“It taught me to speak,” said Maria Humphrey, who participates in the Salt Lake City Street Tai Chi program, “and made me feel like a person again.” Through tai chi, she discovered her inner strength, a robust community and most of all, confidence.
Street Tai Chi is fostering trust, clarity and togetherness for one of the most vulnerable populations.
Benjamin Bandfield, left, prepares stilts for Colby, an unsheltered individual, before tai chi at the City Library. Marita and Bernie Hart, the organizers of Salt Lake City Street Tai Chi. The Harts have been leading the group for six years. “We wanted them to participate in tai chi and learn the benefits of it. So we bribe them with $2 and cigarettes,” Bernie said with his trademark laugh.Greg Power attends every tai chi session he can. Four days a week for the last five years.
Everyone fell silently into formation across the quad and mimicked Power’s tai chi movements. A man who’d had what his fellow tai chi members labeled a schizophrenic episode before tai chi started immediately calmed down and began leading the group alongside Power.“Look how calm it is,” Power said after tai chi. “If you told the average citizen of Salt Lake that there’s going to be 50 homeless people somewhere, they’d be like ‘Oh my God! They’re going to set fire to the place.
“It’s like a symphony,” Lisa Hyte said, a recent newcomer who helps brew the coffee and cook the breakfast burritos for tai chi in the mornings. It’s true, according to Power. He’s witnessed the same in other street community members that join in on the exercises. He’s experienced the transformation Hyte describes, although he won’t talk about it because he says it’s not about him, it’s about community.
Things started to change when she met Bernie outside The Road Home four years ago. She was sitting on a bench when Bernie approached her and invited her to join tai chi with Marita and the group. They believe they aren’t taken seriously by large-scale research centers because there’s no data to match the lived experience piece.
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