Studies have shown that many mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, and stress affect Black people disproportionately compared to other ethnic groups. Due to many external and internal social stresses, such as racism, sexism, and socio-economic issues, many Black people struggle with taking the necessary steps to prioritizing selfcare.

This is why Lauren Spearman, founder of RNB Yoga, decided to take her practice to the community. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, she branched out her practice in 2017. Spearman wanted yoga classes to reflect the same environment she had at home, with the music she loved.

“I started [RNB Yoga] five years ago, when I was 23, and I just did it because that’s how I like to do it at the crib. I turn on Drake or Beyonce and then I just flow,” shared Spearman.

 

She continued with, “When I started this I had no intention of it getting so big, or even bringing it to LA. I purely just wanted to host a yoga class that I’d take myself, so I started doing studio classes, then word got around and I started doing events. It’s just evolved since then.

Lauren started exploring a relationship with yoga when she was fourteen, while in a middle school yoga club.

“Just having yoga at my school was a blessing and privilege,” she shared. “But I was feeling stressed about something, and I saw a flier for yoga, and I’d heard it relaxed you, so I signed up. I did it for mental reasons, but in my first class, during the meditation portion I remember feeling so good. I didn’t even realize what I was getting into.”

The founder went on to continue her practice of Core Yoga, and then got certified as an instructor at 21. She stated that, since then, yoga has been a vital tool in her life.

“Especially for my mental,” she said. “Yoga’s been a tool for me to stay sane, and physically it makes me feel good, too. It’s a good way to sweat and work out.”

Yoga is not something emphasized within the black community, which Lauren touched upon in her interview. Acknowledging that “yoga is something I found but felt like I wasn’t supposed to. It’s not often offered in our community, but it’s all around so good for you, so It’s super important to make sure Black communities have access to this good feeling.”

Yoga can be a practice that is very expensive, from classes to memberships clothing to the accessories. It’s been turned into a market, especially as it’s gained popularity over the years, and has been a form of physical activity that some may feel is meant for a certain type of person.

“When [Black] people see one body type always being shown in the media and in yoga classes, primarily in white communities, it leads them to think that yoga isn’t for them.

I think it’s important to show Black people, and all people of color, that yoga is meant for everybody.

 

It doesn’t have to be expensive, and it can be really fun.”

Even during her own journey of practicing yoga, Lauren found that she was often the only black person in the room.

“…or I was always the young one,” she told LAWT. “Then when I got certified to teach, I was told I couldn’t play rap, or specific types of music. That really offended me.”

“So, this world has really evolved so much,” she continued. “Yoga wasn’t diverse. This was a class I was looking for, so I made it.”

The founder also explained that yoga is supposed to be a practice centered around body positivity. Classes generated around upper-class whiteness completely disregards this.

“RNB Yoga does this [promotes body positivity] because in our classes you see all types of bodies. A lot of mainstream yoga classes don’t have that, but even if you go our website you’ll see people of all body types, all ages, all levels. It really just shows that this is a diverse yoga class that they’ll feel included in.” 

Spearman offers a lot of different classes in RNB Yoga with sessions centered around songs from the early 2000s, Drake, Beyonce, and even Kendrick Lamar.

 

 

“Every class that I teach is different because every group is different. The energy is always different,” she said enthusiastically.

Lauren’s advice to those interested in starting their own yoga journey is “to just do it.

 

I know how nerve-wracking it can be, but do it because it makes you feel good. That’s the point of it—no one else matters. Just do it for you.”

As for yogis who want to start their own business centered around their craft, her advice is “to be different. You want to set yourself apart because there’s a lot of classes.”

As 2022 continues, RNB Yoga hopes to branch out their classes to other cities.

 

She’s also looking forward to doing classes in her hometown soon.

All RNB Yoga classes are currently available in Los Angeles.

 

To sign up for classes, visit rnbyoga.net. You can also keep tabs on Lauren and future events on Instagram (@rnbyoga).

Where would the South Los Angeles be without the kindness of Mothers in Action? The celebration of maternal parents is recognized nationally as Mother’s Day.

It is a moment to reflect and show gratitude for everything they do. 

 

Mothers in Action (MIA) has done more for the collective community of Los Angeles than one can measure.

 

They are there for the unsheltered, they are there for those in need of medical services, and they continue to bring hope to those in underserved communities.

 

 

MIA has their process down to a science, they make themselves available to the community in any way they can.

 

 

 

As a very well known nonprofit organization, MIA has aided underserved children, college students, and older residents for over 25 years. Providing the help that is needed, MIA  looks to embody mothers who care.

It’s monumental to perform one good deed, but it’s life changing when it’s done consistently.

 

 

MIA has provided school supplies to impacted communities for over 20 years. Last year, they gave away roughly 1,000 backpacks that were fully stocked in school supplies.

 

 

During the holidays, The generosity of MIA supplied gifts and gift cards to more than 450 young people through its Angel Tree Christmas Project, throughout South Los Angeles.

 

When coronavirus was at its peak, MIA brought healthcare resources deep within local communities, providing vaccination and testing multiple times. They have provided protective masks and other PPE materials.

 

 

This maternally structured organization has  often monitored women's health and brought specific services like mammograms into neighborhoods that are highly impacted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Black women disproportionately get and do not survive breast cancer because it is not discovered early enough," explained MIA President Tracy Mitchell, which is why her organization held its most recent mammogram event.

 

 

As the year unfolds, MIA will offer other health-related programs.

 

 

 

They are devoted to providing and advancing health education, screening, and other tools to help people live healthier lives.

 

 

 

 

Mothers In Action was founded in 1992, “to improve the quality of life for South L.A. children and families, sponsors a range of services including mentoring programs, financial literacy training, job placement and referrals.” 

 

 

 

 

MIA is devoted to providing and advancing health education, screening, and other tools to help people live healthier lives.

 

 

MIA provide a variety of services, including mentoring programs, financial literacy training, job placement, and referrals.

 

They are looking to improve the quality of life for children and families in South Los Angeles.

 

 

Without Mothers in Action's protection, where would South L.A?

 

Mother's Day is a national holiday focused to commemorating maternal parents.

 

It's a time to reflect and express gratitude for everything she's managed to accomplish.

 

There are not enough thank you’s, not enough hugs, to give the members of MIA.

 

Each of them have dedicated a colossal amount of time and energy to make sure that everyone felt their action in love.

Plug In South LA is a creative and tech-driven think tank community for founders and entrepreneurs in South Los Angeles and beyond. Founded by Los Angeles native Derek Smith, this company is disrupting the tech industry by unleashing the untapped and underrepresented talent pool within Black and Latinx communities.

Taking startups and professional careers to soaring heights through next-level networking, Plug In South LA empowers founders and entrepreneurs to nurture relationships with potential partners through meaningful exposure.

Smith started this company around 2014 when he noticed the tech industry rise throughout the city of Los Angeles.

“The LA tech scene was starting to grow and expand around the entire city, from Santa Monica to Pasadena,” shared the Plug In South LA’s founder in an interview with the LAWT. “But, I noticed that none of this activity was spilling over to South LA – Crenshaw, Leimert Park and Inglewood in particular.”

That was when Smith brought his company to life. “I thought, here we are in the one of the biggest and greatest cities in the country where a lot of young folks are so into the tech community yet so far from it. I wanted to be a part of that community of folks creating tech ecosystems and startup ecosystems.”

The playing fields for minority-owned business in tech is extremely unbalanced. With “the amount of venture capital going into tech companies operated by black folks [being] less than three percent” when Smith started his company.

“Almost 10 years later, it’s not at four or five percent. It hasn’t increased much,” shared Smith.

However, with the help of Black Lives Matter and their protests in 2019, Smith told LAWT that there’s been more activity in diversifying this industry.

“With the Black Lives Matter movement, and everything that's come out of that, there's been more of a focus and interest in diverse entrepreneurs. But the reality is, when you look at enterprise, the story by Black and Brown families who are rooted in the innovation economy, it is so hard for them to secure early-stage investment to really grow and scale their businesses.”

This led Smith to really call out this hurdle in the tech industry. “Diverse founders don’t always have the same sort of venture capital to bootstrap and grow their companies, putting them at a big disadvantage.”

He continued with, “So part of what we do at Plug In is also connect different stages of founders with investors and corporate executives and subject matter experts that can help navigate the marketplace when it comes to positioning and figuring out how to operate their business upscale and successfully.”

Connections are primarily made through their cohort accelerator programs, which has helped fund and grow some of the most dynamic start-up and early-stage businesses and business owners in Black and Latinx communities.

Plug In South LA has recently launched their third accelerator program in the beginning of April. This cohort will develop the vision of entrepreneurs in health care tech, edtech, fintech, cleantech, fashion, media, and gaming, and aims to level the playing field by providing minority-owned businesses with resources that will assist in narrowing the funding gap that’s compared to traditional Silicon Valley access.

Smith shared that Plug In South LA will only accelerate entrepreneurs and their company through this program. 

“California Health Care Foundation is one of our partners, and they’re looking to invest up to $40,000 in a pilot.

The other thing that we’re doing that’s a little different is that our founders meet weekly as a group and they also meet with investors and other successful entrepreneurs on a weekly basis to sort of troubleshoot and address some of the challenges and opportunities that they’re dealing with. So, this program’s a bit more rigorous than how we’ve operated in the past.”

The third Plug In accelerator will provide its cohort of entrepreneurs and founders with tools to scale their businesses and position themselves to raise crucial funding.

The accelerator also includes a 13-week intensive session to help founders succeed on all aspects of growth, from deal-making and partnerships to pilot programs, investor management, strategic development, and more.

Founders in the cohort already have raised upwards of $1-to-2 million in financing, from seed to early-stage rounds.

The entrepreneurs and tech start-up founders in the 2022 accelerator will include Dr. NanaEfua Afoh-Manin of Shared Harvest Fund (healthcare tech), Dr. Steven Moyo of Welfie (healthcare tech), Rodney Bell of Butterfly Health (healthcare tech), Kameale Terry of ChargerHelp! (cleantech/sustainability), Ashley Williams of RIZZARR (media), Kyra Peralte of The Traveling Diary (media), Leonard Tatum of Tatum Games (gaming), SergeAmouzou of Finpro (fintech), Zef Neemuchwala of Be A Maker Club (edtech), and Mitchella Gilbert of Oya Apparel (fashion). 

Mentors in this year’s program include executives from CHCF, Gunderson, California Health Care Foundation as well as other industry leaders who will be available for consultations and office hours including Courtside Ventures, RareBreed Ventures and Zeal Capital Partners among others.

Plug In South LA also created and runs Urban Tech Connect, a prominent annual business conference that equips tech company founders from African American, LatinX and under-represented communities in Los Angeles and beyond with a platform to plug in to the greater technology ecosystem and to network with other founders, VC's, angel investors, tech influencers and industry leaders.

Derek Smith shared that programs like this — that foster the potential of people like him — is  what makes his job worth it. “I think we have a lot of talent. We’ve really become an innovation hub and are connecting with a lot of other innovation hubs around the city,” Smith said.

“We have the ability to increase the number of engineers and tech developers and programmers in our local community, if we can successfully roll out enterprises that are having like a big impact, not just on South L.A. only, but across the entire country and globe, as well.”

For more information on Plug In South LA, Derek Smith and their Tech Accelerator Programs visit: https://pluginsouthla.com.