ABOUT ME...
I am a creative spirit, a songbird, a channel, a wielder of words and ideas, a yogi, a lover of life, a space-holder, a Black Feminist Devotée, and a grounded nomad. I am a daughter of the Waters + Forest; a grand-daughter of the Stars, a god-mother, a fashionable auntie from Philly Philly. I am a student of the Creator, Olodumaré, Makhosi/Makhlu, of my ancestors and the wealth of African and Indigenous divinity teachings. I come from a long line of healers, prophets, midwives, singers, dancers, church founders, entrepreneurs, farmers, photographers, and worshippers not defined by their relationship with capital, but by their relationship with Creation , Community + the Divine.
I work with sound, breath, dreams, writing, plants, intuitive guidance/vision/prophecy, and the prevailing frequency of LOVE to support myself and others in dropping into our most authentic selves, and connecting with our inherent TRUTH, inherent WHOLENESS, inherent CALLING. I am trained in a number of ancestral and indigenous knowledge systems to offer a wide range of healing work from yoga and meditation to womb health and ritual. I am a Kundalini Raj Priestess trained by Siri Rishi Kaur, and I am undergoing a continuous initiation under the study of Makhosi Himi and Makhosi Ekhaya of the MA Temple.
ARTIST BIO...
Dr. Nia O. Witherspoon(Smith BA/Stanford PhD) is a Black queer multidisciplinary artist + healing justice practitioner investigating the metaphysics of Black liberation, desire, and diaspora, as they track across the quantum time-space continuum. A forever student and practitioner of African cosmologies, and combining Black feminism, eco-feminism, and auto-critogrophy with mediums in writing, theatre/performance, sound, and installation, Witherspoon creates portals for communion, witnessing, and healing into the ancient future. Current and recent works include: Priestess of Twerk: A Black Femme Temple to Pleasure + Wisdom School (HERE Art Center/Musical Theatre Factory, 2024), Chronicle X: The Dark Girl Chronicles (The Shed, 2021), and MESSIAH (La Mama, 2019). She is a recipient of the Tow Fellowship, NEFA/NTP, NPN Creation + Touring Fund, and NYSCA, as well as having been a Creative Capital Awardee, a Jerome New Artist Fellow, and an artist in residence at HERE Art Center and Musical Theatre Factory, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and New York Theatre Workshop. Her work has been or will be featured by Irondale, Theatre MITU, Mercury Store, The Bushwick Starr, The Shed, BRIC, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Joe’s Pub, HERE, JACK, La Mama ETC, Playwright’s Realm, Links Hall, National Black Theatre, Brava Theatre, BAAD, Movement Research, BAX, Dixon Place, Painted Bride, 651 Arts, and elsewhere. Her writing is published in the Journal of Popular Culture; Imagined Theatres; Women and Collective Creation; and IMANIMAN: Poets Writing in the Anzaldúan Borderlands. She has held creative and academic appointments at BerkleeNYC, Williams College, Fordham University, University of Massachusetts, Florida State University, and Arizona State University. THE DARK GIRL CHRONICLES: A Trilogy will be published by 53rd St. Press in Spring 2025.