Free yoga mats are about to unroll beneath a 23-foot Earth hovering in one of the largest Gothic cathedrals on the planet. Starting September 22, Harlem Yoga Studio leads a three-part Transcendent Tuesdays series inside the nave of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, with sessions running September 22, September 29, and October 6 from 6 to 7 pm at 1047 Amsterdam Ave. The classes are free, open to all levels including complete beginners, and participants are asked to bring their own mats.
The setting is what makes this run of classes unusual. According to amNY, each 60-minute accessible session combines gentle movement, mindful breathing, and guided relaxation, capped with a guided meditation and extended savasana, all taking place directly beneath artist Luke Jerram's *Gaia* installation. The sculpture itself is a 23-foot, 7-meter diameter globe wrapped in 120dpi NASA imagery of Earth's surface, rendered at a scale where every centimeter represents 18 kilometers, according to the Luke Jerram Official Website.
As it hangs above the yoga mats, *Gaia* slowly rotates while playing a custom surround-sound composition by BAFTA Award-winning composer Dan Jones, per the same artist site — a soundscape the Bell Museum notes was written specifically to accompany the artwork across its international tour stops. Jerram created the piece to evoke what's known as the “Overview Effect,” a term coined by author Frank White in 1987 to describe the awe and sense of interconnectedness astronauts report when viewing Earth from space, the artist's site explains. The idea, per that same source, is to translate that orbital perspective into a shared sense of environmental responsibility here on the ground.
A Harlem Studio With Deep Community Roots
Leading the sessions is Harlem Yoga Studio, co-founded in 2010 by Erica Barth, which operates out of a historic 1910 building on 125th Street in Central Harlem, according to the studio's own account. The organization has built its reputation around community building and social justice initiatives alongside its yoga programming. Event organizers can be reached at 212-316-7490, and registration runs through the Cathedral's official calendar.
The yoga series is one piece of a larger fall lineup built around *Gaia*, which hangs in the nave from September 18 through October 9 as part of programming tied to the 800th anniversary of the passing of St. Francis of Assisi, according to the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. Francis, patron saint of ecology since being designated so by Pope John Paul II in 1979, has long been tied to the Cathedral's environmental programming — the Cathedral popularized the modern tradition of blessing animals back in 1984, an annual October service that draws thousands of attendees with pets, according to the Archdiocese of Miami.
More Than Yoga Beneath the Globe
*Gaia* is also anchoring other cultural programming this fall, including Musica Sacra's immersive choral concert “SurRound: The Earth Remembers” on October 7, led by conductor Kent Tritle, who serves as the Cathedral's Music Director, according to Musical America. It's the latest example of the nave doubling as a stage for major public gatherings — Hoodline previously covered the DIFFA Angels & Demons Gala honoring Fern Mallis held in the same space, and the Cathedral has also hosted high-profile performances tied to Robert Plant's 2026 tour.
Jerram's Earth sculpture follows his widely toured lunar installation, *Museum of the Moon*, a similarly sized 23-foot sphere that used NASA imagery to explore how people perceive celestial bodies in public spaces. That piece made its own Midwest stop earlier this year at Milwaukee's Third Ward Festival, as Hoodline reported. Situated in Morningside Heights, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine is the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and ranks among the largest Gothic cathedral buildings in the world, with a nave stretching hundreds of feet beneath soaring vaulted ceilings.
Public registration for the Cathedral's full fall 2026 calendar, covering community workshops, concerts, and free gatherings like Transcendent Tuesdays, opened September 8 through the venue's official website. For Harlem residents looking to close out a Tuesday with something a little different than a typical studio class, the combination of candlelight, cathedral acoustics, and a slowly spinning planet overhead offers a rare setting for an hour of gentle movement and stillness.
