Damali is an artist, writer, mindfulness practitioner, facilitator, and emerging filmmaker who is guided by three values: love, liberation, and compassion. She began telling stories on film in 2014 and launched her YouTube channel, @freedomnarratives, in 2019. Over the last several years, Damali has talked to dozens of people about activism, racial equity, belonging, mindfulness, and de-colonial scholarship.
Damali’s life and work are grounded in spiritual practices that began at Heart & Soul Center of Light. This grounding carried her into her work as a leader in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB). From 2021 – 2023, Damali worked as Director of DEI at the California Institute for Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. In that role, she created DEIB programming and events and moderated transformative conversations with influential social change activists including Rhonda Magee, Monica Guzman, Yung Pueblo, and Tricia Hersey. Damali is currently Director of DEIB at LifeLong Medical Care in Berkeley, CA.
Damali is a licensed practitioner and prayer facilitator. She also leads the Imagining Justice Collective, dances with Praise Groove, is a member of the Website Circle, and has acted in Summer School productions for the last several years.
“We need more light about each other.”
One of Damali’s favorite quotes comes from Malcolm X, el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz – “We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity.” She loves this quote because it speaks to the ways we can create a more just and loving world. If we see more light in one another, we can begin to see our shared humanity.