Today we’d like to introduce you to Ananda Lo.
Hi Ananda, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’m originally from ATL. I started writing, dancing, playing music, and event planning from a young age. Became a spoken word artist at 15 while at Benjamin E. Mays High School. I graduated from Howard in 2009, where I studied English and Africana Studies. I moved to Beijing, China to become a teacher. I was still focused on writing poetry, but I reclaimed an interest in theatre. I moved back to Atlanta in 2011 and started working with Atlanta Black Theatre Festival and as a teacher. January 1, 2012, I took my first yoga class with Tassili Ma’at of Tassili’s Raw Reality, a raw food vegan restaurant in the West End. Within that year, I started a personalized yoga and spiritual journey with elders and teachers, which changed the direction of my life. I also started working at the restaurant and eventually became a manager and a vegan vegetarian.
This change in 2012, shifted my writing career to focus on creating a better space and environment within and without for people to live. I produced my first play, SYNTHESIS, which was an interactive theatre show about the evolution of black culture in the future. I also published a meditative poetry coffee table book (by the same name) focusing on the themes of the story: evolution, elevation, internal discovery. I wanted to honor the past while laying claim to our future. I now teach yoga and work as a writer for hire, assisting with content creation and story development. My overall mission is to promote the concept of “creative wellness,” honing creative expression in a way that is healthy for the mind, body, and soul.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. As an artist, figuring out the world of business and industry can be challenging. And while I have a very organized brain, I am an empath and eccentric, so schedules, routines and discipline did not always mesh well with me. I worked with a lot of grassroots community organizations, so they did not always have the funding to pay my industry rate, but I took a lot of underpaid work, which built my experience, but it also distorted my true sense of value. This is something I’m still working on mending.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I specialize in Creative Wellness, the cultivation of creative expression in a way that is healthy on all levels. POETRY (spoken word and published writings), SCRIPT (original content and client consultation), EDITING (content and manuscript reworking and evaluation), YOGA (meditation, movement, chanting, certified in Kundalini and Sampoorna Hatha Yoga), NATURAL LIVING (product formulation and review, consultations).
What matters most to you? Why?
Creative wellness, providing space for honest and transformative expression that promotes a life of wholistic health. My deepest desire is to see people more healthy (naturally) and understanding both the highs and lows of life in a deeply connected way.
Pricing:
- $50 – starting price for private yoga session
- FREE – writer/editor for hire consultation
Contact Info:
- Email: ananda.lo004@gmail.com
- Instagram: @anandalo
- Facebook: Ananda Lo
