Meet Co-Founder, Keme Hawkins, Ph.D.
“Integrity is about being integrated with the spiritual values of the Universe. It is also about being happy, because happiness and joy mean that you’re coming into integrity with your soul.”
Michael Bernard Beckwith
Keme is based in Atlanta and is a Certified Yoga Teacher and freelance writer. She’s Co-Founder of Paths to Peace. After graduating from Emory University (Emory) with her PhD in English, Keme began to explore her passion for screenwriting and film. She has written full feature screenplays based on her life story after being exposed to family traumas involving violence, the prison industrial complex and the death penalty. Keme is also a Consultant to organizations, political campaigns, municipalities and businesses on mental health and trauma informed care. She is Certified to Facilitate Listening Circles by The International Institute for Restorative Practices through the IRP Graduate Program.
It was through seeking mental health support, practicing yoga and meditation; focusing on her academic pursuits and being creative that Keme was able to address and heal some deep-rooted familial traumas and family pathologies and break the cycles of trauma in her family.
Keme was also the co-founder of The Yoga House Atlanta, a private community wellness space for people to learn about yoga, Ayurveda, meditation and healthy living. Keme co-hosts community pop up events in Atlanta, using writing and creative expression as a tool to teach students and artists how to use the healing arts to address mind, body and spirit balance.
While pursuing her graduate and professional degrees, Keme taught college courses in English, Writing and African American studies at two universities. Emory awarded Keme with a Graduate School of Arts Fellowship. She was chosen to represent Emory Universities’ graduate students in Paris, France, as part of a delegation, which hosted The Sixth Biennial Conference of the Toni Morrison Society.
Keme was also chosen by the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to attend the President of Emory’s Honorary Degree Reception for Rita Dove, Poet Laureate Consultant and Essayist.
Keme has taken many sacred pilgrimages around the world to India, Brazil, France and Hong Kong. Keme’s love for travel began during her graduate studies, while pursuing her Master’s in African-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She studied Portuguese in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil while studying Afro-Brazilian Music and Culture.
As part of her doctoral research and dissertation at Emory University, Keme studied Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Latino music, film, performance, art and literature. This
research was a continuation of her graduate research in African Diaspora Art, Music and History, with an emphasis in black feminist thought at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Keme was a Ronald McNair Scholar during her undergraduate studies at Augsburg College in Minnesota. She participated in a research program at the Institute for Domestic Violence in the African-American Community (IDVAAC) through the University of Minnesota and the McNair program.
Keme researched prescribed gender roles and gender identities in hip hop music and examined how hip-hop lyrics impact domestic violence in the African-American communities. She was chosen to be a panel expert on this subject during IDVAAC’s conference in New York.
In 2015, Keme received the “First Decade Award” from her undergraduate alma mater, Augsburg College, an award reserved for graduates doing remarkable and outstanding work in the world.
During her time living in Minnesota and Wisconsin, Keme was an Arts and Entertainment reporter for several local newspapers, in addition to her college newspaper. She reviewed plays, movies, operas, music and arts events.
Keme works with Independent filmmakers in Atlanta as a ghostwriter and production assistant. One of the films that she was a ghostwriter for won a film festival award. Keme has also worked as a background actor in two feature films and several TV shows filmed in Atlanta. She enjoys producing short films based on her travels and studies.
Keme’s love for the media arts led her to create and co-host a podcast called “On the Spirit Path” which is available on iTunes, Spotify and more. Her passion for peace, nonviolence and social justice has led her to co-create a peace and nonviolence; social justice program rooted in the arts, with Robyn Donaldson, J.D.