Thriving Mindfully on U Street Series

Thriving Mindfully on U Street is a multi-generational mindful creativity project created by Ananda Leeke, the U Street Neighborhood Association artist-in-residence and proud U Street homeowner since 1990, that aims to help residents and others take better care of themselves as they navigate the changes happening in their lives and the city, nurture connections with fellow community members, express and document their love and gratitude for the community and explore their vision of the community in the future, and identify and share their favorite memories, history makers and moments, movements, organizations, businesses, buildings, and places.

Thriving Mindfully is a heart-centered approach to being present, well, and the REAL YOU as you navigate your life, relationships, and career. It was born out of Ananda’s experiences and lessons learned while living and working as a lawyer, investment banker, nonprofit senior program officer, multidisplinary artist, writer, coach, yoga + meditation teacher, reiki + sound healing practitioner, and digital communications and mindfulness professional on U Street.

There are five core commitments that support Thriving Mindfully: Slow Your Living, Sustain Your Living, Share Your Living, Serve Through Your Living, and Savor Your Living. Click here to listen to the “Thriving Mindfully Theme,” a spoken word song written by Ananda and composed and produced by Garnet Jay, founder of Footprint Productions. The song appears on her debut album, Thriviing Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter.

She created the Thriving Mindfully on U Street Community Zine to celebrate the time community members spent together and their artwork and journaling made during the four workshops that were held in July, August, September, and October 2026 at the True Reformer Building and Hamiltonian Artists.

Each workshop included a land acknowledgement ritual, mindful moment and movement with deep breathing exercises, sound healing meditation, an introduction to Thriving Mindfully, mindful creativity exercise (journaling and drawing), and sharing circle. Click the links below to learn about the workshops.

–July Workshop: “Thriving Mindfully: A Love Letter to U Street”

–August Workshop: “Honoring U Street as American History”

–September Workshop: “The Future of the U Street Community”

-October Workshop (will be included by 10/31): “The U in U Street Communty”

She used Canva, a graphic design platform, and digital photos of community members’ artwork and journaling to create the digital zine. The zine features photos that she took of daily scenes, gardens, trees, flowers, houses, restaurants, churches, street signs, WMATA subway stations and buses, Japanese origami paper, and so much more. It also includes two Ghanaian Adinkra Sankofa wisdom symbols (bird and heart) from the Akan people that mean “go back and get it.” The Sankofa symbol reminds us to learn from the past to build a better future.

Many of the zine pages are decorated with photos of purple mudcloth. Mudcloth, known as Bogolanfini, is a cotton textile from Mali. Every pattern has meaning and represents identity, community, protection, and generational wisdom. Ananda purchased the mudcloth from Zawadi African Art Gallery and Gift Shop. Zawadi’s brick and mortar store was located at 1524 U Street and owned by African American entrepreneur Irene Whalen from 1992 to 2024.

DOWNLOAD THE ZINE (several pages will be updated and workshop #4 photos will be included by 10/31)