Shades & Layers
Shades and Layers is a storytelling platform celebrating Black women and women of colour who are building something of their own — on the African continent and across the diaspora.
The podcast launched in 2020 and is now more than 100 episodes strong. In 2025, the show was nominated for Best Long-Time Podcast at the Black Podcasting Awards.
In each conversation, host Kutloano Skosana sits down with founders to explore business ownership, representation, and what sustainability and success really mean in a complex, interconnected world. The conversations are wide-ranging — part masterclass in entrepreneurship, part wisdom for living well — and always a space for women to be fully human: to share the quirks, the doubts, and the vulnerabilities behind the highlight reel.
These days, Shades and Layers is two things woven together. Alongside the podcast, Kutloano — now exploring a new chapter of her own in Italy — sends Life Notes: honest monthly letters on identity, motherhood, reinvention, and the business of building a life.
Shades and Layers’ founding philosophy is: a story well told can change your life, you don't need big accolades for your entrepreneurial journey to matter.
The guests span beauty, fashion, and wellness, North and South: Dr. Theo Mothoa-Frendo on building a science-based African skincare range with USO; Taryn Gill of The Perfect Hair on supply chains and brand-building; Katonya Breux of Unsun Cosmetics on melanin and sunscreen for every skin tone; Abiola Akanni of IYA Well on non-performance in yoga; and designers like the late Maria McCloy of her eponymous fashion label, Nkuli Mlangeni-Berg of The Ninevites, and Candace Lawrence of Modern Gesture, championing handmade, custom, and circular production.
Whether you're here to listen, to read, or to build something of your own — welcome to the circle.
Shades & Layers
IYA Well and Non-performative Yoga with Abiola Akani (S4, E3)
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IYA - Non-performative Yoga
Hello and welcome to Shades and Layers. I’m Kutloano Skosana Ricci, your host, and this is episode 3 of Season 4.
Today my guest is Abiola Akanni, a yoga educator who has successfully cultivated inclusive wellness spaces that encourage other’ed communities to develop their personal yoga practice.
The Nigerian-American yoga instructor and entrepreneur
is the influencer behind Yoga by Biola and founder of IYA, the online yoga
platform committed to non-performative yoga. Akanni is committed to disrupting
competitive yoga standards found in western culture and cultivating practices
that nurture instead of criticize.
Her inclusive mission
promotes yoga as ritual while teaching individuals how to re-mother their
bodies for generational healing.
We recorded this conversation during the northern hemisphere summer of 2021 and she had just received her first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine. It was also just as she graduated the first cohort of her Yoga Teacher Training on Iya.
As you will discover, Abiola is a highly ambitious person and for her, pursuing an entrepreneurial path is much deeper than financial reward.
MENTIONS AND LINKS
Yoga By Biola - Abiola Akani's very own YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/c/YogabyBiola
Trap Vinyasa - https://www.trapvinyasa.com/
Yoga Behind Bars - https://yogabehindbars.org/
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