Douglass Stewart

Solstice Yoga in Times Square, 2008

This year, hundreds of people may join in asana practice in the overstimulating junction of Broadway and 7th Avenue in NYC: Times Square.It's unclear how yoga and the solstice go together: pagan holiday meets sometimes-spiritualized exercise? The Times Square Alliance website doesn't help to clarify the connection:"…we are, on the longest day of the year, drawing on the full force and energy of the sun and are ideally at the height of our creative powers. We have more potential to draw strength from nature than on any other day and, perhaps, like the ancients thought, we are even more fertile (Times Square has always been about sex, right?) "Okaaaayyyyy.... Nature? Times Square? What you say ‘bout my fertile parts? Instructor Douglass Stewart puts it better, "...why not explore [yoga] in the most challenging of environments? In the midst of Times Square, find PEACE..."Visit the Times Square Alliance website for a list of classes and teachers on June 21. All classes are free and there will be goodies—mats, T-shirts and the like. (Followed by the Times Square Kiss-In later in the summer (these people really have sex on the brain).)