resonant energy that just flows through you. We want to have that many people come together, using that energy to focus on equality, what equality really means, focusing on equal rights for everybody. It’s an opportunity to reach all these people through the yoga movement…a way to use our bodies, use this energy, to reach straight people and use yoga to introduce them to something they might not otherwise be thinking about…and keep gay people out of the bars. Often with [LGBT] events, it all goes on in the bars.”The organizers are asking participants to pay $15 for the class–the money will go to Equal Rights Washington and Lambda Legal. It’s part of a full summer of Stonewall anniversary events, including “Equalitini” drink specials at restaurants around town, Equal Voices (spoken word artists on soapboxes around town), and a September “Equality Bowl” at the Garage.Equalityoga, June 27, 10 AM, $15 suggested donation, Cal Anderson Park (11th and Pine).
