Jacoby Ballard

Jacoby Ballard (he/they) is a yoga and meditation teacher based in Salt Lake City, Utah, who brings the heart practices of yoga and Buddhism together with social justice work. He has taught for about twenty years, beginning in New York, where in 2008 he helped found Third Root Community Health Center in Brooklyn as a cooperative linking wellbeing and community organising. Since 2006 he has led a dedicated yoga class for queer and trans people, and his work was recognised by Yoga Journal with awards in 2014 and 2016. In A Queer Dharma, published in 2021, he reads the Brahma Viharas of lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equanimity through a queer lens.

His classes are playful and searching, rooted in classical philosophy but applied to present-day questions of identity, belonging and repair. He teaches weekly online yoga for LGBTQ students and an online meditation sangha, sells recorded practice packs on the yamas and niyamas, and mentors yoga teachers who want to find their own direction. He also trains studios and meditation communities in diversity, equity and inclusion, speaks at colleges, and is one of Kripalu's Visionaries, leading online forgiveness series and a New Year retreat for queer and trans participants there.