Eb & Flow Yoga Studio
“Presence”
Eb & Flow Yoga Studio
by Jack Hallinan, @jackhallinan17
The concept of Eb & Flow began with a journal entry.
It was written during a week-long yoga training course in Sedona, Arizona in 2011. Peggy Howard Moore attended the session.
“One of the assignments we were given was to write down in our diary,” Howard Moore said. “Five years from that date, where do we see ourselves? So I wrote down, ‘helping my daughter in a yoga studio.’”
Without seeing her mother’s entry, Eboni Howard, Peggy's daughter, said she wrote a similar answer.
“Owning my own yoga studio.”
In Sedona, Eboni and Peggy trained with Baron Baptiste, an influential figure in the yoga world. The mother-daughter duo found inspiration in Baptiste’s style of “power yoga.” Two years later, they opened their own facility, Eb & Flow Yoga Studio, in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago.
“It was just one of those opportunities that fell out of the sky,”
“It was just one of those opportunities that fell out of the sky,” Peggy said. “We weren’t ready to open a yoga studio, but we took the plunge.”
Peggy and her daughter practiced yoga sporadically for a decade before the idea of owning a studio ever occurred. For Peggy, yoga and mindfulness practices helped her train for triathlons. The 73-year-old picked up the sport in her fifties. Eboni dove into yoga as a way to deal with the stress of her education consulting job.
“Working this new job, which was such a stress factory, I was like, ‘I have to figure out a regular way to get my yoga practice in so I can cope,’” she said. “[Power yoga] kicked my butt. I just couldn’t imagine how much sweat kept going in my eyes and how much it challenged every plane in my body.”
That challenge would evolve into a lifestyle. Around 2009, three years after trying her first yoga class, Eboni started a yoga-teacher training course in Washington D.C. After she completed the 200-hour course, she moved back to Chicago, where she attended school. Upon returning, Eboni sent an email to the owner of a local yoga studio and offered to work as a part-time instructor.
“They were like, ‘Oh, we’re actually closing that location,’” Eboni said.
She shared the news with her mother. Peggy wondered what the studio’s owners were going to do with their supplies. Eboni inquired again via email.
“Long story short, we ended up taking over that location,” Eboni said.
She and Peggy would purchase the studio within six weeks of the second inquiry, officially opening Eb & Flow in 2013. In addition to delivering a high-quality yoga practice, the duo said that they wanted to break barriers.
“We had witnessed and experienced too many times that yoga was for the middle-to-upper income, white, female market,” Peggy said. “People of color did not feel welcomed even if they had the money. There were no people of color, or different ethnic groups, teaching. There were no people with disabilities teaching. We wanted to change all that.”
“There were no people of color, or different ethnic groups, teaching. There were no people with disabilities teaching. We wanted to change all that.”
Eboni said her classes are unscripted and adaptable. Peggy’s past experience as a vice president of finance for an energy utility company and Eboni’s expertise as a yoga instructor made them ideal business partners.
“We had division of labor,” Peggy said. “I totally 100-percent deferred certain things to her. She 100-percent deferred certain things to me.”
That’s not to say their journey has been without trial. Six years after opening, Eb & Flow was forced to move studios. A month after they reopened, the COVID-19 pandemic engulfed the Windy City. At the peak of the pandemic, the duo began instructing yoga classes over Zoom as the deadly disease changed the yoga and fitness studio businesses.
More people would begin to workout at home after 2020. Peloton stationary bike sales ballooned to 172% above average that year. Similarly, treadmill purchases increased by 135%. Tonal, the wall-mounted strength training device, reported a 700% increase in sales.
Peggy and Eboni were able to sell Zoom class memberships to people from across the country, but that virtual expansion did not compensate for the in-person clientele that was lost. As a result, they no longer have full-time staff members for the operational side of their business. It’s just Eboni, Peggy and the yoga teachers, some of whom have been with the business almost since its founding.
“I’m the front desk,” Eboni said. “When you call, ‘Hi, Eb & Flow!’ It goes wherever my cell phone goes.”
Today, Peggy and Eboni are working to connect with the Wicker Park and Bucktown communities. The two neighborhoods are historically diverse in racial background and income.
“We’re trying to diversify yoga,”
“We’re trying to diversify yoga,” Eboni said, “so it’s the right place for us to be.”
She and her mother recently taught a free yoga class in Wicker Park. About 120 people showed up. Many had never heard of Eb & Flow.
“I introduce myself, and people’s jaws drop open every time,” Eboni said, “It’s just to make people know, like, ‘Hey, yeah, we’re here!’”
Eb & Flow stands as one of two Black-owned yoga studios in Chicago. Eboni said that she appreciates the opportunity to add to the culture of the Windy City. She and her mother said that they hope to inspire balance in their practitioners’ lives.
“You know, I’m just teaching a class,” Eboni said. “I just try to do the best and share my love. And then realizing it has actually changed other people’s lives? It’s like, ‘Okay, I can do this one more time, one more week.’ It’s a gift.”
