Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger The setting sun illuminates Newark resident Deidra Marshall, left, while she is next to classmate classmate Theresa Trakington. Yoga has caught on in Newark and its free. Each week 30 or more people gather in Washington Park for an hour to do yoga. The organizer, Debbi Kaminsky, said people's lives get transformed. She's part of a group called Newark Yoga Movement and it has brought Yoga into Newark schools and other venues. They've taught 9,000 students in 2 yrs and 1,000 teachers. In addition to going to the park each week, they are also working with the Shabazz High School football team. Wednesday July 25, 2012. NEWARK, NJ, USA. Photo by (Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger) Newark Yoga Movement Class in Washington Park gallery (19 photos)

Jauvon Scales was riding his bike in downtown Newark the other evening when he saw something he had never seen before in this tough old town, and it filled him with a sense of peace.

There were 40 people kneeling on mats in Washington Park practicing yoga. They were an island of calm, oblivious to the traffic, the light rail train gliding along Broad Street, horn blaring.

The oddity of it all made Scales get off his bike and join in. He did what practitioners call the chair pose, then a little downward dog, lifting his head slightly to see if he was doing it right.

The 18-year-old Scales didnt stay long, but merely by stopping he embraced one of the many yoga concepts and principles. Its called Namaste, and it loosely means: I see the good in you and you see the good in me and we see the good in each other.

There was a time when you could live to be 100 in this town and never see a sight like what young Scales saw.

But those days are gone, apparently.

Listen up.

Yoga is sweeping through Newark. There are classes at the YMWCA and at Lotus Yoga Newark on Washington Street, Welcome "Om" Yoga and Wellness House on Bleeker Street and New Ark Yoga & Wellness on Lincoln Park. If you get there today, you can take a free hip-hop yoga class at 10 a.m. at the Lincoln Park Music Festival.

The people in the park are part of the Newark Yoga Movement, a nonprofit group that has been gaining ground here for the past two years. By their own count, they have taught 9,000 students and 1,000 teachers in Newark.

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