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A Kansas City, Kansas, native is breathing life into the Quindaro neighborhood she grew up in by offering free yoga classes each week.
Penelope Collins was born and raised in Quindaro, a KCK neighborhood now known as Northeast.
Quindaro was once a stop on the Underground Railroad, and also is home to the Quindaro Ruins and the Old Quindaro Museum.
“It was…a booming area,” Collins said. “The Quindaro Boulevard area had about six grocery stores and plenty of homes. A post office. A lot of entrepreneurs.”
When Collins thinks back on her childhood in the area, safety comes to mind.
“Growing up in Quindaro, it was safe,” Collins said. “There was a strong unity.”
Collins credits the work of the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department for helping to curb a lot of the violence she saw pop up in the area as she got older.
Now, she says a lot of that peace has returned.
“I believe that that new birth, that new breath that the community needs is here,” Collins said. “Yoga is only one way. There are many other opportunities that are coming to the Quindaro area to renew and to rebuild.”
Yoga, however, is her way.
“Yoga found me,” Collins said. “I didn’t know yoga would mean so much to me.”
Collins said she came across the website for The Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, a nonprofit offering a yoga retreat in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
She said she spent 30 days there and did yoga for 12 hours a day.
As a U.S. Army veteran, yoga became a remedy to the constant chatter in her mind.
“I suffer from PTSD,” Collins said. “Yoga helped me find my core. It’s a homecoming for me, and I wanted others to have that experience.”
Collins says that’s why she offers free yoga classes each week throughout different locations in the Quindaro area.
“I do that because I don’t want any barriers for anyone,” Collins said. “I realized there was no infrastructure for a gym in the area."
Elderly, older adults were not getting the opportunity to exercise. A lot of them cannot afford a gym membership or have the gas to travel west.”
"Quindaro means unity," Collins said. "Yoga is community. The purple color is for royalty and pride. The green symbols are for renewal, new beginnings, new breath."
In the logo, you can see the Q above the Y, symbolizing the community holding up the unity.
"Quindaro is home for me," Collins said.
Collins founded Quindaro Yoga, Inc., on March 4 with a goal of reaching 75 people in six months.
“Once I learned the art, I wanted to give it back to the marginalized communities, to include women veterans,” Collins said.
As of mid-May, she’s more than halfway there.
“I can see the transformation and the joy of having peace, having that quiet moment,” Collins said. “Taking up space in the universe and claiming it as their own.”
Two of her students, Duane Bouyer and Melvin Prince, say yoga has been a benefit to their overall health.
“She workin’ me now,” Prince said jokingly. “I probably need put some WD40 and some Crisco or something on these bones.”
Collins says the mental benefits of yoga are just as beneficial as the physical ones.
“It’s healing,” Collins said. “It’s not all about poses. It’s more than that. You learn how to allow your breath to heal your body.”
It’s also about self awareness and personal growth, Collins says.
“I kinda feel guilty at times,” Collins laughed. “I feel like I’m more joyful than the person that’s receiving it.”
Right now, Collins is a mobile teacher, so her locations vary.
Whether or not she’ll settle into a permanent storefront depends on the neighborhood.
“It’s amazing to see that new structures coming to remove the blight, and one day I want to be a part of that if the community says, ‘We want you, and you’re here to stay,’” Collins said.
Currently, the May schedule is as follows.
There are no classes May 29-31:
Tuesdays:
- 10:00 a.m. Mat Yoga & Chair Yoga (Nefertiti Restaurant and Banquet Hall, 1314 Quindaro Blvd)
- 5:30 p.m. Community Yoga (Quindaro Elementary School, 2800 Farrow Avenue)
Saturdays:
- 10:00 a.m. Community Yoga (Quindaro Elementary School, 2800 Farrow Avenue)
SilverSneakers classes
Classes are open to all ages, but minors (10 and older) must be accompanied by an adult.
Collins is also hosting an early morning yoga class on Juneteenth, which falls on Thursday, June 19 from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. Click here for more information.
To learn more information about Quindaro Yoga, email quindaroyoga@gmail.com or search Quindaro Yoga on WhatsApp.
