about us – Canopy + the Roots

“Dahlonega’s premier listening room for music, comedy, and spoken word;

where the hustle slows and the rhythm is heard.”

Meet your study group, schedule your client meeting or special event; Canopy + the Roots is a lounge for livin’ alive with floor to ceiling plants, a coffee bar serving Costa-Rican fresh-ground java and pastries, and a glass yoga studio offering daily classes, series’, and workshops/trainings. Save money with our memberships and receive bottomless coffee, merch, ticket discounts, and more.

the listening room:

We believe in the celebration of diversity and the thriving arts community here in the “peach state”. Offering open-mic for poetry/spoken word, stand-up comedy, improv, all-genre music concerts, comedy class series’, gallery art shows, and film screenings, we aim to serve both customer and performer with integrity and creative, southern hospitality. We hope each guest feels the heart behind the uncommon ambiance, offering, and experience here at Canopy + the Roots, Dahlonega.

It takes a village…

…to raise a dream. Meet some of the faces that make Canopy + the Roots come alive:

Hollie + Brandon

Founder & CEO

Four years ago, this concept was but a dream in the hearts of this married couple. In a series of divine appointments, this vision has been given breath and life. We hope the experience at Canopy + the Roots is one of peace, inspiration, growth, and fellowship. Hollie has been photographing weddings and commercial/editorial work for fifteen years. With a passion for the arts and a background in public education, she brings compassion and a desire to serve. Also a 200 hr Registered Yoga Teacher, Hollie teaches yoga in the Canopy studio. Brandon, an innovative and strategic risk-taker, has been a nationally-awarded salesperson and client manager in the building products industry since 2007. Brandon brings a powerhouse of essential skills to our backstage and behind the scenes operations at Canopy + the Roots.

Follow Hollie on Instagram @bohohollie or see her professional work at www.lytlefoto.com

Ansley Walker

Fiber Art : Knot Ordinary

Ansley is the maker behind Knot Ordinary, our offering of hand-crafted macrame plant hangers, key chains, rearview hangers, earrings and more. She is currently a junior in high school and started her business two years ago. When she discovered macrame at a conference, she instantly fell in love with both the challenge and the creative outlet it provided. We are excited to partner with her and make her creations available for purchase in the Canopy.

Follow Knot Ordinary on Instagram @knot_ordinary or on her website .

Hollie Lytle

Yoga Instructor, 200 RYT

Hollie is a 200 hour registered yoga teacher who believes in the mind, body, spirit practice and benefits of yoga. She grew up with yoga as a household word, her father practicing yoga in his twenties and thirties. Her personal practice began as a therapeutic “prescription” from a surgeon for scoliosis and thus began her passion for the connection between yoga and all-body wellness.

Jess Place

Yoga Instructor, 200 RYT

(Vin-Yin, Rise+Grind)

Jess is a yoga instructor who has been leading yoga classes since 2019. She currently holds an RYT200 certification with Yoga Alliance and has almost completed her RYT500 certification. In 2020, she opened a pop up yoga studio in downtown Cumming, GA called Authentic Yoga Studio. Jess has taught in various settings, including a boutique yoga studio, community centers, a martial arts gym, fitness centers, and the great outdoors. She specializes in blending yoga with Mindfulness to hold space for students’ self-compassion and acceptance. She is also co-owner of a small business where she creates and facilitates Mindfulness and meditation curriculum for various groups of people with similar life experiences and circumstances, North Georgia Mindfulness Project.

A retired high school English teacher, Jess holds a PhD in Curriculum & Instruction. She has been married to her husband, Russ, for 16 years and they have two highly active and creative daughters, ages 8 and 10. Her other interests are reading, hiking, mountain biking, and camping. Jess is excited to be your new yoga instructor at Canopy + the Roots!

Danny Wilson

Interior Design

Danny is an artist with a spectacular talent for event build-out, theatrical aesthetic, and design. To see his work, just step underground and into the landscape of the ROOTS, our live performance venue. Danny is fascinated by the spaces people inhabit, both physically and emotionally. His work is mostly figurative with strong elements of anthropomorphism and transformation. He explores concepts around personal and societal roles and how they impact our ability to adapt and transform. His use of animals combined with human subject matter is a statement about his belief that all living creatures hold equal importance on this planet and share an interconnectedness that we do not fully comprehend, but impacts us regardless and in ways we cannot always imagine.

Find more of Danny’s work at 3rd Element Studio.

Kate Wright

Yoga Instructor, 200 RYT (Flow, Restorative)

Kate offers vinyasa flow classes designed to nourish the body and mind by emphasizing presence and awareness. She prides herself on a great playlist and enjoys infusing classes with tidbits of yogic philosophy and alignment tips.

Kate sees yoga as a practice of eternal discovery of self. It’s the perfect compliment to every other physical activity or sport, honing sensitivity and proprioception, exercising both discipline and release. But more meaningfully, it can be a way of living. The philosophy of yoga guides one to their truest form—uncovering one’s intrinsic nature, becoming one’s own healer.
Kate has been a yoga practitioner on and off since high school, but became more committed in college as she began to connect spiritually with the process and experienced more profound personal growth through consistency. She began her teaching journey at REI in Atlanta for the outdoor schools program and completed her RYT-200 training at Asheville Yoga Center in January of 2020.

Favorite Yoga Quote:
“The practice of yoga induces a primary sense of measure and proportion. Reduced to our own body, our first instrument, we learn to play it, drawing from it maximum resonance and harmony.”

• Yehudi Menuhin

“We have never arrived, we are in a constant state of becoming.”
• Bob Dylan

“Be at least as interested in what goes on inside of you as what happens outside. If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place.”

• Eckhart Tolle