On July 10 of this year, The Bahamas celebrated 51 years as an independent nation. While these celebrations are joyous occasions, the origin story of the title “Baja Mar” is steeped in genocide, slavery, colonialism, trauma, and violence. However, through amazing feats of imagination, our story also includes laughter, love, emancipation, sheep tongue souse, and Junkanoo! To be Bahamian is to embrace paradox, ugly truths, and painstaking beauty.

Slated within the month of Emancipation, this experience will ask participants to use mindfulness techniques to tackle these dichotomies and imagine freedom. As mindfulness is the practice of paying full attention to the present moment without judgment, participants will be invited to explore its transformative power as a tool for navigating these complexities. An interactive session, this experience is for those interested in posing the question of freedom and learning how to be comfortable enough to not judge the answers—or lack thereof.

Niambi Hall Campbell-Dean

An Afrocentric community psychologist, Niambi Hall Campbell-Dean is an Associate Professor and the current Program Coordinator of the Psychology Program at the University of The Bahamas. She completed her psychology degrees at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, Florida A&M, and North Carolina State University and is also a graduate of the first cohort of the U.S. Embassy’s Academy of Women Entrepreneurs. As a social analyst, certified diversity trainer, and published researcher, her work primarily focuses on using culture as a tool for empowering those within the African Diaspora—like the King of The Conch Fest, a Bahamian culinary-conservation competition to preserve conch and culture for future Bahamian generations.

Her professional appointments and honors are both local and international, including being the past International Relations Chair of the Association of Black Psychologists, Psi Chi, and Alpha Kappa Mu Honors Societies. In 2014, she was the Bahamas Business Outlook Visionary Speaker. A mental health advocate, she was an organizing member of #WEGATCHU, the Hurricane Dorian psycho-social relief group out of the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas. Since 2007, she has served as a coordinator of the national-award-winning Indaba Project, a grassroots, community-based youth organization whose mission is to empower African people around the world to resolve their issues and network with others with a similar goal. She is also a facilitator of Character Day Bahamas since its founding in 2016.

In her most current appointment as Chair of the Bahamas National Reparations Committee, she is the local representative for the CARICOM Reparations Committee and has been featured on local and international news outlets and podcasts including On The Record with Jerome Sawyer, Sky News, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, CBC’s The Current with Matt Galloway, The Nation, Make It Plain with Rev. Mark, Tempo Network, BBC Radio and has presented internationally with an intervention at the United Nations and as an invited panelist at the Accra Reparations Conference, hosted by the African Union in November 2023.

Dale Marshall

A mother of two children and an educator with over 18 years of experience, Dale’s purpose lies in actively working in schools and communities to awaken children’s self-awareness and personal empowerment outside of the classroom.

Over the last 10 years, she has facilitated custom after-school and summer programs with this intent, including an after-school program called E² – Empowered Enlightened Kids, for character development through Mindfulness and Yoga.

Dale is also a published children’s book author, workshop leader, and volunteer mentor with various youth leadership organizations.

Her credentials include:

• Certified Mindfulness Instructor for both children and adults, with specialization in classroom and organizational integration
• Post-graduate degree certification in Social Emotional Learning in Leadership
• Certified Kids Yoga Instructor

Her mindfulness blog, Mindful Matters with Dale, can be found on WordPress.

Dale also offers a variety of mindfulness and meditation consults for adults to bring about therapeutic self-awareness and conscious transformation of patterns and habits.

She loves the beach, exploring nature, dining experiences, meeting people from different walks of life, traveling, reading, doing yoga, and spending time with loved ones.