Right out of college, and after a yoga class in East Atlanta, Crystal made a declaration to sustain her livelihood from what she was already living in practice: yoga and art. It took 2 years to put this declaration into action.

In 2013, after learning about this intention and upcoming yoga teacher trainings, Atlanta showed up. Community supported the vision by crowdfunding what a scholarship wouldn't cover, by honoring the discipline in preparing for the journey, and by sharing the enthusiasm of a new chapter.

In April, carried by that collective investment, Crystal traveled to Mysore, in the heart of Southern India, for a month-long immersion training at Ashtanga Yoga Mysore. There, between studies, Crystal began drafting early sketches of Osatyam's branding, shaping the vision, and laying the foundation. Osatyam was conceived in Southern India and rooted in the American South. That lineage is written into all things Osatyam.

After returning to Atlanta, Crystal taught her first private session almost immediately for a local musician's crew, Yani Means Peace. Then Yoga @ Charis. Many private and community practices came after, offered as gifts. As homecoming. As "look what we did, y'all!"

From its first deep inhale, Osatyam was a collaborative act, something the community helped carry into existence, and that Crystal has been giving back ever since.

Within months after training, the Movement for Black Lives erupted, and Crystal was already inside it alongside small but mighty crews of healing practitioners. Holding fallout spaces for exhausted activists, smudging crowds during protests, holding healing salons for organizers, organizing childcare so others could show up, leading yoga and healing spaces at gatherings across the country in Selma, Chicago, Kentucky, with M4BL, SONG, and beyond. The practice that had just come home from India was immediately put in service of the movement.

Over twelve years, Osatyam has provided donation-based classes, long-term community partnerships, and a product line handmade in Georgia. Offerings have been made available to folks who need them, whether or not the money was there. Because our people deserve this practice.

That was true before 2013. It called loudly during the uprisings for Black lives. It remains true now.