Katt Ramos and Her Reason Why

by Kathy Hampton

Katt Ramos, is a native Newark, New Jersey resident and shared her reason “why” she became a yoga instructor.  Katt’s close ties to the Newark community and keen awareness of the cultural and social dynamics of Newark provides an important view of the people and city’s make up and needs for building a future of self-care and empowerment.   As a community activist and cooperative school teacher, Katt is close to her community and has a profound connection with the people she serves and the students she teaches.    

Katt’s energetic spirit leads us into her world which is rich, textured and caring.  The discussion touches upon her role teaching students about empowerment and breathing whether it be in summer camp environments, as a cooperative school teacher where she teaches math, grammar, language arts, and history and current events of non-colonized nations.

Katt  addresses sensitive issues that she must consider when teaching yoga and how she provides lessons of self-realization and health to her community which has not been exposed to preventative and progressive health care services in the past and continues to suffer from the lack of effective health care measures.  Her discussion addresses cultural, societal and psychological dynamics through her special and sensitive practice of yoga.  

KH:  How long have you been teaching yoga?

 KATT:  I received my certification about 2 years ago around this same time during the summer through Yoga Impact. 

KH:  Had you practiced yoga before teaching?

KATT: No, not heavily, I initially got into yoga, when I was pregnant with my son who is 12 years old now because I was feeling great discomfort in my pelvic region, hips and lower back.  I stumbled across some pregnancy yoga poses and movements that were helpful to me during that time. From that time, I practiced but not consistently but remembered from that point in my life, that it helped me to alleviate what nothing else helped me to alleviate.  I figured there was something to this [yoga]; then became serious.

KH:  What is the connection between yoga and what you want to teach?

KATT:  I come from a background of body working – I am a massage therapist and reiki practitioner –and [yoga] was a natural progression for me.   It was something that helped me put a deeper perspective on why folks don’t necessarily have a good relationship with touch. Yoga is a way that folks can still love themselves in a way that is helpful for their alignment  – not just physical alignment but emotionally and spiritually.  

There is more to it than that.  Yoga is how can I reach folks who don’t have a positive relationship with touch.  These are people who I think can benefit from preventative measures like destressing, alignment and reconnection.  The bigger aspect to is - I grew up in Newark NJ – there are a lot of people who have experienced trauma at an early age for a lot of different reasons.  You have children who experienced trauma and when you experience trauma you have a disconnect. The prefrontal cortex isn’t developed until you are older and when have trauma it delays the development more. The disconnect can lead to other health issues in the future.  

What I noticed in our communities was that we didn’t and still don’t have preventative care and wellness in general that has been led by black or brown folks within the communities [of Newark].  We’ve had outside entities come in and give us tools but there is no real buy-in because they are not really part of the communities and can’t fully understand the scope of what people have experienced since early childhood.  

I grew up, have seen and experienced what it’s like to deal with food apartheid or food deserts.  To deal with our family members going through diabetes, cancer, heart disease and not have access to ways of preventing it before it gets to that level.  Not even have language or a relationship to what good health looks like prior to dealing with some type of disease or ailment.  

So that's really where [the connection] came from for me - a combination of a scarcity of touch where you don't hug each other, we don't say I love you, or show through action the ways that we care about each other.  So that translates to a bunch of kids growing up not knowing how to love themselves; not knowing how to connect with their bodies or their emotions in a healthy way and then you couple that with what's happening in the environment around them and you have a severe disconnect, a severe dysfunction.   It’s still is hard to bring some of that reconnection to people through things like massage because it can be considered an invasion.   

I think yoga gives folks a little bit of a barrier or they can still receive a positive kind of reconnection without me having to physically touch them.   

KH:  What do you want your students to take away from your yoga classes?  

KATT:  As a community organizer I want them to see their power.   What happens in our communities and in our society is there are so many steps being taken to disempower communities; to quell people’s voices; to remove their power; their agency; their autonomy.  Youth suffer from disempowerment, I think on a greater level than even adults. I think that just in the structure of the education [of the educational] system they are told what to do, when to be here, what time to do this, exactly how to answer these questions, how to pass a test, what was not acceptable, etc., etc.   I think that you know on some level there's almost like a level of violence and attacks used in this structure. This is like an indoctrination, right?  

I taught summer camp last year and I'm teaching a summer camp this year.  I had the opportunity to teach some high school students and so right as we go into savasana, for example, I always have a quote from either Alex Elle,  Audre Lorde or some other revolutionary voice but it has to do with reclaiming and a reconnection to empowerment. [I communicate to them] that outside of this classroom, outside of the room or outside of the space where we're doing yoga; so many different things may be trying to take your agency away; so many different things may be trying to disempower you;  so right here and right now is your opportunity to connect, it’s your time to have that communication with yourself - in your body and within that reconnection with yourself and your body is power. It isn’t that the empowerment process is just about you raising your fist in the air and having a voice when you're doing a march, or you know when you're organizing in some way - that reconnection it like reclaiming yourself.

 ABOUT BREATH:

 Katt:  . . . I think that from my personal experience where I suffered from severe burnout and saw other people unable to communicate about their health or their [unawareness] of how to breathe the right way…. Because we’re always breathing from our chest and never taking a full breath.  That in and of itself is one of the biggest things that I focus on when I teach. I can help people take full breaths and understand what that feels like.  

If we can help these kids at a young age anywhere from 6 to 12 or 13 years old and help kids have a connection at an early age;  help them learn how to breathe there's a vast possibility of so many other things, in terms of understanding themselves. I also do some meditation and things related to using their breathing.