Shella Zelenz

Zemii Media and Publishing Group
First the name: Zemi has two meanings. The first one is a deity or ancestral spirit from the Taíno people of the Caribbean. Zemi in Japanese means seminar. The double ii represents the plurality of the concept: ancestral spirits and seminar. In other words, this is about our ancestral heritages and education.

When I was in Croatia, a local named Hrvoje was interested in my book, and I gave him access to it before it was published. His questions for me led him to eventually say, "so America is a failed melting pot."

Zemii is about finding the commonalities: the common tragedies; the common legends; the common artistic expressions; the common health outcomes; and the common beliefs that deep down we all want.

"RootEd: How Trauma Impacts Learning and Society" is the glue that ties all of those articles together. The nonprofit aspect is dealing with the wounds created by the harmful systems. The inclusion of foreign cultural awareness is to help Americans remember their ancestors, so they know who they are. The science videos help people learn how these things have changed their psychological and health outcomes and behaviors.

Losing identity is one common pattern globally that has kept wars and hatred for centuries among peoples. The wrongs done 500 years ago are still irritants in those cultures today. Ignoring and putting blind whitewashing (whitewashing doesn't mean putting white culture on others. It means erasure of culture. The white cultures - white isn't a culture - also lost their cultural identities that is why Americans think Europe is a fairytale), and propaganda efforts will never heal the epigenetic memory of what has been lost and the trauma inherited. Calling it woke won't make it go away either.

Fortunately, science actually does demonstrate proof in our physiological being and brain development that damage will only continue to get worse the more we try to wield power over others to make them do what we want. America has never truly had a fully functioning democracy. We can do better. Start with the children and don't do it by blaming others. Do it with deep understanding of what this all means to us as a collective. You can't play into divisiveness if you want a fully functioning society. Divisiveness is how the abuse continues.

Mission

To facilitate education through international publication and the arts.