bell hooks

homeplace

When I was a young girl the journey across town to my grandmother’s house was one of the most intriguing experiences... I remember this journey not just because of the stories I would hear... I remember the fear, being scared to walk to Baba’s (our grandmothers house) because we would have to pass that terrifying whiteness - those white faces on porches staring down at us with hate. Oh! that feeling of safety, of arrival, of homecoming when we finally reached the edges of her yard, when we could see the soot black face of our grandfather Daddy Gus, sitting in his chair on the porch, smell his cigar, sit in his lap.

-bell hooks

2024 Black Muslim Psychology Conference

Homeplace: A Site of Resistance is an essay by bell hooks published in her acclaimed book Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics [1990]. Hooks described a homeplace as “places where all that truly mattered in life took place—the warmth and comfort of shelter, the feeding of our bodies, the nurturing of our souls. There we learned dignity, integrity of being; learned to have faith... Despite the brutal reality of racial apartheid, of domination, one's homeplace was the one site where one could resist... where we could be affirmed in our minds and hearts... where we could restore to ourselves the dignity denied us."

This gathering, co-sponsored by UChicago Muslim Students Association, is inspired by all the ways we seek to create and sustain homeplaces in our own lives - through faith, love, and community. Join us for an incredible evening of artistic performances featuring Drea D'Nur, Tazeen and LuFuki, poetry readings, great food and even better company!

HOMEPLACE will be hosted by EVERYBODY's favorite Auntie - The Village Auntie - Angelica Lindsey-Ali!

As a master story-teller, internationally renown certified public health expert and leader of a global movement centering spiritual awareness and autonomy as a catalyst for liberation - this Sister knows how to build powerful homeplaces where we can all feel warmth and comfort! Angelica Lindsey-Ali is a women’s wellness catalyst, storyteller, researcher, author, and speaker. She uses her platform to help women strengthen their relationship to their sovereignty, sensuality, spirituality, and self.

2024 Black Muslim Psychology Conference

Angelica Lindsey-Ali

For over 20 years, Angelica Lindsey-Ali has been teaching women about sexual health, intimacy, and emotional well-being as a certified sexual health educator. Combining my clinical, cultural, and religious training, she focuses on educating women about sex and intimacy through an Islamic and African lens. through an online platform, The Village Auntie Movement has grown to over 50,000 powerful women spanning 86 countries.

Angelica Lindsey Ali was born in Detroit and studied at University of Michigan Ann- Arbor, graduating with a degree in African American Studies. She is a storyteller, a writer, dancer, and cultural activist, having spent years traveling the world sharing her research and expertise with communities across the globe. She is also a certified sexual health educator, with experience in HIV / STI prevention methods, prenatal and postnatal sex education, behavioral health interventions, and epidemiology. Angelica is a community scholar with a focus on sacred sexuality in West & East African cultures & African American Islamic identity.

Drea d'Nur

Drea D’Nur is a Mother, Buffalo native music and visual artist, archival researcher and evidence collector, community organizer and activist.

As visual curator and music artist, Drea produced the award-winning “The Spirit of Nina”, encompassing musical theatre, photo and art exhibition, and an award-winning documentary about Nina Simone. As a healing vessel of sound, Drea curated “Healing Songs in Beautiful Spaces”, a spiritually guided sound healing session led by her voice and piano.

Her curated projects include, “Dear Nina: A Sonic Love Letter”—in collaboration with Rootstock Republic (Strings and String Arrangements)—featuring re-orchestrated works from Nina Simone’s songbook of Love songs, Blues and Protest Music for voice and string sextet; and “This Love Thing”—co-executive produced with Rami Nashashibi (IMAN Central, Founding Director)—an album that explores themes of brokenness, repair, and hope “through the turbulent and triumphant expressions of love.”

Drea is currently crafting an interdisciplinary healing art project, “Reimagine Black Death: Expanding the Testimony Through Remembrance”.

Tazeen & LuFuki

Tazeen and LuFuki are a dynamic musical duo from Detroit that believes music is a sacred art form that can be used for storytelling, healing, solidarity, freedom, and social action. Guitarist, vocalist, and flutist Tazeen blends her soulful voice with afro-indo sounds, while guitarist and composer LuFuki weaves Jazz, Funk, Rock, and Classical sounds through his melodies and solos. Together, they manage creative improvised collective, formed by LuFuki, LuFuki and Divine Providence, and have released five albums. They are currently working on several projects, including XRoads, a traveling exhibit on the history of Black Muslims in Jazz, and Autophysiopyschic Millennium, a creative research-music collective to explore and experiment with the great and vast information that Dr. Yusef Lateef left for future generations.

LuFuki holds an MA from Wayne State University in Near Eastern Studies, specializing in Arabic Language with a concentration in the literary genre of Tasliyah, praise poetry. Tazeen is a tenured professor of Arabic at Henry Ford College and holds a Masters of Arts in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.