My Redroom URL

• http://www.redroom.com/member/anandaleeke

About Me

• Ananda Kiamsha Madelyn Leeke (www.anandaleeke.com

  ), a lawyer turned “innerpreneur,” is President and CEO of Kiamsha.com, LLC, a company that promotes creativity through coaching and expressive arts, teaches contemplative practices (i.e. yoga, Reiki healing touch, meditation, breathing exercises, journaling, affirmations, and prayer), and builds community that awakens your soul and transforms your life. Leeke hosts The Ananda Leeke Show (www.talkshoe.com/tc/15820) and Ananda Leeke TV (www.youtube.com/anandaleeke). Her online yoga class airs on Stickam.com (www.stickam.com/anandaleeke). Ananda also serves as the DC Social Media Examiner on Examiner.com (http://www.examiner.com/x-24564-DC-Social-Media-Examiner).

   

  Currently, Leeke works as an artist-in-residence for Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts (www.smithfarm.com). As an artist-in-residence, Leeke engages patients and medical staff in creative expression, guiding them to tap inherent creative and cultural roots through breathing, relaxation, and Reiki healing touch exercises; and a variety of mediums including visual arts, music, storytelling, and creative writing.

  Since 1995, Leeke’s mixed media collages, wire sculptures, and paintings have been exhibited in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, North Carolina, and Kentucky. Her artwork was featured in Heart and Soul Magazine in 2001. Leeke’s art work often reflects her passion for issues affecting people of color and women. In 2002, she created and donated Our Womanist Spirit and I am my sista’s keeper wire sculpture collections to The Women’s Collective, a direct services organization that serves women living with HIV/AIDS. Her concern for people living with HIV/AIDS motivated her to create Ask The Troubadours Who Have Come From Those Who Have Loved, a wire sculpture collection dedicated to African Americans and World AIDS Day. The collection was donated to Howard University Hospital in 2003.

  Leeke’s debut novel, Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One (www.lovestroubadours.com) was published in 2007. Her poetry appeared in Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the 21st Century edited by E. Ethelbert Miller. She also published several books of poetry and women’s creativity workbooks that are used in her workshops and creativity coaching practice. They include My Soul Speaks (1992), I am my sistas keeper (1994), Baby I got it bad for you blues (1995), Feminist Soul (2000), Monday Morning Meditations (2000), Be Fearless and Choose Love (2000), Blessed is the fruit of thy womb (2001), La Bohemienne (2001), and Our Womanist Spirit (2002). Her new book, That Which Awakens Me: A Creative Woman's Poetic Memoir of Self-Discovery will be published in Fall 2009. In addition, Leeke has facilitated expressive arts and self-care workshops for women of color living with HIV/AIDS; cancer patients, their caregivers, and health care providers; interfaith communities attending the Washington National Cathedral’s women’s spirituality conferences; children with unique learning styles; and lay ministers.

  Leeke is a graduate of Morgan State University (B.A. in French, 1986), Howard University School of Law (J.D., 1989), and Georgetown University Law Center (LL.M. in Securities and Financial Regulation, 1991). Her memberships include the National League of American Pen Women, Yoga Alliance, Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington’s Business Volunteer Program, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., All Souls Unitarian Church, and Insight Meditation Community of Washington’s People of Color Sangha. Leeke lives and plays in the historic U Street neighborhood in Northwest, Washington, D.C.

Interests & Hobbies

• Yoga, meditation, spirituality, writing, art, healing arts, world travel, books, music, dancing, learning new things, spending time with family and friends, community-building, social media, running, walking, Reiki, Thai cuisine, and so much more

Favorite Books

• All of Maya Angelou's books All of Alice Walker's books All of Ntozake Shange's books All of Lorraine Hansberry's books All of SARK's books by bell hooks: Communion, All About Love, We Real Cool, Salvation, Sisters of the Yam, Wounded, Bone Black, Raptured, Ain't I A Woman, and Mourning Song The Black Woman edited by Toni Cade Bambara Sepia by Isabelle Allende Women Who Run With Wolves by Clarissa Pinkoles Just Above My Head by James Baldwin Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Favorite Authors

• Maya Angelou, Ntozake Shange, Lorraine Hansberry, bell hooks, Susan L. Taylor, SARK, Alice Walker, Anna Julia Cooper, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Victor Hugo, James Baldwin, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, and so many more

What I'm Reading

• O Magazine, Yoga Journal, Kinky Gazpacho by Lori L. Tharps, Daily OM by Madisyn Taylor, and Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure edited by SMITH Magazine

WORK

• I currently work as an artist, writer, yoga teacher, Reiki Master practitioner, creativity coach, radio host, social media strategist, and innerpreneur.

Web Links

• Ananda's official web site
• Ananda's author blog
• Ananda's Radio Show
• Ananda's debut novel, Love's Troubadours - Karma: Book One
• Ananda's DC Social Media Examiner Articles on Examiner.com
• Ananda Leeke TV

EDUCATION

UPCOMING WORK

• I am currently working on my first memoir, That Which Awakens Me - Part One: A woman's poetic memoir of self discovery. It will be published by iUniverse, Inc. in Spring 2009.

INFLUENCES

• My writing is influenced by my life experiences, music, history, culture, cuisine, world travel, popular culture, books and magazines I have read, art, yoga, meditation, spirituality, community-building, American politics, and so much more.

CAUSES I SUPPORT

• -Senator Barack Obama's Presidential Campaign 

  -People living with cancer who are served by Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts and Howard University Hospital in Washington, DC

  -The Women's Collective, a direct services organization that serves women living with HIV/AIDS in Washington, DC

  -All Souls Unitarian Church

  -People of Color Sangha and Refuge3 Sangha of the Insight Community of Washington, DC

  -Any causes that support women and girls of color  

  -Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.

PUBLISHERS

• iUniverse, Inc.

HOW TO CONTACT MY PUBLISHER

• http://www.iuniverse.com