I am an American Maroon Griot.
Born in the Haight-Ashbury of San Francisco, raised in South Central Los Angeles, Maroon in the Taino language means wild and free.
I’m descended from African slaves who taught themselves to read, when it was a death sentence, and who blended with the Choctaw Nation, and formed all-Black towns in the rural South. A Griot is a African term for a combination Healer, Historian, Diplomat, Musician, Scientist, Poet, Praise-singer, who traveled and operated in many nations, languages, and histories. History to a people is like memory to a person. Trouble ensues when non-discriminatory, non-addictive life ways, are “mis-remembered”, through systematic “mis-education”.A maroon griot promotes health and reedom, through knowledge.
For nearly 50 years, I have been an educator, therapist, writer, performing artist activist historian and grassroots public health educator. Moving beyond the college chassroom, in these pandemic times is a an urgent necessity. I’m offering consulting and education services to individuals, institutions, and communities. For individuals I offer The Yoga of Intersectionality workshops, for mindful practitioners who do outreach to populations experiencing health disparities. For organizations Practicing the TAO (Transforming Addictive Organizations): Changing your individual practice to Organizational Praxis. Contact me. Lets talk.
“My life mission and my personal and professional lineage, inform all my work. As an American Maroon Griot, is to find that story, that song, that frees and inspires people to find their true purpose, creating a lifeway that frees them, and frees others.”
- Gurumukh
Gurumukh Mark Harris MA CADC I MAC
I have over 40 years experience in mental health/addictions counseling, education, and training; also teaching Kundalini Yoga, music performance and production. My therapeutic focus on “hard to reach” cross-cultural populations utilizes a transpersonal, African-American & Native American Post-Colonial Psychology. In order to recover sobriety, you must also recover culture. To achieve that, I have created a unique and effective prevention programming that includes Rites of Passage, infused with Addiction Studies, and Ethnic Studies.
Meet Thomas Mapfumo
Diversitv interview of The Bob Marley of Zimbabwe who lives in Oregon
