Shea butter epiphanies: Furaha Henry-Jones at TEDxDayton

Furaha Henry-Jones is an associate professor of English at Sinclair Community College, where she also serves as director of Sinclair's Writing Workshop and organizes the Sinclair Cultural Diversity Grant project Ubuntu: Poetry and Community. Furaha has spent the past 20 years working with people and words. She has taught in public high schools and prisons, GED programs and college composition courses, charter schools for out-of-school youth, and migrant education programs. Her passion for helping people learn about themselves and others through the written word began in classrooms, but has extended into life beyond formal educational settings.

It took 10,000 miles and 20 years for Furaha to get there, but in summer 2012, she and her husband, G. Scott Jones, a musician, journeyed to Africa. She had anticipated a personal transformation, but she hadn't realized how fundamentally the experience would deepen her connections to her family, Dayton, Ohio and her art. Furaha was particularly affected by facing her assumptions about authentic Africanness and experiencing the philosophy Ubuntu (translation: "I am because you are") in action. Accompanied by Scott's music, she'll share the story of preparing for her first trip to Africa and grappling with the philosophy Ubuntu to return home with a clearer sense of self and a re-dedication to everything that is most important. Furaha writes, "My simplest hope is the listener will ask, "Who am I? Really? How am I being in this world? How is my life woven into my community?" A more grand hope is for each individual to think deeply about his or her life story and the roles identity, race and global citizenship have played. I want them to uncover and face assumptions that block them from connecting with their communities."

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)