Conversations with Helanius J. Wilkins

Today we’d like to introduce you to Helanius Wilkins.

Hi, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?

First, I want to say thank you to VoyageDenver for this opportunity to share my story. I am filled with tremendous gratitude and deep appreciation for past opportunities as well as this new opportunity which offers space to share a different slice of my story.

I think that I am pretty consistent when speaking about my story. I am a passionate introverted individual with diverse interests. I love quiet time alone as well as big venue music concerts, anything arts and culture, attending basketball games, hiking, all things Prince (there is a Prince song for every moment in my life…LOL), volunteering for causes… The list goes on and on. I am driven by a need to make, specifically make art. At the core, my story is one anchored by curiosity, dreaming beyond measure, and actively doing – modeling – practices and behaviors that I hope will contribute to shaping a better world for all. As I say this, I cannot help but to think about the tragic event that took place at Club Q in Colorado Springs. With all the progress made over time, we find ourselves continually confronting tragic turns in humanity, reminding us that there is more work to be done. I aspire to use my life to contribute to creating more spaces for connection, understanding, healing, and building community. No one wins when hate is involved. We all lose.

Colorado has been home now for 7 years, a place I never thought I’d be. I was born and raised in Louisiana, lived in Washington, D.C. for 18 years of my adult life and a handful of additional places before landing here. I relocated here to take advantage of an opportunity to become a part of CU Boulder’s Dance Program faculty. I am currently the Associate Chair and Director of the program. I wear many hats – titles – on and off campus – choreographer, performance artist, producer, director/curator, educator, Change Leader, artivist (artist-activist), board member, son, brother, friend, etc. In the quiet though – at the end of the day – I find myself less preoccupied with all those and more alive in simply being human. I give myself permission to navigate and inhabit spaces that allow for personal growth, an ever-expanding world view, and experiences of joy and connection.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

In my humble opinion, life by design is not intended to be smooth sailing. It is made up of peaks and valleys, highs and lows, tough and not-so-tough moments. I feel that the strength, courage, and wisdom to live emerges from the combination of the many different experiences we have along what is truly an uncertain journey. Looking back at my journey, in many ways it is a testament of lots of hard work, falling, failing, failing more, then repeatedly getting back up, patience, endurance –resilience. I have seen some dark days—days where basic living essentials often taken for granted were not necessarily in reach and fears that my life was maybe not worth living. It most definitely has not been easy or smooth. But it is a journey that I would not change, and one that I fully embrace with deep gratitude because it contributes to the shaping of who I am today and the deep care that I have for myself, others, and the world around me.

Throughout my soon to be 50 years (I’m a December baby…LOL) I have learned many lessons along the way. I am known to talk in 3s and so…here goes 3 learned lessons:

1. Never settle for being anything less than who you are. There is strength, courage, and bravery in being one’s fullest self – even when your surroundings may suggest otherwise.
2. We can all contribute to making positive change in the world. Our behaviors and daily practices, particularly regarding how we treat one another, is what leads to creating change and cultivating a different future.
3. Leading with gratitude and love can make all the difference in one’s journey and how others are impacted.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?

I am currently immersed in my most ambitious work to date. It is a multi-year venture titled The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging. It is an ongoing and always shifting dance-quilt that confronts and celebrates heritage, resiliency, justice and hope. It requires traveling to all 50 states/DC/5 inhabited territories to create a section of the work in and WITH community, and will yield new choreographies, a documentary film, a digital archive, and DEISJ (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Social Justice) toykit (a toolkit implies a need to fix, a toykit represents an invitation to co-create and participate in a process of uniting and healing). For this work I am currently joined by duet-partner Avery Ryder Turner.

I invite folks to join the conversation! There are activities being planned for Denver and Boulder beginning in the new year, including a MLK Day event that draws on my event last year Mile 17: A Conversation on the Labor & Love of Belonging! More details to come out soon!

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Mmmmmmmm…Happiness. For me, I am finding myself embracing it more and more as a journey and not a destination. (Ha! Like the work of social justice.) I experience it when I am fully present and immersed in the doing of something I love. Art marking! I experience it when I can contribute to the betterment, accomplishment, dream fulfillment of someone else, especially when that someone is a close friend/family member/colleague, someone I deeply care about. I experience it when engaged in nonstop, guttural laughter (laughter is good for the soul!). I experience it when spending quality time with those I am close to. I experience it in the quiet of my heartbeat while in the comfort of my home. I experience happiness when I am connected to joy.

Contact Information:

• Email: info@helaniusj.com
• Website: https://www.helaniusj.com/
• Blog: https://www.helaniusj.com/blog
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Helanius-J-Wilkins
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/HelaniusJ
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/helaniusjwilkins/

 

 

Image Credits:
TCS_ART_HJW_Mar2022  – Pictured: A. Ryder Turner; Helanius J. Wilkins

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