Ep. 30 - Holistic Health & Fitness Against Fascism ft. Mel Phillips

BrownTown invites trauma-informed yoga teacher Mel Phillips to
the discussion around holistic health, access to wellness care,
and the ways in which we challenge systems of oppression in
seemingly apolitical industries. What does equity and liberation
look like in the allied health continuum? Together, using
SoapBox's Fitness Against Fascism series as model, we extrapolate
the connections between social justice and holistic health at
various levels.



Mel, a collaborator with SoapBox’s ongoing Fitness Against
Fascism series, brings her trauma-informed yoga experience to the
discussion around holistic health, access to wellness care, and
the ways in which we challenge systems of oppression in seemingly
apolitical industries. What does equity and liberation look like
in the allied health continuum? Together, using Fitness Against
Fascism as model, we extrapolate the connections between social
justice and holistic health at various levels. Mel first speaks
on the lack of women of color she noticed in mainstream yoga
spaces and the article that changed that perception (see Black
Girl in Om) as well as teaching yoga to women in pre-trail
detention in Cook County Corrections. With that in mind,
BrownTown discusses the different levels and roles people can
take in addressing systemic inequality in fitness spaces—both
meeting people where they are at and challenging more established
institutions (see Trap Yoga Bae and the SoapBox article on her).
The gang breaks down Chicago heat maps and critique the
un-coincidental lack of access to traditional fitness spaces in
the same areas that lack many social determinants of health (see
Episode 7 with Jessica Puri).


Mel parallels this with the popularization of “self-care” and the
power and privilege aligned with the necessary yet commodified
phenomenon. She and BrownTown take a step back to investigate the
function capitalism has in this regarding worker productivity,
paid leave, and owners valuing employees for their humanity
versus their ability to sell their labor for longer, both in the
US and abroad. The conversation rests on the notion that it's
crucial to understand that health and wellness, like everything
else in our socialized world, is not apolitical. Our destinies
are connected to each other and it's imperative, now more than
ever, to be vulnerable and take initiative in and outside of
these spaces. Health must be radical in its analysis and holistic
in its approach if we are to truly obtain equity in wellness.


Mentioned in episode or relevant: aSweatLife, Healthy Hood, the
Chicago Community Bond Fund, and Caullen on aSweatLife’s podcast
#WeGotGoals Episode 68 and Episode 87.


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GUEST
Mel Phillips was born and raised in the Carolinas and is a newly
certified part-time yoga instructor and full-time devotee to the
restaurant industry. She graduated from East Carolina University
in 2014 with a Bachelors in Communication and a Bachelors in
Merchandising. Mel escaped the South after graduation and moved
to Chicago. She spends the majority of her “free” time teaching
yoga for special communities and organizations like I Grow
Chicago in Englewood and Yoga for Recovery, an organization that
brings the practice of yoga and mindfulness to women in Cook
County Corrections. Mel has specialty training in trauma-informed
yoga and actively pursues bringing mind and body practice to
those with limited access. When she isn’t running reservation
systems for restaurants or teaching seven-year olds crow pose,
she is sitting at home cuddling her hairless cat
@sophiathesphynx.



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CREDITS: Intro music by Fiendsh. Outro song
Fitness by Lizzo. Audio engineered by Genta Tamashiro.
Episode photo by Ella Börner.


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