Sounding
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Grounding
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Embodying
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Sounding • Grounding • Embodying •
A educational experience blending creative and healing arts; grounded in West-African ancestral technology; and focused on individual and collective embodiment, joy, and connection to the Earth.
Onyi's guidance helped us recognize the interconnectedness of our internal experiences and external environments, reinforcing the idea that everything is connected. I highly recommend Onyi's class to anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of and connection with nature. Her approach is both enlightening and inspiring, offering valuable insights that resonate long after the class ends.
—Rohan S.
About the Program
Sounding, Grounding, Embodying Foribale takes participants on a multi-faceted journey filled with engaging lecture, insightful group discussion and inspiring practice focused within arts disciplines such as…
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Onyi has trained across Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian folkloric and contemporary dance styles while also having a strong ability to improvise movement based on her deep connection to her body and the elements, and the ability to listen and be guided. Watch sample videos here:
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Onyi is a vocalist, recording artist, and instrumentalist (percussion, light piano) and has often been in roles where she is performing, conducting, directing, teaching and in other ways engaging with music–Afro-diasporic and world music over the last 20+ years.
Explore discography here (scroll to Music section)
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Onyi is skilled at making jewelry (primarily beadwork) for both conventional and sacred/spiritual use, creating altars, and engaging in other forms of crafting using whatever materials (natural or otherwise) that are available within her environment—repurposing and recycling the old into new expressions.
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Onyi delivers thought provoking reflections and considerations through spoken and written word. She is a storyteller and creates imagery with words not only in how she conveys her thoughts, but also through her use of punctuation, numbers, and other symbols.
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Onyi is initiated into the priestesshood within the ancestral practice of the Yoruba people (her maternal lineage). She is certified in various healing modalities and has studied various types within the metaphysical world. Her approach to topics of spirituality, shamanism, and much more is from a place of simplicity, the perspective that everything works and is a valid permission slip. If one is using any system to better themselves and treat others with regard and equity, it is aligned with her. She is fascinated by the various ways humans connect with the divine within and outside of them, and offers different perspectives that assist people in reimagining spirituality as being much more inclusive than we believe it to be.
The experience can be customized for any age group or grade level, with themes that are relatable across identity, ancestry and belief system.
The length and duration can range from a 1-hour workshop to a multi-day/week/month residency!
We will work with you to curate an experience that serves and supports the highest good of your community!
A key component of the program is the music, an album called FORIBALE, which will be woven into the session(s) in creative ways that may include
Recordings being played for the group
Onyi singing the material live
Attendees listening at home as preparation
Cultivated throughout the pandemic and released during times of heightened global challenges, the musical work is an offering of love, call to collective action, and reminder that honoring ourselves, each other and our planet is the key to moving forward.
Each song within FORIBALE is rich with symbolism; messages related to challenges we face in our modern society; and references to the elements/forces of nature and correlated energies or figures within the Yorùbá ancestral system.
All titles are in Yorùbá in honor of those ancestors, to amplify African languages.
In combination, the songs represent and function as a cohesive set, reminding us that bringing together our individual strengths and contributions allows us to complete the beautiful spectrum of humanity and the puzzle that is Existence.
Onyi’s contribution to our exploration of regenerative practices asked that we remember that we are not just ‘designers’ intervening in human settlements and ecosystems - that we are of this Earth, and share kinship, that we are an interdependent manifestation of a sacred and mysterious, beautiful and noble universe.
—Allen M.
Meaning and Significance
Simply put, Foríbalẹ̀ is a Yorùbá phrase meaning to touch one’s head to the ground as a sign of reverence for and to greet people, places and energies. The practical, philosophical, and mystical wisdom around it is so much deeper.
This work—across sonic vibration and lyrical expressions, stories and symbolism, embodied practices and deep reflection—is an invitation to consider reverence for ourselves, each other, and our beautiful planet as a powerful remedy for the current state of Humanity.
We are a at individual and collective crossroads. Subtle shifts in our beliefs will open the doors to tremendous and long lasting transformation in our actions and outcomes.
