Young Voices Lead

As I arrived at the Massachusetts State House the morning of July 16, 2026 with camera bags in tow I was greeted by the security guard asking, “Checking in?”, followed by a hearty laugh. We both chuckled and I moved through security. With a long morning ahead of me I was already feeling the character of this place.

The craftsmanship, artistry and history of the building—the marble, the ornamentation, and the old-world character we encounter less and less—creates a wonderful environment for photography and video.

Entering the soaring space of the Great Hall, a room lined with the flags of 351 Massachusetts cities and towns, I was excited to see the room lit by sunlight streaming down from skylights.

My friend Rose Felix Cratsley, founder of Ivy Child International, invited me to photograph and capture video of Youth Voices Lead: Yoga at the Massachusetts State House. I knew many of the people involved and attending including State Rep. Simon Cataldo, who sponsored the State House gathering.

Before the program started, people arrived, greeted each other, had coffee, and found their places on the floor of the room that was filled with yoga mats.

Above Image: In one of the marble hallways, young Bharatanatyam dancers practiced together before their performance.

Image below: A young musician plays Indian drums called tablas.

The gathering celebrated Ivy Child International’s 15th anniversary and the observance of the International Day of Yoga. Founded by Rose in 2011, Ivy Child works to make mindfulness, contemplative practice, resilience-building, and leadership development accessible to children, young people, families, and communities.

Over the past 15 years, the organization has worked in more than 357 schools and community settings, reaching more than 308,000 children, family members, educators, and community participants.

State Representative Simon Cataldo briefly welcomed the gathering and thanked those who had made it possible.

The ceremonial lighting of the traditional Indian brass lamp brought children, teens, elders, civic leaders, and the Deputy Consul General Shruthi Purushottam together around a shared source of light.

The lamp represents knowledge, hope, wisdom, and the movement from darkness toward greater understanding.

For Rose, the moment also held a family history.

Her parents left India in 1968, moving first to Ethiopia and later to the United States. Aside from what they had in their bags, they carried faith, family, service, community, yoga, prayer, mindfulness, and contemplative traditions that helped their family remain rooted through migration, grief, change, and hardship.

The youngest leaders were under ten years old, leading the room in movement and yoga stretching.

Then the main yoga program began, lead by the teens.

We often imagine leadership as something that moves in one direction: adults instruct children, experienced people guide the inexperienced, and those with official authority lead everyone else. This gathering quietly reversed that assumption. Civic leaders and elders followed. Adults were guided through movements demonstrated by teens. The youngest in the room were given genuine responsibility—and the room followed.

Above: In the “green room” dancers wait for their time to perform.

The cultural elements of the program were woven together and presented a broader understanding of wellbeing—one that includes breath and movement, music, dance, story, memory, family tradition, and community ritual.

Ivy Child describes this culturally rooted approach as Mindfulness Masala™. Like a masala made from distinct ingredients, these practices come together to create something layered, nourishing, and whole.

That idea became visible during the Bharatanatyam presentation. The leader of the dance school introduced the tradition before her students performed for the room, and later, she danced bringing extraordinary precision, expression, strength, and grace to the front of the Great Hall.

This is culture as a living practice carried by real people: studied, rehearsed, taught, and shared.

Near the end of the program, Rose addressed the room.

Her remarks were filled with gratitude. She thanked the youth who led, the families who supported them, the performers, musicians, volunteers, civic leaders, partners, elders, and community members who had helped bring the gathering into being. She was clearly very happy with the strength of the event and the energy that had filled the room all morning.

I heard a couple days later that the event had been seen as a big success at the State House and there was a request to schedule it again for 2027. Well done!

If you would like to learn more about Ivy Child you can visit their website here. They also have a fundraising support page here.

Closing thought: Imagine a future in which children and youth help lead our communities, cultural wisdom is honored, wellbeing is treated as a public commitment, and healing is built into the institutions shaping our lives. Community is the curriculum. Community is the solution. Healing is policy.