Because of the heavy toll AIDS took on the fashion industry early in the epidemic the Telluride Aids Benefit Fashion Show is a fitting highlight to end a week of educational initiatives and community outreach focusing on prevention awareness.Because TAB’s muse and constant angel, Robert...
[ click play button to hear the Schoenau interview]
Alice Schoenau is one of about 50 designers whose creations will be seen on the runway of the Telluride Aids Benefit Fashion Show on February 28.
“Throughout my studies in the Fashion Design Department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, I explored the means and meanings of changeable clothing. While always searching for new ways to create garments that can be worn in numerous ways, there is still a concern for function in addition to style.”
This recent graduate has created a small clothing line showcasing multi-functional designs in natural and organic fibers.
by Dr. Susannah Smith
Telluride's San Miguel Resource Center, the region's only nonprofit dealing with the twin challenges of domestic violence and sexual assault, celebrated healthy relationships last night at its annual Chocolate Lovers' Fling, the nonprofit's major public fundraiser. Support for the event means supporting yourself, a family member or a friend in need, anyone regardless of race or gender, yes gender, because abuse is an equal opportunity offender.
I'm writing today about a topic that is unpopular among women, and even female therapists. However, the battered male is a reality.
Our media world has done a good job of reporting on domestic violence in women, which is also a reality. We have heard of the "battered wife syndrome": a diagnostic complex of symptoms often referred to by clinicians. I prefer to speak about the "battered partner syndrome."
[ click the "Play" button to hear Susan's interview with Alanna]
Alanna Kaivalya was included in a Yoga Journal article featuring "Top 21 Instructors in the U.S. under 40." She returns to Telluride on the heels of her recent visit to town for the first annual Telluride Yoga Festival this past July, having woven her spell over that magical weekend. This time the senior Jivamukti instructor is here to teach a yoga workshop, "Compassion Through Action," in support of the San Miguel Resource Center.
On Saturday night, February 7, the SMRC holds its only public fundraiser, the 14th annual Chocolate Lovers' Fling. The SMRC is the region's only nonprofit that helps victims of domestic violence and sexual assault and offers prevention education.
Appropriately, the theme of Alanna's workshop is "Compassion Through Action," and book II, sutra 35 from the "Yoga Sutra's of Patanjali," the first and foremost scripture if Yoga, provides the leitmotif:
"Ahimsa Pratisthayam Tat Samnidhau Vaira Tyagah or "In the presence of one firmly established in non-violence, all hostilities cease."
[ click to hear the interview with Maegan Boyce]
Maegan and Peaks
co-worker Zabe James
The San Miguel Resource Center is a small nonprofit with only five employees, yet it provides a menu of services of that includes:
Short-term counseling
Follow-up contact
Support group treatment
Emergency shelter/safehouse
Information and referral
Criminal justice system support
Personal and legal advocacy
Emergency financial assistance
Emergency housing assistance
Safety planning
Children’s art alchemy
[ Click to hear Susan's interview with Jessica Forsyth]
The CHIP team
It was the wish of the Telluride AIDS Benefit’s muse, Robert Presley, to keep WestCAP healthy. The community-based referral, advocacy and service provider helped him in his fight against AIDS and remains of paramount importance to everyone on the Western Slope living with HIV/AIDS. TAB’s largesse, however, extends beyond WestCAP, its primary beneficiary, to Denver, where over the years the nonprofit has been able to give thousands of dollars to the Children’s Hospital Immunodeficiency Program or CHIP.
CHIP began providing specialized care for HIV+ children in the Rocky Mountain region in 1991. CHIP remains the only entity in the region providing comprehensive, coordinated, family-centered services to infants, children, youth (13-24), pregnant women, and parents of HIV-infected children.
Year after year, AIDS activist and Telluride Aids Benefit board member Ron Gilmer gets up on his soapbox and argues that prevention is the name of the game to stop the spread of the pandemic. Restrictive government guidelines that politicize the issue and focus on...
This month’s focus for Jivamukti yoga is an interesting one. I am not sure exactly how the Telluride yogis are going to respond to hasahasana (laughter pose), but I am going to do my best.
One of my gurus and co-founder of Jivamukti yoga Sharon Gannon writes:
“Laughter is an ancient yogic healing technique that can rid you of deeply held negative emotions. It has profound therapeutic value in restoring wellbeing and health, leading to happiness. Laughter induces relaxation, and because of its ability to free the body and mind of pent-up emotions that are obstacles to self-reflection, it is a potent prerequisite to meditation. It is good when laughter is spontaneous, but when emotions have been buried for so long that they have become deep-seated tensions, the conscious practice of laughing can be very healing.”
Gannon then goes on to instruct students to roll around on the ground to induce laughing. Though we are not required as Jivamukti instructors to teach this exact approach to the focus, it is highly recommended. When your guru asks you to do something, a true yogi will take it upon himself to execute the request because performing a service for your teacher is one of the greatest acts of karma yoga.
[Click play button to hear interview] Regina Zwilling The first ever Telluride Yoga Festival was held last July and the crowd went wild: asana, altitude, and ahimsa proved a winning combo. The event was conceived by local Jivamukti instructor Aubrey...
Regina Zwilling
Ana Forrest’s life is grist for the mill of the daytime soaps: She was born crippled, and growing up experienced physical abuse, drug addiction, epilepsy, and bulimia.
Forrest took her first yoga class at age 14, becoming an instructor at 18. Over the years, a passion for healing herself and others led to complementary studies: Native American medicine/ceremony, homeopathy, martial arts, and psychotherapy.
In the end, Forrest came to embody a spirit who has overcome trauma and chosen the warrior’s path of compassion.
Forrest Yoga challenges students to access their whole being in support of physical, mental, and emotional growth. The idea is to clear emotional and mental blocks that dictate and limit our lives using deep breathing and vigorous sequences to generate heat and eliminate toxins. Long holds in the pose progression flush out the system, oxygenating and rejuvenating every cell of the body.
