Walking with Superintendent Hudlin: A Journey in Rhythm and Healing

The Day She Walked In
I’ll never forget the first time Superintendent Hudlin walked into Ancient Beats Club, a monkey-skin drum cradled in her hands. She stood there—an emboldened, unapologetic Cherokee medicine woman—ready to teach us what it meant to look beyond ourselves and truly see the world.
Her fierce insistence on inclusion opened the door for me to weave together animal-assisted therapy, Buddhist meditation, and Taoist breathing practices with her ancestral rhythms. What began as a music club became something far greater: a new language of healing.
📸 Photo idea: Hudlin holding her drum in the studio, surrounded by students in a circle.
Across Cherokee Land
Our journey deepened on a trip through the Cherokee Reservations. There, Hudlin became both storyteller and warrior, sharing vivid memories—sitting at Woolworth’s counters during Jim Crow, honoring ancestors, and teaching us how remembrance can be resistance.
On that sacred land, she invited me to share Taoist martial arts. I’ll never forget how seamlessly her traditions and mine intertwined, how empathy rooted her openness to every practice that sought to heal those left out or cast aside.
📸 Photo idea: The two of us under open skies, drum beside us, teaching movement and breath.
From Local Beats to Global Voices
Under Hudlin’s guidance, Ancient Beats grew into a movement that touched thousands of struggling teens. Her wisdom carried us all the way to the UNESCO stage, where the rhythm of inclusion echoed worldwide.
When she was turned away for having an “unacceptable” image in her presentation—an attempt to constrain her voice—she simply told me, “Carry on, and meet intolerance with patience.”
So I did. After my talk, I brought out her drum. The audience rose, moving together—one rhythm, one community.
📸 Photo idea: UNESCO event photo of Simon speaking or audience members clapping in rhythm.
The Rhythm Lives On
Superintendent Hudlin taught me that healing begins when stories, rhythms, and hearts align. Every beat we play now carries her courage and compassion forward.
Thank you, Ms. Hudlin, for teaching us to listen—to each other and to the heartbeat of the earth itself.
📸 Photo idea: Close-up of Hudlin’s drum resting beside candles or feathers—symbol of continuity and spirit.