HawaH is an artist, author, educator, yoga instructor, community organizer and non-profit leader. He has dedicated his life to teaching about solutions to violence and ways to peace, and has traveled to over 35 countries to facilitate interactive workshops, host dialogues, perform poetry, teach yoga, and speak with those interested in creating a caring, sustainable, and equitable world.

Hawah spent a considerable amount of time in India as a child. Seeing the rampant poverty there informed his world view and drove him to work on issues of social justice. As a member of Americorps, he worked as a community organizer and mentor to elementary school students in D.C.'s poorest neighborhoods. Hawah co-founded a non-profit community organization in 2000, One Common Unity, and in 2001 he received a fellowship that allowed him to travel to Geneva, Switzerland and Durban, South Africa, where he worked closely with the United Nations and the World Conference Against Racism and Discrimination. In 2006, Hawah helped to direct an arts-based, interfaith peace and conflict resolution project to India-Kashmir-Pakistan -- ShantiSalaam. More recently, he has taught in D.C.'s public schools, lectured on college campuses, and made media appearances on wide-ranging platforms from Fox News to Al Jazeera to CNN.

Over the years, Hawah has authored four books, produced three documentary films and musical CDs. He is a certified Yoga Instructor and maintains a Vipassana Meditation practice.

In his spare time, as Hawah writes on his website, he enjoys "finding new foods to mix with chocolate, climbing trees and buildings, doing handstands on furniture, hiking through mountains with flip flops, body surfing ocean waves, making animal sounds and bird calls, enjoying a glass of wine at high altitude, lighting candles in dark rooms and traveling."

Join us for a wide ranging conversation with a playful and compassionate change-maker in Hawah.​ Beware, his optimism, energy for life, and laughter are contagious. :)