Hot Yoga Is the Closest Comic Jeffrey Joseph Will Get to Having a Harem

If Jeffrey Joseph looks familiar, it’s because you may have seen him sometime over the last two decades on TV or in the movies. His credits are long and impressive, as they include everything from The Sopranos to the Bill Murray classic Scrooged. He’s also a hardworking stand-up comic who’s revered by younger comics for his wit and obvious acting chops; Jeffrey trained at Julliard and NYU as a stage actor. There was a lot of yoga movement in his studies back then, which much later led him to Sacred Yoga in his neighborhood of Bed-Stuy.

Sacred Yoga is around the corner from where Jeffrey has lived for twelve years, and he says gentrification is hitting the neighborhood hard. He should know; his landlord suddenly raised his rent $500, something Jeffrey just can’t afford. Simply put, he’s being forced out of his home. For years, Sacred Yoga has been a place of refuge and rejuvenation to Jeffrey. Community matters to Sacred Yoga, as it does to Jeffrey, who also teaches acting workshops to students in public schools and prisoners at New York’s notorious Rikers Island. Inside Sacred Yoga, a chalkboard sign boasts a hand-drawn black power fist gripping a bold red daisy and the words POWER TO THE PEACEFUL. Also on the sign, Sacred Yoga’s summer special for a three-month contract notes that 5 percent will be donated to, again in big bold letters, BLACK LIVES MATTER. This yoga studio is not a sign of gentrification. And it’s not a yoga studio that mainstream America is used to seeing.

The first time Jeffrey went to Sacred, he says he saw “normal” people. “People who are probably longtime residents of Bed-Stuy,” he says. “People you might see in the street. People who grew up in traditionally black or Latino neighborhoods.” Of course, over the years that’s changed some; “White chicks gotta get their yoga,” Jeffrey jokes. Eventually, he ended up going to Sacred Yoga five to six times a week. It’s where he felt “a sense of community,” he says, “that I didn’t get at other places I went.”

Moving around in a hot room and sweating might feel too hot, but it’s nice in February in New York City.

The closest you’ll ever come to having a harem is having a hot yoga class.

With gentrification, there’s stress. I can’t tell you the amount of people I hear talking about it—people who are longtime residents. Their rent is going up, or they are being forced to move, or someone told them about a workshop they should go to because people are trying to get them out of their place.

One quote I heard was: “I don’t like white people because they don’t like me.” It’s a segregated community, and that’s what happens. I used to go to a barber. One of the favorite things about his job was that he didn’t have to deal with white people, because he didn’t like the feeling they left him with. So Bed-Stuy is very segregated, which is not good, either.

It feels good when you go to a place and at least somebody looks like you.

People were coming together and doing something in the same place together. That felt good. You are almost naked in there. You are hot and sweating. Just people being in the same place together—people from different diverse backgrounds and people who don’t normally do that thing.

It always feels good when you go into a place and at least somebody looks like you. And at Sacred, someone can come and find someone who looks like them. It tells the mind and body it’s okay to be there. It’s okay to take this risk.

People weren’t used to being in a yoga class. The teacher says, “Do this.” And someone says, “Yo, I can’t do that, Miss! I got a dick. I can’t move like that!” The teacher was like, “Let the spirit infuse your body.” Someone says, “Spirit? I hope you’re talking about Jesus!”

It’s the only yoga place where the brothers banter in the locker room. Some guy says, “Oh, that wasn’t that hard.” Other guy says, “Then why were you making them loud noises? How come you were grunting?” Just people talking shit. You feel like you can still be yourself here.

June 25, 2015

(Photos by Phil Provencio)