PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES Private Practice Creator: Arroyo Healing Network Co-Facilitator: Traditional Healing Tent (4-day Chicago African Festival) Reiki, Meditation, Spiritual Guidance, Yoga
Workshops/Presentations (2004-2007) Remembering the Roots That Birthed Us: Traditional African Woman Ways in Gullah Society Traditional African Religions: Yoruba Ifa Practice: Lecture, Northeastern Illinois University Making Memory Matter: UNESCO, Afro-American Genealogical Society, Wild Dove Studio Memory and Memoir: Roots & Flowers Project (St. Augustine, Florida) What the Body Remembers: Universalist Unitarian Church, Fairy Godmother Foundation Tadasana in the Face of Oya: Northeastern Illinois University Grace and Gratitude: Poetry As Meditation on the Perfectly Imperfect Life: Chicago PL The Original Slayer Was Black: A Guide To Being A Black SuperShero: Black Herstory Why Would Anyone Name A Slave Ship Love?: UNESCO TST USA Writing Poetry As A Path Of Healing: Second Sun Salon, UNESCO, PRASI, Jane’s Stories Press
EDUCATION/TRAINING Echoes of the Ancestors: Community Healing with Malidoma Some (ongoing) Sobonfu Some: Grief Rituals for Community Healing (ongoing) Ile Olodo Osun and Ile Ifa Jalumi: Yoruba Egungun and Orisa Traditions (ongoing) Ile Osikan: Yoruba Orisa Tradition (Lucumi) (ongoing) Mystical Sciences Institute with Billie Toppa Tate: Self and community healing Blanche Blacke: Deep chakra work with related oils and crystals Vickie Dodd: Sound Healing, Body Movement (ongoing) Chicago Yoga Center: Yoga Certification (2005), including anatomy with Paul Grilley Itaparica, Brasil: Earth-based healing via plants, sea, and energy (ongoing) Jung Institute of Chicago: various courses (ongoing) Foundation for Shamanic Studies: Basic shamanic practices, soul retrieval (@1996) Laura Norman School of Reflexology: Level 1 (@1996) Other Northwestern University: BA: English, Fiction Concentration, 1987 The University of Sussex (Great Britain): African and Asian Studies, 1985 Languages português (basic conversation, writing) Yoruba (beginning)
RELATED PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES Middle Passage Voyage Lead Team Teacher: Middle Passage Voyage (sailed from Puerto Rico to Brasil) Invited Speaker on the Middle Passage: (Curacao, West Indies and nationally) National Participant (invited): UNESCO Slave Trade Project Featured in Bill Pinkney’s Voyages Home (aired annually on PBS) Featured on CBS Sunday Morning, PBS, WVON, and WBEZ Public Radio Instructor: African Summer Institute for Chicago Teachers (Northeastern Illinois) Fellowships, Awards, Grants Scholar: St. Augustine (Florida) Lincolnville Civil Rights Project Fellow: Cave Canem, Sacatar (Brasil), Ragdale, Norcroft Awards: Discovery Award Series (Poetry Center of Chicago), Chicago Literary Exchange Grantee: Illinois Arts Council, Chicago Community Arts Assistance Program Publications Author of four poetry chapbooks, including Wishful Thinking (2003) Co-editor of Jane's Storie's III: An Anthology of Women's Writing (2006) Tell Them Arroyo Sent You (memoir) The Ariran’s Last Life (novel-in-progress) featured in Margin Magazine, Knowing Stones, Beyond the Frontier, nocturnes Special Features Symposium: Modern Day Penelopes: A Cross-Cultural Women's Symposium Interviews: Margin (Magical Realism), Jamaican Diaspora, independent research films WBEZ, Art Institute of Chicago, Northwestern University, Guild Complex of Chicago Women and Children First, Woman Made Gallery, Drury Lane Books Other Related Activities Member/Artist-in-Residence/Ritualist: UNESCO Transatlantic Slave Trade Project Advisory Board: Slavery and Civil War Museum (Selma, Alabama) Member: The Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD) Co-Founder: Jane’s Stories Press Foundation (Midwest) Creator: Not Your Average Jane (for young women, ages 7-18) Co-Founder and Coordinator: Peacemakers Make Poetry (national) Coordinator: City-wide reading series with Borders and Barnes and Noble Selection Committee: Norcroft Advisory Board: Rhino - The Poetry Forum
