A Black-owned yoga studio is a rare find in Cincinnati — so rare that it pushed a local woman to create her own in Madisonville.
InoarG Yoga was opened in February by certified yoga instructor Blu Cauthen.
“InoarG, it directly means movement towards purification within, and that’s my goal here — for us, especially, because we need it,” she said Friday.
Cauthen said she opened the studio out of a need for peace during a stressful time in her own life.
"I didn’t have any time to do anything except work, work, work," she said. "I found myself on Instagram doing the yoga challenges, and I was like, ‘Whoa, I feel amazing.'”
Cauthen believes yoga helped her learn how to center herself in times of chaos. It’s a skill she’s hoping to teach anyone who enters, especially those in the Black community.
“We don’t see enough of us doing great things, bettering ourselves," she said. "We don’t see enough of us balancing everything, so, when I think of myself, I think I can reach someone that looks like me and they can come in here and feel comfortable."
The studio is open to anyone curious about yoga. Cauthen teaches classes daily and often creates special programs based around mental and physical wellness.
“We need to learn to get better within ourselves. We need to learn to start reflecting what’s within outwardly to other people,” she said. “That is really important for us especially with everything going on in the world and in the media. This right here, we are allowed to center ourselves.”
Sundays at InoarG are "community days," when classes are offered free for people hoping to try different forms of yoga and fitness.
