Black History Today: Abiola Akanni, certified yoga instructor, wellness influencer and Trap Vinyasa™ founder

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Black History Today, an annual series created by Marcus Harden in honor of Black History Month, pays tribute to the living legacy of Black history in our community and beyond. Check back every day in February as we recognize the people actively shaping the future.

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““Self-love is the nourishment that gives us the clarity and strength to love others well.””
— Yung Pueblo

By Reese McGillie

If you’ve been paying attention to the very thriving yoga community in Seattle, then chances are, you’ve heard of Trap Vinyasa™. Trap Vinyasa™ is both a community and a signature style of yoga — described as: “...radically body positive hip hop yoga experience rooted in community. Laced with trap music, a beat-based genre of hip hop originating from the South, Trap Vinyasa™ is an all levels yoga yoga-fitness class combining dynamic asana with sensual dance and body weight exercises including boxing and high intensity interval training.”

It’s also important to note that one of the community’s core missions is to create safe and inclusive spaces for all especially underrepresented folks. 

Enter Abiola Akanni, certified yoga instructor, wellness influencer and Trap Vinyasa™ founder. Abiola has been sharing her gifts as a yoga teacher for more than 10 years, offering studio and community classes in the Seattle-Tacoma area and leading yoga and wellness retreats nationally. 

As a first generation Nigerian-American who grew up in Atlanta, Abiola learned traditional west African dance and had plenty of exposure to trap music. The influences of both can be directly observed in her yoga and wellness offerings. She was inspired to create Trap Vinyasa a few years ago after reaching a point of frustration with her experience teaching at studios where she could not relate to the clientele and where creating inclusive spaces was not a focus.

Having taken classes led by Abiola, I can tell you that her teaching is inspired and passionate. As she offers cues to breathe or to take on different poses, you’ll note that her voice has a soothing timbre that perfectly interplays with the heavy, sub-bass beats of the soundtrack in her Trap Vinyasa classes. It is definitely an experience that will get you out of your head and into your body.

Abiola built Trap Vinyasa to be more than just a class. It’s a community where folks of any level of yoga familiarity can build the foundation of a regular practice. The combination of her signature yoga sequences and the hip-hop playlists have made the practice more casual and approachable even for those who may have never practiced yoga before. 

The work that Abiola is doing to elevate yoga for people of color — especially Black folks — is immediately evident after a quick browse of the Trap Vinyasa instagram feed. After each class, willing students gather for post-class pics and videos that are subsequently shared on social media. This is particularly noteworthy as Seattle-area yoga culture has historically been dominated by non-pocs. But the visuals coming through from the community that Abiola has created are rewriting that story to feature more Black and Brown bodies, too. 

The Trap Vinyasa community continues to expand as Abiola seeks to create other offerings to reach more would-be yogis. She has recently added offerings such as an intro series for beginners, donation-based vinyasa yoga where students pay what they can, workshops and retreats — proving that the movement is destined to be so much bigger than just the signature sequence and playlist that started it all.

I’m grateful for the work that Abiola has done to make yoga and wellness practices more accessible and inclusive for Black and Brown folks, and I’m a proud member of the Trap Vinyasa community that she’s built.

Want to learn more about Abiola and Trap Vinyasa? Follow the links below:

Reese McGillie is a data scientist, yoga instructor and occasional superhero. She lives in the south end of Seattle with her husband and their two sons, who both attend Seattle Public Schools.