Presenters
This is a partial list of presenters for AUM 2014. Stay tuned for updates as more presenters are confirmed.
AuroTejas Hemsell was born in Auroville and grew up back and forth between India and America. She now travels the world performing and teaching Indian dance. She has trained in Bharathanatyam and Odissi since she was five, and has also studied Kathak, Tribal Fusion Bellydance, African dance, ballet, flamenco and salsa, giving her a unique style that she incorporates into her choreographies. Tejas studies Odissi, a sacred East Indian dance originally only performed in temples, with Shrimati Sangeeta Dash in Pondicherry, India. Tejas founded Shakti, an Odissi dance troupe, in 2004 and its companion group Maya Lakshmi, a Bollywood dance troupe, in 2008. She runs the Shakti Dance School, offering classes and workshops in Auroville, Colorado, and Amsterdam.
Rod Hemsell lived in Auroville and the Sri Aurobindo Ashram from 1968–1983. He founded the GAIA Learning Center in Crestone, CO, in 1991 and the GLOBE Charter School in Colorado Springs in 1995. From 2005–2013 he lectured at the University of Human Unity in Auroville, where he was also principal of New Era Secondary School. He has given numerous presentations on Auroville and Sri Aurobindo’s yoga philosophy in India, the U.K., and the U.S., and has conducted annual Savitri Immersion workshops in the U.S. since 1994. His books include Sri Aurobindo and the Logic of the Infinite, The Poetry of Sri Aurobindo, and The Philosophy of Evolution: Darwin and Sri Aurobindo.
Gordon Korstange met the Mother in 1970 and lived in Auroville for seven years in the 1970s. He is the former editor of Collaboration, a journal of Integral Yoga, and is currently on the board of the Foundation for World Education. He is the author of a book of poetry, The Road Behind Whitens in the Sun, and taught writing for many years in the public schools. Gordon plays Karnatic music on the bamboo flute, having received a master of arts degree from Wesleyan University in world music and creative writing. He has given many concerts over the years and is part of the group Kirtana.
Julian Lines has been interested in Sri Aurobindo, the Mother and Auroville since 1972. He currently serves as president of Matagiri Sri Aurobindo Center and is on the board of Auroville International USA. For the past three years he has served as executive director of Auroville International. Recently he was reappointed to the International Advisory Council of Auroville. He and his wife Wendy own a boutique called Pondicherry in Woodstock, NY.
BoYee Nataraja lived at Sri Aurobindo Sadhana Peetham in 2013 for for seven months. She had intended to stay for only two weeks, but she connected with the Mother and her life transformed, becoming filled with light. For the first time, BoYee felt spiritually at ease because she had finally found her home in Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga. Now liberated and happy, BoYee is doing what she loves to do full-time, spreading love, light, and healing as a professional freelance dancer, certified yoga teacher, and Reiki Ryoho practitioner. She is forever grateful for her teachers Alexei Badrak, Ronna Roberts, Bhavani Girard, and Cerise LaCore. BoYee's website is here. She also has a YouTube channel.
Tizia O'Connor is a co-founder of Auromesa, a center near Taos, New Mexico, devoted to Integral Yoga and Ayurveda. She is a licensed practitioner of traditional Ayurveda, a natural system of medicine that has been practiced in India for more than 5,000 years and which provides an integrated approach to preventing and treating illness. She is also certified by TUV Germany, a global provider of technical, safety, and certification services. Tizia continues to study and practice Ayurveda and leads the Panchakarma program at Auromesa in Taos, New Mexico.
Tia Pleiman is an artist and art therapist living and working in Auroville. She has a bachelor of arts degree in developmental psychology and fine art and a master's degree in creative arts therapies. Her Create and Transform art program is cross-cultural, focusing on self-expression and reflection, interpersonal communication, community building, and individual and group empowerment. This program invites people from all professions, backgrounds, and abilities to participate in an exciting and creative journey of self-discovery through drawing, painting, mixed media, collage, journaling, sculpture, clay, handicrafts and more.
Mike Reynolds is an innovative architect based in Taos, New Mexico, and a proponent of "radically sustainable living." He is known for the design and construction of Earthships, a type of passive solar house made of natural and recycled materials. Earthships are generally off-the-grid homes, minimizing their reliance on public utilities and fossil fuels. Mike was featured in a 2007 documentary called Garbage Warrior, which features his struggle with local officials to build structures that are ecological and earth friendly but do not conform to local building codes.
Aviram Rozin is a co-founder of Sadhana Forest in Auroville, a community whose aim is to transform 70 acres of severely eroded, arid land on the outskirts of Auroville and recreate the indigenous forest of the area. Community members practice an eco-friendly way of life including veganism, alternative construction, solar- and human-powered energy, water resource management, and composting toilets. Sadhana Forest won the third place in the international 2010 Humanitarian Water and Food Award, given in recognition of the quality of the ecological and humanitarian work done by Sadhana Forest in India and Haiti.
Mikael Spector uses spiritual, energetic, and physical consciousness to promote wellness and regeneration through oneness. Originally from Israel, he has lived since 1976 at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and in Auroville. He integrates yoga philosophy and psychology, Kabbalah, Toltec shamanism, tantra, Ayurveda, and Adlerian holistic psychology in the light of Sri Aurobindo's yoga. Having developed a syntheses of these modalities, he conducts healing, guided meditations, and movement workshops in Israel, Holland, India, South Korea, and the US. Now working at the East West Cultural Center in Los Angeles, he facilitates satsang gatherings, study of The Life Divine, and meditative/movement sessions exploring Mother's research into the Glorious Body.
B Sullivan joined Auroville in 1974. He was instrumental in founding the Verite Community, the Centre for Scientific Research, Quiet Healing Centre, and Auroville Today journal. Currently he is a guide at Matrimandir, a teacher at Future School, and a caretaker at International House, among other interests. As the chairman of Zero Waste Auroville, he advocates for cycling and recycling. As a member of the Coordination Group for the International Zone, he participated in the 2012 Soul of Nations workshop in Auroville and was a presenter at AUM 2013 in Ashland, Oregon. He is building a "Trash Majal" in Auroville.
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