priest/shaman/bodeme. priest/shaman/bodeme. At the age of 13, Herukhuti became the godson and student of musician, composer, teacher, and Sufi master, Genghis Nor. That relationship continued until Genghis' death a few years ago. At 14, Hameed Sharif Williams became Herukhuti Amen when he was initiated into Seshini Hetch Ha Nub Kera Amen Ra or The Temple of the White and Gold Lotus and Shrine of Amen Ra, a modern priesthood dedicated to rediscovering the power of Ab Ha Ntr Rkh Khmti (ancient Egyptian spirituality). Heru remained a member of the priesthood for nearly ten (10) years during which he became the hem neter tepi or high priest of the priesthood's satellite in Los Angeles. As a priest, Heru officiated at wedding and naming ceremonies, birth celebrations, and rituals as well as provided pastoral counseling through oracle divination and astrological readings. In December of 2003, Heru began training with Dr. Malidoma Somé in Dagara cosmology and spirituality. The Dagara people live in Burkina Faso and Ghana, West Africa. During the training, Heru was recognized as a bodeme or "gatekeeper" of the fire clan/shrine. The bodeme are members of the Dagara community which maintain gates between this world and other worlds. The bodeme are known for their spiritual gifts to the community and represent an important society of secrets among the Dagara. The bodeme practice same-sex desire and ritualized sex in the fulfillment of their spiritual responsibilities/role to the community.
activist. Also at the age of fourteen, Heru became an activist working on human rights campaigns dealing with white supremacy and violence against people of African ancestry. He was one of several youth to speak at the 5,000-person rally to protest the racial climate in the City of New York after the brutal death of Michael Griffith in Howard Beach, New York. He co-founded the organization Simbas, a grassroots political organization which later became the organization NUBIA. He was also active in an organization originally co-founded by Sista Souljah (Lisa Williamson), National Youth and Student Alliance. Leaving NY to attend school in California, Heru co-founded the organization National Youth Network (NYN). Based at the University of Southern California, NYN created support groups and cultural programming for students of African-ancestry who felt alienated and marginalized by the “mainstream” campus culture. His efforts as a campus organizer led to the election of 6 students of African ancestry to the school's undergraduate student government, Student Senate, a body of 12 students that controlled a $1-million annual budget. Recognized as experienced youth-activist, Heru was elected to co-chair the board of directors for Global Youth Connect (GYC), an international human rights organization lead by and for people under the age of 31. Under his leadership of the board, GYC launched the Human Rights Learning Community which brought together 15 activists under the age of 30 from across the globe to experience a training that combined community building, skills development, personal healing and support, and popular education to nurture the whole activist.
artist. Heru is a playwright and stage director. In the late 90s, work he created as the artistic director for a youth theatre group appeared in the first New York International Fringe Theatre Festival. His theatrical work, both provocative and experimental, combines his life experience as a black man living in contemporary urban New York with his appreciation for the cultural and spiritual traditions of tribal African life. In 1997, Heru became involved with the international theatre/social movement Theatre of the Oppressed (TO). TO was originally conceived and developed in Brazil by director and playwright Augusto Boal. It combines theatre games and exercises, children's games, and theatrical dramaturgy to construct meaning stories of how oppressed people live. These stories are then used as opportunities of collective problem-solving and strategizing by the communities who experience the oppression. For the last five years, Heru has worked as a TO practitioner, called a Joker, combining these powerful techniques with African ritual. Heru's poetry has been published in anthologies like Má-Ka Diasporic Juks: Contemporary Writings by Queers of African Descent and his personal narratives in anthologies like the 2003 publication THINK AGAIN, a collection of writings critical of HIV/AIDS prevention strategies.
educator/researcher/theorist. Heru's intellectual interests include: Afrocentric epistemology, critical pedagogy and transformative education, non-Western approaches to understanding human sexuality and gender, the study of power at the intersections of race, culture, gender, sexuality, class, and age, qualitative and quantitative research methods, the study of the impact of European male supremacy on all people, healthy systems development, social justice/change methodology, US studies, organizational studies, and the sociology of knowledge/truth. His former column in ARISE magazine covering professional and organization development themes as well as politics in the workplace was a highly regarded source of critical thinking for professionals in the LGBT community. Heru has presented his work at a number of professional and academic conferences including the XIV International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain, the annual meeting of the Southern California Association of Black Psychologists, the fall forum of the National Convention of the Coalition of Essential Schools, International Transformative Learning Conference, National Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution, and the Pedagogy/Theatre of the Oppressed International Conference. He has also appeared as an invited presenter at DC Black Pride, 2003 Gay Men's Health Summit, and the Black Gay Research Summit. Heru has also had the honor of being an invited guest lecturer at various universities across the country.
Herukhuti is available for presentations, lectures, and group discussions on any of the areas in which he works. For information on availability and rates, please contact speakersbureau@blackfunk.org. |
