H. "Herukhuti" Sharif Williams, PhD, aka Dr. Herukhuti (all pronouns) is a revolutionary and decolonial artist/cultural worker, cultural critic, and public intellectual whose work examines the impact of settler-colonialism, imperialism, white supremacy, capitalism, and cisheteropatriarchy on people across ethnic and racial differences. They are a playwright, stage director, documentary filmmaker, performance artist, essayist, and poet.
Dr. Herukhuti is the award-winning author of the experimental book Conjuring Black Funk: Notes on Culture, Sexuality, and Spirituality, Volume 1 and co-editor of the Lambda Literary Award nonfiction finalist anthology and Bisexual Book Awards nonfiction and anthology winner, Recognize: The Voices of Bisexual Men.
Dr. Herukhuti is a member of the artist collective No Homo | No Hetero, which refers to being neither homosexual nor heterosexual. NH|NH is an umbrella organization and organizing principle behind a collection of projects and activities designed to promote the healing, growth, and general well-being of sexually fluid, bisexual identifying, and bi+ men of African descent and their communities. Envisioned as a multi stakeholder cooperative with an emergent approach and philosophy, NH|NH seeks to elevate, educate, celebrate and when necessary interrogate notions of manhood, masculinity, power, love, relationship and community utilizing various artistic and indigenous African cultural practices. Understanding the need for safe, supportive, liberatory spaces, NH|NH seeks to cooperatively provide resources and opportunities to build and sustain communities.
An experienced educator, she has worked with hundreds of students around the world to engage in transformative learning for social justice. Dr. Herukhuti is a core faculty member in the BFA in socially engaged art, co-founder and core faculty member in the decolonial sexuality studies program at Goddard College and adjunct associate professor of applied theatre research in the School of Professional Studies at the City University of New York. He is the founder and chief erotics officer of the Center for Culture, Sexuality, and Spirituality, a social enterprise dedicated to revolutionary change through the use of the arts, embodiment, and indigenous knowledge traditions from Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
Dr. Herukhuti lives with a drapetomania diagnosis which causes life affirming experiences and life threatening episodes as well as career suicidality.