Honolulu - What it Takes to Heal with Prentis Hemphill

Join us for a community event with Prentis Hemphill in conversation with Noʻu Revilla for a discussion of .

From one of the most prominent voices in the trauma conversation comes a groundbreaking new way to heal on a personal and a collective level. As we emerge from the past few years of collective upheaval, are we ready to face the complexities of our time with joy, authenticity, and connection? Now more than ever, we must learn to heal ourselves, connect with one another, and embody our values. In this revolutionary book, Prentis Hemphill shows us how.
asserts that the principles of embodiment—the recognition of our body’s sensations and habits, and the beliefs that inform them—are critical to lasting healing and change. Hemphill, an expert embodiment practitioner, therapist, and activist who has partnered with Brené Brown, Tarana Burke, and Esther Perel, among others, shows us that we don't have to carry our emotional burdens alone. Hemphill demonstrates a future in which healing is done in community, weaving together stories from their own experience as a trauma survivor with clinical accounts and lessons learned from their time as a social movement architect. They ask, “What would it do to movements, to our society and culture, to have the principles of healing at the very center? And what does it do to have healing at the center of every structure and everything we create?”
In this life-affirming framework for the way forward, Hemphill shows us how to heal our bodies, minds, and souls—to develop the interpersonal skills necessary to break down the doors of disconnection and take the necessary risks to reshape our world toward justice.

Prentis Hemphill is a writer, embodiment facilitator, political organizer, and therapist. They are the founder and director of The Embodiment Institute and the Black Embodiment Initiative, and the host of the acclaimed podcast . For the last ten years, Prentis has practiced and taught somatics in social movement organizations and offered embodied practice during moments of social unrest and organizational upheaval. They have taught embodied leadership with Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity and generative somatics and served as the Healing Justice Director of Black Lives Matter Global Network from 2016 to 2018. Their work and writing have appeared in the New York Times, and the Huffington Post. They are a contributor to “You are Your Best Thing”, edited by Tarana Burke and Brene Brown, “Holding Change” by adrienne maree brown, and “The Politics of Trauma” by Staci Haines.

Noʻu Revilla is an ʻŌiwi poet and educator. Born and raised with the Līlīlehua rain of Waiehu, Maui, she prioritizes aloha, gratitude, and collaboration in her practice. Her debut book Ask the Brindled (Milkweed Editions 2022) won the 2021 National Poetry Series and 2023 Balcones Prize. She also won the 2021 Omnidawn Broadside prize for “Iwi hilo means thigh bone means core of one’s being,” which shapeshifted into an amplified poem in collaboration with Jocelyn Ng and Richard and Kai Hamasaki from Wansalwata Productions. She was a 2023 Poetry and the Senses Fellow at Berkeley Arts Research Center and a 8x8: Source Artist at Shangri La: Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design in 2024. She has performed throughout Hawaiʻi, New York, California, Toronto, and Papua New Guinea, and shared poetry and spoken word at the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture on Oʻahu. Her work has also been adapted for dance and theater productions throughout Oceania and art exhibitions for the Honolulu Museum of Art and the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe. She teaches creative writing at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and is a lifetime “slyly / reproductive” student of Haunani-Kay Trask.

Host or Publisher Prentis Hemphill