Live Art Event on April 11th, 2015
Garden Deva Sculpture Company
317 S Trenton Ave, Tulsa, OK
Brought to you by: I AM Yoga, Art + Music Festival
Yoga & The City : Outdoor Yoga in Tulsa
Summer has arrived in Tulsa and with it comes many opportunities to practice yoga outside. There are lots of reasons I am grateful to leave Winter behind. Farmers Markets, green grass, bare feet, cocktails on patios, and outdoor yoga. There is nothing better than to feel the actual earth on my feet and to reach for the sky instead of the ceiling. I love the fun casual vibe of doing yoga outdoors-it seems more like an evening out than doing a class. Maybe that’s because most of the outdoor yoga is followed with an opportunity to drink wine. Bonus!!!!
Yoga in the Park has started up again for the fourth year and I highly recommend you give it a try. This is a donation based class offered every Tuesday at 6:00 PM near Elwoods at 19th & Riverside. It is presented by the awesome I AM folks (including me ) and 100% of the donations go to the 2015 I AM Yoga, Art + Music Festival. For more info on the festival visit IamYogaFestival.com. This class is all levels and all ages and is taught by a different local instructor each week. Our motto is “Yoga for All of Us” so that means you too! Elwoods has a great green space next to it where we do yoga and a playground nearby for the kiddos. After class many people stick around to hear live music, roam the Tuesday night Farmers market, have a picnic & wine (my favorite), or stay for the Movie on the Lawn that Elwoods shows every Tuesday night at dusk. Find us on Facebook at Yoga in the Park — Donation Based Yoga to keep up with who is teaching and to see the great pictures we post each week. Don’t forget your water and a mat, blanket, towel…. or screw it, just do yoga on the grass! Hope to see you there soon!!!
Another great outdoor yoga spot is the Rooftop on Cherry Street. This is a fabulous venue on the roof above Ascent and is presented by The Yoga Room. Every Thursday at 7:00 PM enjoy some Vino with your Vinyasa as Nicole Peltier teaches an all levels, upbeat class, often accompanied by live music. Wine tastings are offered but feel free to bring your own. Afterwards, grab a late dinner on Cherry Street or enjoy some drinks at The Pint just downstairs. Every Saturday morning during the Cherry Street Farmers Market, a Rooftop class is offered at 9:00 AM. The time will change to 8:00 AM starting in June. I really enjoy this early morning class- practicing to the smell of pinon wood in the outdoor fireplace, and the sounds of the birds chirping and the lively Farmer’s Market below. Both of these are donation based classes with a suggested donation between $10- $20 to cover the beautiful space and live music. Cash only- Bring a mat. For more information visit http://theyogaroomtulsa.com/
I will have a tough choice on Thursday nights this summer because there is another outdoor class on The Mayo Rooftop downtown. This class is presented by Salt Yoga and is taught by Ayngel McNall. This choice offers gorgeous views from the top of the historic Mayo Hotel and as always Ayngel delivers her playful energetic style on the mat. The Penthouse Bar is open for cocktails before and after. The best part is, following the class, you can stay for live music by Ayngel & John. If you haven’t heard them play, you are in for a treat! Bring a mat and $10…and your dancing shoes if you stay after! https://www.facebook.com/events/1597668080472072/On Wednesday nights at 5:30 Lululemon Athletica offers complimentary yoga at Guthrie Green. The classes are taught by a different local instructor each week. https://www.facebook.com/events/844326172324348/For the “Out Southers,” Lifetime Fitness is presenting a free outdoor yoga class in Bixby on Thursday nights at Washington Irving Park (137th & Memorial) at 6:00 PM. Bring a mat.
I hope you are enjoying Spring as much as I am and I hope you try some outdoor yoga. Check out one of these classes or just kick off your shoes and start breaking out some poses in the front yard! Get the grass and dirt between your toes and you will feel fabulous!
Namaste,
Shannon Coman
We are looking for yoga bloggers in Tulsa!
Are you a yogi and a writer? If so, consider writing for our Yoga & The City blog. It’s fun, it’s creative and it supports yoga in Tulsa.
2014 our blog in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here's an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,300 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 55 trips to carry that many people.
Support Local Artists for the Holidays: The Drunken Artist 11/15/14
Join the ART LOVERS of Tulsa as we gather together some of Tulsa’s most talented artists to paint live with music, wine, delicious food and tons of art to view during our upcoming event, The Drunken Artist. This is one of Tulsa’s most CREATIVE EVENTS, where MASTERPIECES are created right in front of our eyes and then auctioned off to the highest bidder. This is our last event of 2014 and it’s a perfect time to stock up on some holiday gifts and SUPPORT LOCAL ART.
The Drunken Artist
November 15th, 2014 7 pm – 11 pm
10 artists painting live
Delicious Local Food
Live Music with Green Corn Rebellion
Free Valet Parking
Art Auction & Gallery
Tulsa’s exclusive evening of talented local artists coming together to create a piece to be sold off at the end of the evening in our popular event, The Drunken Artist. Check out the artists bios and photos on our website and view the schedule of events.
Event Location
Garden Deva Sculpture
317 South Trenton
Garden Deva Sculpture
317 South Trenton
Tulsa, OK 74120
(918) 381-0828
BUY ART. SUPPORT CREATIVITY.
The Drunken Artists will be displaying an art gallery of pieces that they have recently created. These pieces will be available to purchase during the event and take home as a gift or to display in your home/office. These artists work hard year round to express their gifts and talents and we are grateful to have this venue to share it with you.
The art sales can be purchased with cash or credit card. All art sales are final.
Food Provided By:
Drunken Artist Tix
-$30/regular
-$45/VIP
-$315/VIP table
- Regular tickets: entrance at 8 pm, delicious local food, valet parking, live music and live art
- VIP tickets: entrance at 7 pm, delicious local food, valet parking, live music and live art, PLUS a seat at a VIP table
- VIP Table: 8 VIP tickets and a private table
Tickets available at the door based on availability. Add $15 to early-bird price.
About Us
The Drunken Artist is a bi-annual event to support local art and the I AM yoga festival, an annual yoga festival held in Tulsa, OK. We have been hosting this event since 2012 and enjoy supporting and celebrating creativity.
Yoga & The City: Meghan Donnelly
Written by Andrew Stuart
I went by Inner Peace Yoga again to take a class from Meghan Donnelly, the owner. I had taken one of Meghan’s community 
yoga classes at Guthrie Green awhile back, but never in her studio. I always feel like the community classes have a different feel than if you’re taking a class from an instructor at a studio. I was curious to see what the feeling of her traditional studio class was.
When I’ve taken a class at Inner Peace, I’ve always liked the feeling I get from the windowed studio overlooking the wooded lawn and bed of a small brook next door. There wasn’t any water flowing in the brook that day (thank you very much Oklahoma summer)…but I could imagine one there pretty easily, which helped to put me into the calm and peaceful mindset I like to start my yoga practice with.
At the start of class, Meghan directed us ever further into a state of yoga-zen with some initial stretching and calming words to control our breathing. The class was not over-crowded, with a good mix of ages among the yogis. The rest of the class went just as smoothly as the beginning…and by the time shavasana came around, I was ready for my nap. I think I nearly fell asleep again…which is always a good sign that my mind and body are in balance…definitely the sign of a good yoga class.
Afterwards, I talked with Meghan about her studio and some of the classes and workshops she has coming up. Coming up next month is an extensive workshop lasting for more than a month called 40 Days to Personal Revolution based on Baron Baptiste’s book of the same name. One of the main goals of the workshop is to encourage a commitment of practicing yoga and meditation 6 days a week for the full 40 days. Included in the workshop are unlimited yoga classes at Inner Peace for the duration of the 40 days. The workshop is being led by Vanessa Sanders and begins on September 7th, so if you’re interested in making the commitment to taking your yoga practice to the next level, sign up soon!
One workshop that I just missed this month (but will be back next month) is the Living Your Yoga monthly workshop, which is held on the second Sunday of each month. This workshop is a supportive group taught by Rick and Mary NurrieStearns to enrich personal and spiritual lives through yoga practices. Spirituality and yoga, to me, have always seemed to go hand-in-hand. I’ve never been big on organized religion, but every time I do yoga, I’ve always felt more connected with some greater power of the universe, in whatever form you want to call it. There is also guided meditation included in this workshop. When combining yoga with meditation, I find it possible to reach a level of personal spirituality unlike any other. It’s great to see studios and instructors continuing to push the boundaries of what yoga can do for not only your body, but your mind as well.
One of the big workshops coming up is the Sradaiva Weekend Workshop on October 17th, taught by Desi Springer and John Friend. Sradaiva is a posture-based yoga workshop where students are encouraged to take accountability for their own health and happiness through the choices they make in their posture. This is a full weekend-long event with scheduled classes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. You can attend some or all of the classes depending on which package you want to indulge in. What’s really beautiful about this workshop is that it’s being held jointly with another yoga studio, the Yoga Room. The workshop is actually being held at the Yoga Room on Brookside, and not at Inner Peace. I love seeing the unification of the yoga studios, especially when it comes to bringing amazing yoga workshops to the Tulsa area.
I wanted to thank Meghan again for a wonderful yoga class and for continuing to work to bring amazing yoga classes and workshops to the Tulsa area.
Find out more about Inner Peace Yoga
7718 E. 91st St Suite 160
Tulsa, OK 74133
(918) 999-7664
Website
Yoga & The City: Amy Miller
Written by: Andrew Stuart
This week for yoga I decided to head back to the Zen Body studio… specifically because I wanted to take a class with Amy 
Miller, the owner of the studio. I had watched Amy teach at I AM’s Yoga in the Park series, but I had yet to actually participate in one of her classes. I was having a rough day…sore from work, tired from kids waking up in the middle of the night, and dealing with a steady downpour of rain all morning. Any other day I probably would have enjoyed listening to the rain and watching it splish-splash in the puddles outside my window…but the fact that I had to run around in it to take care of some errands with my kids in tow, was not fairing well with me. I needed some relaxing and restorative yoga.
As always, when I arrived at the studio for her class, I was cheerfully greeted by the hostess Jessica (one of the other wonderful yoga instructors at the studio)…coupled with the calming feeling that I get from walking into the zen-like studio, I was already feeling much better and looking forward to Amy’s class. Amy always appears calm and collected, and her voice can be very soothing…ideal if you’re wanting a yoga class that’s relaxing, which is exactly what I was needing at that moment.
Amy is not only a certified yoga instructor, but also a certified wellness coach, and you can tell that pretty quickly if you take one of her classes. During class, in-between giving the directions for the next pose, Amy would provide little tidbits of information for breathing, posture, nutrition, or just general wellness. And even if some of the information was something you had heard before, I believe it’s always useful to hear those things repeated for mental reinforcement.
Amy was teaching one of her Gentle Yoga classes that day…which is a great stretching and relaxing class that’s suitable for all levels of yoga experience. Zen Body also offers both hot and unheated classes, which can be a plus for many who have a preference for one or the other. The variety of classes available at Zen is definitely one of it’s greatest advantages to any yogi.
Amy spoke with me after class and told me about some of the exciting classes and workshops they have coming up…and all of them sounded pretty cool. The first thing they have planned is the Glow Zumba workshop coming up soon on July 26th. It’s a Zumba fitness class with a bit of glow party added in to make it not only a healthy workout, but a fun time as well. So grab the brightest neon clothes from your closet (or go buy some if you don’t have any) and head on over for a great time.
In August, Zen is introducing an aerial yoga class. Aerial yoga has intrigued me since I first heard about it last year. I haven’t heard of any studios in the Tulsa area offering classes in aerial yoga, but with the increasing popularity of the acro yoga classes around Tulsa, I can’t wait to see aerial yoga in action.
Lastly, Amy was telling me about her upcoming “21 Days to Well” workshop program in September. This is a workshop Zen has offered before, and they continue to add to it to make it more beneficial to those attending. As Amy told me more about this workshop, I was surprised with everything they were including in the workshop. You’re receiving one-on-one coaching and personal assistance over the three week-long workshop. It looks like a great program!
If you’re looking for more information about the studio or it’s many classes and workshops, I would suggest checking out the website (www.zenbodytulsa.com) or going by the studio and talking with them personally.
Find out more about Zen Body:
6024 S. Yale
Tulsa, OK 74135
info@zenbodytulsa.com
Tel: 918-388-8799
Yoga & The City: Rooftop Yoga on Cherry Street
Written by: Shannon Coman
What better way to start your Saturday morning than waking up and heading to the Cherry Street Farmer’s Market? Before shopping the market, catching the Rooftop Yoga class that happens every Saturday from 8 AM to 9 AM on the roof above Ascent. It’s the icing on the cake– or the cashew cream drizzle on the raw date cupcake.
Last Saturday morning I woke up without a hangover (shocker), and decided to sneak out of the house before the family started stirring. I have been wanting to go the Rooftop Yoga class at the market all season but it just hasn’t worked out. The fact that the class starts at 8:00 AM is really great for the early risers and for the summer weather that is surely coming. I’m starting to think we live in California.
This is a donation based, all levels class presented by The Yoga Room and is normally taught by Narayani- Melissa Swenning but will be taught by Adrianne Rose through the month of July. I think both instructors are really great and I’m sure you will too.
As I was setting up, I noticed the beautiful breeze blowing through the roof and enjoyed listening to the sounds of the Market below us. About halfway through the class the sun started shining on me but it honestly wasn’t too hot. It just felt warm and nourishing- the way summer is supposed to feel. During savasana, I could feel the breeze on my face and hear the birds flying and chirping above me. It was so peaceful and really took me to a happy place.
We had a very special treat last Saturday that I did not know about until I showed up. Arly from Brujo Roots was there with all his amazing instruments to accompany our yoga class. Arly plays at the I AM Yoga, Art + Music Festival as well as other yoga events we have planned in the past, so it was a nice surprise to see him. He played the didgeridoo, the bamboo flute, the Tibetan singing bowl, his gong, and his darbuka and djembe drums. I love live music to yoga and I especially love this type of music so it was like double icing on the cake!
You have to catch Rooftop Yoga while it is in season, so the next Saturday that you wake up early without a hangover (or with one, if you are into punishing yourself and detoxing), head to the Cherry Street Farmer’s Market. There will be an open door next to Ascent that leads to the roof. I enjoy browsing the market after yoga and buying organic veggies for the week. My favorite thing is to get a popsicle from Jared’s Propops after getting sweaty at yoga. I wish I could have one of his natural pineapple popsicles after all my yoga classes. They are the bomb!
For more info about Rooftop Yoga check The Yoga Room website and schedule. http://theyogaroomtulsa.com/
For more info about Jared’s Propops (healthy popsicles, for real) find him on Facebook. P.S. If you Like his page and write a comment he will give you a free popsicle! So cool! 
https://www.facebook.com/JaredsProPops?ref=stream&hc_location=timeline
Yoga & The City: Nicole Peltier
Written by: Melissa Cameron
Walking into The Yoga Room is always a treat for me. As the oldest operating yoga studio, I have so much respect for the 
pioneering mentality it took to open The Yoga Room in 2001. Owner Nicole Peltier, is a Tulsa icon in the yoga community. Something I value immensely is experience and hands-on knowledge and Nicole is a very experienced yoga instructor. As an owner and instructor, she dedicates herself to providing yoga to the Tulsa community and that is honorable for so many reasons.
Last Friday, I decided to attend “Rock and Roll Yoga” with Nicole at The Yoga Room . I have been before but it’s been a few years and I was grateful to have the opportunity to check it out again. I love this class for several reasons but probably the biggest reason I love it is because it is a fun, playful yoga class and that is a perfect way to spend my Friday evening.
With the upbeat music at Rock & Roll Yoga I felt like I was at a party but at the same time enjoying a healthy and strenuous yoga class. I loved that Nicole’s class challenged my physical yoga practice while also giving me a mental break to relax in yoga and have a good time. This was a 60-minute class that was the perfect blend of intense and fun! So if you’re looking for a fun power yoga class, this is a great class to take.
Nicole also teaches other classes at The Yoga Room and you can check out the schedule on their website.
The Yoga Room
3403 S Peoria Ave #300
Tulsa, OK
918.808.9642
Yoga & The City: Stephen Saunders
W
ritten by: Andrew Stuart
I’ve taken a good selection of yoga classes over the past years…some that have made me sore, some that have made me sweat, some that have made me strong, and even some that have made me fall asleep. Every time I do yoga, I experience something that changes my thoughts about my body and my yoga practice. I was unsure what my class this week would be like, and I was thoroughly pleased with the class I chose, as I was able to experience something new that amazed me once again.
Recently, I have been hearing the name Stephen Saunders passed around my group of yoga friends. Not that I am extremely knowledgeable about the Tulsa yoga community, but I at least know many of the instructors who have been teaching for a while. However, for whatever reason, I didn’t recall hearing about this yoga instructor until very recently…and now it seemed like the universe was trying to tell me something, because his name was coming up too many times to ignore. When it came time to choose a yoga studio and instructor to visit this week, it seemed like the universe had already made the choice for me.
Stephen teaches yoga at Tulsa Yoga Therapy, and his class definitely lived up to the name of the studio. The specific class I took was called Mindful and Deep…and I don’t think I’ve ever taken a class where I’ve been able to be so mindful in my yoga practice. Tulsa Yoga Therapy is centrally located in the mid-town Tulsa area near 33rd and Harvard…and so it was an easy drive for me to get the studio. When I showed up, I introduced myself to Stephen and informed him that I had never been to one of his classes before. Once again, I chose to not tell him that I was there to do the blog, hoping to not influence the teaching of his class.
As soon as Stephen started the class, I was quickly aware of his mindfulness not only for his personal yoga practice, but also in aiding his students. He was quick to provide a helpful word of instruction or a guided hand whenever he saw that I wasn’t quite following his directions properly. This not only provided a comfortable atmosphere for practicing yoga, but also allowed me to focus on each pose and be more mindful (as the class states) with my practice.
The class itself was very slow paced…but with good reason. A good amount of time was spent working on and building up each particular pose, to not only be mindful in those poses, but also to allow you to focus and be prepared for the deeper poses that followed. I spoke with Stephen after the class and he explained to me that he prefers the slower pace. He said that some of his students are an older generation of yogis and need the slower pace. With most of the quicker-paced, athletic/power yoga classes, before you even have time to think about the pose you’re trying to maneuver in to, the instructor is already directing you to the next pose. Even though this class had a generally slower pace, I feel like yogis of all ages can benefit from Stephen’s instructions. He called his yoga practice, Yoga Therapy…and the class definitely lived up to the name.
I thoroughly enjoyed Stephen’s class for helping me to get deeper into my yoga poses (I’m definitely feeling the sore muscles today)…I hope to continue to be as mindful with each class I take from here out. Stephen has plenty of other classes to choose from throughout the week, and so now I need to look at my busy schedule to try and figure out how I can get more Tulsa Yoga Therapy into my life. Thank you, Stephen, for a wonderful session of yoga therapy.
Tulsa Yoga Therapy
3315 E 33rd Street
Tulsa, OK 74135
I AM Yoga, Art + Music Festival 