Our Story

Hadiya Mind & Movement was born from Dr. Shani's decades of work as a dancer, scholar, athlete, and somatic practitioner. With a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and certifications in trauma-informed yoga and yoga therapy, Dr. Shani created HMM as a space where Black women — and all people seeking liberation — could find practices that honored their full humanity.

At the heart of HMM is HEWA, a soul-rooted movement form Dr. Shani developed as a reclamation of breath, body, and ritual for embodied healing. HEWA draws on ancient yogic traditions and wisdom practices while unapologetically centering Black women's liberation, intergenerational memory, and intuitive presence. It is movement as medicine, not performance. It is breath as remembering. It is the body as ancestral archive.

In 2024, Rev. Oni Ojukwu Mantenso I joined HMM, bringing The Practice — a contemplative spiritual offering grounded in Zen-Taoist philosophy, shamanic wisdom, and Black Baptist prophetic tradition. The Practice extends HMM's reach beyond movement into the realms of meditation, ritual, and inner freedom. Together, Dr. Shani and Rev. Oni steward a platform that integrates body, mind, and spirit — offering classes, ceremonies, and pathways for people seeking to live more fully, freely, and intentionally.

Also in 2024, HMM became home to Uhuru Ministries, a sacred ministry offering bespoke ceremonies for life's most profound passages: weddings, baby blessings, rites of passage, land blessings, and homegoing services. Uhuru Ministries extends the core values of HMM into the ceremonial realm, honoring the moments that ask to be held differently.

Movement Classes

Our movement offerings include HEWA yoga, functional fitness, seated strength, and dance-based practices. Each class is designed to meet you where you are—whether you're healing from trauma, building strength, seeking flexibility, or simply wanting to move with intention and joy.

The Practice

A contemplative spiritual offering that includes guided meditation, breathwork, somatic grounding, and contemplative inquiry. The Practice is for those seeking to cultivate inner stillness, deepen their spiritual awareness, and integrate mindfulness into daily life.

Uhuru Ministries

Sacred ceremonies for life's thresholds: wedding and civil union blessings, baby blessings and naming ceremonies, rites of passage and transitions, land and home blessings, and homegoing (funerary) services. Each ceremony is custom-designed to honor your story, your lineage, and the land you stand on.

Embodied Education

Workshops, trainings, and courses that explore the intersection of movement, somatics, liberation, and healing. We believe that knowledge without embodiment is incomplete—and that true learning happens when mind, body, and spirit are engaged together.

Our Values

Liberation as Practice
We believe that freedom is not a distant goal but an embodied practice. Liberation happens in the breath, in the choice to move or be still, in the reclamation of agency over one's own body and spirit.

Ancestral Wisdom as Foundation
We honor the lineages that have come before us—yogic traditions, contemplative practices, shamanic wisdom, African diasporic spirituality, and the lived knowledge passed down through generations. Our work is rooted in respect, research, and humility.

Inclusivity & Accessibility
HMM is for every-body. We design our classes and offerings to be accessible across experience levels, physical abilities, and economic circumstances. Sliding scale options, recorded classes, and flexible formats ensure that anyone who seeks this work can find it.

Integrity & Authenticity
We do not perform wellness—we live it. Our practices emerge from our own healing journeys, our own training, our own commitment to growth. We show up as whole humans, not gurus. We teach what we know, and we remain humble students of the work.

Mind-Body Integration
The false division between mind and body is one of colonialism's most insidious legacies. At HMM, we resist that split. Every movement class engages the mind. Every meditation honors the body. We are integrated beings, and our practices reflect that truth.

Liberation as Practice
We believe that freedom is not a distant goal but an embodied practice. Liberation happens in the breath, in the choice to move or be still, in the reclamation of agency over one's own body and spirit.

Ancestral Wisdom as Foundation
We honor the lineages that have come before us—yogic traditions, contemplative practices, shamanic wisdom, African diasporic spirituality, and the lived knowledge passed down through generations. Our work is rooted in respect, research, and humility.

Inclusivity & Accessibility
HMM is for every-body. We design our classes and offerings to be accessible across experience levels, physical abilities, and economic circumstances. Sliding scale options, recorded classes, and flexible formats ensure that anyone who seeks this work can find it.

Integrity & Authenticity
We do not perform wellness—we live it. Our practices emerge from our own healing journeys, our own training, our own commitment to growth. We show up as whole humans, not gurus. We teach what we know, and we remain humble students of the work.

Mind-Body Integration
The false division between mind and body is one of colonialism's most insidious legacies. At HMM, we resist that split. Every movement class engages the mind. Every meditation honors the body. We are integrated beings, and our practices reflect that truth.

Hadiya Mind & Movement serves anyone seeking:

• To reconnect with their body after trauma, illness, or disconnection

• To build a sustainable movement practice rooted in healing, not punishment

• To deepen their spiritual life through embodied contemplative practice

• To mark life's passages with intention and ceremony

• To join a community committed to liberation, wellness, and collective flourishing

We especially honor and center the experiences of Black women, LGBTQ+ folks, trauma survivors, and anyone who has been told their body is wrong, too much, or not enough. You belong here.

We envision a world where:

• Movement is recognized as medicine, not just exercise

• The body is honored as sacred, not objectified or commodified

• Healing is understood as revolutionary work

• Ceremony marks the passages that matter

• Contemplative practice is accessible to all, not just the privileged few

• Wellness is collective, not individualistic

• Freedom lives in the breath, the choice, the body in motion

Hadiya Mind & Movement is not just a studio. It is a sanctuary. A laboratory. A gathering place. A homecoming.