Hidden within the hills of the plush island of Grenada, proper in the neighborhood of St. George’s, sits Spice Concord Yoga, a Black-owned yoga studio that seems like an escape from the world. Based by Dr. Kecia Brooks-Smith-Lowe, her husband Ferron C. Lowe Esq., and their daughter, Malaika Brooks-Smith-Lowe, Spice Concord Yoga is located on the third flooring of the Brooks-Lowe-Smith household house. With a fruit and vegetable backyard within the yard and Dr. Brooks-Smith-Lowe’s medical follow proper on the second flooring internet hosting sufferers, on this house, goal, ardour, and repair all intersect.
Guests will discover Spice Concord to be a comfy purple-walled house full with yoga mats, bands, and cushions. It has all of the necessities of a typical studio with an unpretentious really feel, and stands aside from another house on the island as the one non-hotel-based yoga studio in Grenada.
“All of us are very community-minded, and it’s a really tangible manner for us to come back collectively and be in good vibes, to be in a non-judgmental house,” says Malaika Brooks-Smith-Lowe, co-founder, in an interview with theGrio. “Yoga simply turns into sort of the excuse to do this. After which we see that as one thing that really raises our vibrations collectively.”
Spice Concord’s story really started in Montclair, New Jersey, within the Nineteen Nineties when Dr. Brooks-Smith-Lowe, was doing her medical residency—a worrying and demanding part of changing into a health care provider. Her husband, Ferron, a local of Grenada, would go on walks regionally and found yoga as a option to de-stress, then introduced his household in, which included Malaika. Quickly, all the household was getting educated and licensed, and in 2011, all three members of the Brooks-Smith-Lowe household formally launched Spice Concord Yoga on the gorgeous island.
Malaika says that whereas individuals typically see yoga as a passion or health development, Spice Concord serves a deeper goal in the neighborhood by shifting mindsets of risk.
“Folks typically really feel that yoga isn’t for them,” she explains. “For no matter cause: They’re too previous. They’re not versatile. They’re a person. They’ve a medical difficulty. And yoga remedy has taught me that you may meet somebody anyplace.”
The studio affords personal courses, with customized experiences for {couples} on honeymoons or holidays, in addition to courses for teenagers, seniors, pregnant mothers-to-be, and extra.
Spice Concord’s “The Nice Yoga Wall” can also be a particular function that leaves guests suspended within the air, with ropes hooked up to wall hooks that make them really feel weightless. It helps with flexibility and joint points.
Malaika, who can also be a educated doula and mom to a six-year-old boy, notes that lots of her shoppers use yoga for medical and therapeutic causes as nicely.
“A few of my mother and father, my sufferers have had strokes, paralysis, all types of issues. And there [are] so many facets of this follow which are past the bodily. Breathwork, mindfulness that we nonetheless want, particularly when our physique isn’t, you understand, what it was once or has gone by one thing traumatic. So for me, having the ability to have this house and supply one thing that’s so prime quality right here that our individuals deserve.”
To help that effort, she’s working to fundraise for a brand new mission known as the Wild Seed Sanctuary—a three-and-a-half-acre social enterprise designed to create a holistic, intergenerational house for yoga, group occasions, and therapeutic.
Wild Seed will convey collectively all types of tourists and locals in Grenada with a “pay-what-you-can” mannequin, making a Black-owned co-working and yoga house that enables for natural connections to type.
The youngest Brooks-Smith-Lowe has obtained an excessive amount of help and enthusiasm for the mission and hopes to interrupt floor on it by the tip of the 12 months.
Spice Concord’s presence in Grenada sits inside a panorama of quite a few Black-owned companies, and it’s one Malaika Brooke-Smith-Lowe attracts power from.
“I believe for us, being Black-owned, being family-owned, but additionally being a world Grenadian household is so necessary. For us to be an instance of how one can, you understand, construct a enterprise collectively, a company that’s supporting individuals and nonetheless additionally, you understand, sustainable,” she tells theGrio.
“There’s lots of people shifting into Grenada. And that’s nice, particularly as a result of there’s extra—it’s not simply white of us who’re shifting down right here and calling themselves expats. We even have extra youthful Black and brown people who find themselves attempting to get out of the US and UK… I believe it’s nonetheless necessary that now we have companies which are additionally actually run by us right here in Grenada, in order that we’re benefiting from that too.”
To be taught extra about Spice Concord Yoga or to schedule a category when you’re in Grenada, try www.spiceharmonyyoga.com.
