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A
History of Yoga in America
"The Subtle Body" - Stefanie Syman
Discussion & Book
Signing
Wed, October 27, 2010 - 7:30pm
CANCELED
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"Yoga started out on the edges of American life, the province of
poets, seekers, dreamers, drifters, bohemians. It has journeyed
to the center of things, to our neighborhoods, our gyms, our
schools. Now, with the practice settled into the mainstream...I
wonder whether the secret of yoga's lasting allure is maybe more
obvious, and more down to earth, than we devoted practitioners
might like to admit."---NYT's Book Review
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A History of Yoga in America
- Dicussion & Book
Signing
"The Subtle Body" by
Stefanie Syman
Wed, October 27, 2010 - 7:30 pm -
Smithville Studio
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Join us for a fascinating discussion of the
roots and history of Modern Yoga in America, from the turn of
the 19th Century, through modern day "titans of yoga". Stephanie
Syman will discuss her critically acclaimed book, run Q& A &
sign books. Please Join us for this special event! |
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Listen to NPR Interview
with Stefanie "On Point" with Tom Ashbrook...
Radio Interview Online |
| In The Subtle Body, Stefanie
Syman tells the surprising story of yoga’s
transformation from a centuries-old spiritual discipline
to a multibillion-dollar American industry. |
| Yoga’s history in America is
longer and richer than even its most devoted
practitioners realize. It was present in Emerson’s New
England, and by the turn of the twentieth century it was
fashionable among the leisure class. And yet when
Americans first learned about yoga, what they learned
was that it was a dangerous, alien practice that would
corrupt body and soul. |
| A century later, you can find
yoga in gyms, malls, and even hospitals, and the arrival
of a yoga studio in a neighborhood is a signal of
cosmopolitanism. How did it happen? It did so, Stefanie
Syman explains, through a succession of charismatic yoga
teachers, who risked charges of charlatanism as they
promoted yoga in America, and through generations of
yoga students, who were deemed unbalanced or even insane
for their efforts. The Subtle Body tells the stories of
these people, including Henry David Thoreau, Pierre A.
Bernard, Margaret Woodrow Wilson, Christopher Isherwood,
Sally Kempton, and Indra Devi. |
| From New England, the book moves
to New York City and its new suburbs between the wars,
to colonial India, to postwar Los Angeles, to
Haight-Ashbury in its heyday, and back to New York City
post-9/11. In vivid chapters, it takes in celebrities
from Gloria Swanson and George Harrison to Christy
Turlington and Madonna. And it offers a fresh view of
American society, showing how a seemingly arcane and
foreign practice is as deeply rooted here as baseball or
ballet. |
| This epic account of yoga’s rise
is absorbing and often inspiring—a major contribution to
our understanding of our society. |
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 Stefanie
Syman
Stefanie Syman, a literature graduate
of Yale, was a founder of Feed, an early, award-winning Web
magazine. She has written for The Wall Street Journal, Rolling
Stone, Vogue, and Yoga Journal. A native of Los Angeles, she
lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and has practiced yoga for
fifteen years. |
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Please call the studio for further
information:
609.404.0999
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