About Salimah
When I was a little child, I delighted in the activities of my close-knit Sufi Muslim community in Detroit. There were always kids playing, the sound of rhythmic prayers echoing throughout the halls, and large all-night dhikr circles (meditation-chanting-praising God) that enchanted my soul. With a move to New Orleans when I was 5, trumpets and trombones would be added to the sounds that I associate with home and belonging. No place is perfect, and neither are communities, but what we lacked, we made up for with colorful houses, festive parades, and joyful second lines to celebrate the lives of our deceased.
I have lived many lives in one. As a youth, I wrote and recorded music, was a dancer for a pop singer, and traveled with popular boybands. I moved to Boston and there, I became a community organizer in a beautiful community with folx from around the world. And this eventually led me back to a Muslim community where I became a devoted hijabi and advocate and where I met some of my closest friends. I went to law school, and I landed a job at the ACLU of Maryland. I went on to work for various other organizations, and made my way to the San Francisco Bay Area where I was a community lawyer working on anti-gentrification policy and fighting in court to keep vulnerable folx in their homes. I traveled to 45 countries and afterwards, became the Executive Director of an international human rights organization, but something always felt missing. An unlived life was calling out to me and I could only hear it clearly when I started dancing again.
I began going to former Olodum dancer, Tania Santiago’s Afro-Brazilian dance classes three times a week. The live drumming, intuitive movements, and dances of the Orishas of Candomblé became like sustenance for me. I began singing again, then playing the guitar (badly), which led to meditating, and songwriting. It was like a chain of creativity, one link at a time, I was being pulled in. During dance-related trips to Chincha, Peru and Bahia, Brazil, I had a spiritual awakening and there, in the midst of joy, I remembered myself. I realized then, that the pathway to fulfillment, healing, and purpose is paved with the sights and sounds of creativity. And, creativity is fun!
I joined a rigorous and transformative POC-led life coaching program and got certified as a life coach. Then I got certified as an RYT 200 yoga teacher. I began leading gatherings to help BIPOC discover their life’s purpose and in doing so, I realized that I had found my calling. I understood that, through the cultivation of art, creativity, and joy, my purpose is to build a community of folx who are speaking, living, acting, and loving with guidance from their highest selves. I help to excavate the wildest dreams of others so that they are living in full alignment with their soul’s true calling. I realized that creativity is the gateway to source, but it is also a destination in and of itself. I learned that true community must be rooted in creativity, spirituality, and connection and must be underpinned by a deep and abiding love for the collective.
Transformation is not new to me. I am the daughter of a father who was a former professional dancer-turned-Imam who loves Jimi Hendrix and Star Wars; and a mother who went from being a stay-at-home-mom of 10 children to a professor who links sci-fi with Islam, an archivist, and a President Obama appointee. I understand what it looks like when the impossible materializes, like magic. In 2013, I gave up eating meat, and in 2017, I stopped eating dairy products because my heart longed to reduce the harm I was causing in the world. In March 2021, I took a leap from my old life and began pursuing music full-time and founded two coaching enterprises. My story is still being written, but now, thanks to a connection with Source, my community, and my excellent life coach, I am the author of my story. Every day, I am returning to myself and I am delighted to witness members of my community doing the same.
With love,
S
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