Spice Harmony Yoga stands out as a must-visit stop if you’re looking for an authentic and rooted wellness experience on vacation in the Caribbean. TheGrio visited in-person and spoke with the studio’s co-founder, Malaika Brooks-Smith-Lowe.
Hidden in the hills of the lush island of Grenada, right in the community of St. George’s, sits Spice Harmony Yoga, a Black-owned yoga studio that feels like an escape from the world. Founded by Dr. Kecia Brooks-Smith-Lowe, her husband Ferron C. Lowe Esq., and their daughter, Malaika Brooks-Smith-Lowe, Spice Harmony Yoga is situated on the third floor of the Brooks-Lowe-Smith family home. With a fruit and vegetable garden in the backyard and Dr. Brooks-Smith-Lowe’s medical practice right on the second floor hosting patients, in this home, purpose, passion, and service all intersect.
Visitors will find Spice Harmony to be a cozy purple-walled space complete with yoga mats, bands, and cushions. It has all the essentials of a typical studio with an unpretentious feel, and stands apart from any other space on the island as the only non-hotel-based yoga studio in Grenada.
“All of us are very community-minded, and it’s a very tangible way for us to come together and be in good vibes, to be in a non-judgmental space,” says Malaika Brooks-Smith-Lowe, co-founder, in an interview with theGrio. “Yoga just becomes kind of the excuse to do that. And then we see that as something that actually raises our vibrations together.”
Spice Harmony’s story actually began in Montclair, New Jersey, in the 1990s when Dr. Brooks-Smith-Lowe, was doing her medical residency—a stressful and demanding phase of becoming a doctor. Her husband, Ferron, a native of Grenada, would go on walks locally and discovered yoga as a way to de-stress, then brought his family in, which included Malaika. Soon, the entire family was getting trained and certified, and in 2011, all three members of the Brooks-Smith-Lowe family officially launched Spice Harmony Yoga on the beautiful island.
Malaika says that while people often see yoga as a hobby or fitness trend, Spice Harmony serves a deeper purpose in the community by shifting mindsets of possibility.
“People often feel that yoga isn’t for them,” she explains. “For whatever reason: They’re too old. They’re not flexible. They’re a man. They have a medical issue. And yoga therapy has taught me that you can meet someone anywhere.”
The studio offers private classes, with custom experiences for couples on honeymoons or vacations, as well as classes for kids, seniors, pregnant mothers-to-be, and more.
Spice Harmony’s “The Great Yoga Wall” is also a special feature that leaves visitors suspended in the air, with ropes attached to wall hooks that make them feel weightless. It helps with flexibility and joint issues.
Malaika, who is also a trained doula and mother to a six-year-old boy, notes that many of her clients use yoga for medical and therapeutic reasons as well.
“Some of my parents, my patients have had strokes, paralysis, all kinds of things. And there [are] so many aspects of this practice that are beyond the physical. Breathwork, mindfulness that we still need, especially when our body isn’t, you know, what it used to be or has gone through something traumatic. So for me, being able to have this space and offer something that is so high quality here that our people deserve.”
To support that effort, she’s working to fundraise for a new project called the Wild Seed Sanctuary—a three-and-a-half-acre social enterprise designed to create a holistic, intergenerational space for yoga, community events, and healing.
Wild Seed will bring together all kinds of visitors and locals in Grenada with a “pay-what-you-can” model, creating a Black-owned co-working and yoga space that allows for organic connections to form.
The youngest Brooks-Smith-Lowe has received a great deal of support and enthusiasm for the project and hopes to break ground on it by the end of the year.
Spice Harmony’s presence in Grenada sits within a landscape of numerous Black-owned businesses, and it’s one Malaika Brooke-Smith-Lowe draws strength from.
“I think for us, being Black-owned, being family-owned, but also being a global Grenadian family is so important. For us to be an example of how you can, you know, build a business together, an organization that is supporting people and still also, you know, sustainable,” she tells theGrio.
“There’s a lot of people moving into Grenada. And that’s great, especially because there’s more—it’s not just white folks who are moving down here and calling themselves expats. We also have more younger Black and brown people who are trying to get out of the US and UK… I think it is still important that we have businesses that are also really run by us here in Grenada, so that we’re benefiting from that too.”
To learn more about Spice Harmony Yoga or to schedule a class while you’re in Grenada, check out www.spiceharmonyyoga.com.
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