Nanci O Is Hip Hop

In the eyes of Raleigh, Chapel Hill and surrounding cities, my homebase of Durham, NC gets a super bad rap. Say you’re from Durham and instantly folks eyes get wide and they look like the hyena from The Lion King anytime someone says “Mustafa”. Ever since Play from Kid-N-Play released the “Welcome To Durham” documentary a couple of years ago there are people who declare Bull City is the black sheep of NC. On a sidebar every city has crime, pestilence and unsavory characters.

One www.nancioradioshow.com goal over the past couple months has been to highlight events, businesses and people in Durham, NC that are positively impacting the community and doing great things. You may have seen it in The Revival Of The RDU Hip Hop Scene video I did earlier this summer along with several others.


However this time around I wanted to reach outside of the hip hop scene in the area and look to other entities that are doing great things.

Patanjalis Place is a community yoga space located in downtown Durham, NC. Patanjalis has been open for several years and offers yoga, meditation, raw food classes, movie nights, programs for families plus much more.


The yoga studio holds classes throughout the week and also does community outreach. Several times a month they offer potlucks for families that may be having financial difficulties due to the economy. The owner can also be seen at events in and around downtown Durham as well as at the weekly Farmer’s Market in Central Park Durham.

Now before you go hollering “yoga ain’t hip hop!”, as the owner of the space reminded me in our first meeting Russell Simmons is huge advocate of the discipline. And if the Phat Farm founder isn’t hip hop I don’t know what is.

Super shout out to Bryan Carey and Patanjalis Place for the opportunity and also their support of www.nancioradioshow.com.