Divine Indwelling Human Library
Ubud Writers & Readers Festival 2025
12:00 – 2:00 PM | 30 October – 2 November 2025
Venue: Festival Main area
Thursday, 30 October 2025 | 12-2PM
Human Book Title: When I Turned the Camera Inward
By: Haifa Beseisso (Palestine / UAE / US)
Theme: Identity, Visibility & Reclaiming Voice
Author Title: Storyteller, Filmmaker & Digital Creator
Instagram: @flywithhaifa
Book Summary:
For years, Haifa’s voice shimmered across screens, joyful, curious, radiant with the energy of a young Arab woman daring to rewrite the narrative. The world met her as FlyWithHaifa, the digital creator from Gaza who carried humor and hope wherever she spoke. Yet behind the laughter lived unspoken questions about belonging, freedom, and the cost of visibility.
When I Turned the Camera Inward is a deeply personal journey through identity, transformation, and self-discovery. As one of the first Arab and Muslim women to rise as a global creator from the Middle East, Haifa reflects on the many versions of herself she became along the way, the performer, the healer, the dreamer, and the woman reclaiming her power. Through raw honesty and poetic reflection, she invites us to see the world through her lens, as an Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian woman rewriting what freedom, beauty, and belonging mean.
This is the story of a storyteller who dared to meet herself beyond the gaze of others. It is open, unguarded, and deeply human, a journey from rock bottom to sky-high moments of grace, where each lesson became a bridge home to herself.
Bio:
Known online as FlyWithHaifa, Haifa is a storyteller, filmmaker, and digital creator using creativity to bridge cultures and challenge stereotypes. With over a decade of global storytelling, she has turned social media into a space for dialogue, empathy, and self-expression—showing the world that the Middle East is full of color, depth, and humanity. A Palestinian from Gaza raised in the UAE, Haifa uses her voice to humanize her people’s stories and celebrate the vibrancy of Arab identity. Her work transforms digital storytelling into a tool for connection, healing, and peacebuilding—an invitation to see one another, and ourselves, with greater compassion.
Friday, 31 October 2025 | 12-2PM
Human Book Title: The Edge of Flight
By: Swaady Martin (Côte d’Ivoire / France / United states)
Theme: Resilience, Leadership & Inner Grounding
Author Title: Author, Spiritual Teacher & Social Entrepreneur
Instagram: @swaady_martin
Book Summary:
It began on a night of terror, the echo of gunfire, hurried whispers, a mother’s arms forming a fragile shield around her child. Swaady was three when her family fled Liberia after a coup d’état, leaving behind her father and everything they owned. That escape became the first of many passages through a continent wrestling with its rebirth. West Africa in the 1980s was a place of hope and upheaval, where nations sought balance between liberation and uncertainty.
This story captures one defining passage of her journey, from a childhood uprooted by civil war to a young woman carving her path through the world of business and leadership, rising to become a regional executive at one of the world’s largest corporations. The chaos of those early years confronted her with questions about safety, purpose, and belonging that would shape the rest of her life. Through them, she transformed displacement into an inner sense of home and found conviction where fear once lived.
As the poet Guillaume Apollinaire wrote, “Come to the edge,” he said. “We are afraid,” they said. “Come to the edge,” he said. They came. He pushed them… and they flew.”
At its heart, The Edge of Flight is about that moment, the instant when uncertainty becomes grace, and we discover that courage has always been waiting in our wings.
Bio:
Swaady Martin is an Ivorian-French-American author, spiritual teacher, and award-winning entrepreneur. Formerly a Fortune 500 executive at General Electric, she has been featured on Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine Power List, Forbes’ Top 20 Young Africans Building the Future of Africa, and recognized among Africa’s Most Influential Women in Business and Government. A prolific author with sixteen published books, she now leads Divine Indwelling, an interspiritual movement helping people cultivate inner peace through transformative learning and peacebuilding initiatives for global harmony.
saturday, 1 november 2025 | 12-2PM
Human Book Title: The Chameleon Unmasked
By: Chris Walker (United States)
Theme: Belonging, Identity & Radical Authenticity
Author Title: Human Connection Coach, Yoga Teacher & Motivational Speaker
Instagram: @chris.walker.official
Book Summary:
Chris grew up between worlds, too white for the Black neighborhood where he lived, too Black for the white community where he studied. Difference followed him everywhere. He learned to adapt, to shift his voice, his posture, his very presence, hoping each transformation would make him belong. Even within his family, the contrasts were sharp; his mother’s own parents once tried to stop her from marrying a Black man.
In school, in the corporate world, and later in yoga studios, Chris rarely saw anyone who looked like him. After more than a decade in business, success became his shield, an attempt to prove that being different could still be enough. But the armor was heavy, and the silence beneath it grew unbearable.
Yoga arrived as a turning point. At first, he almost walked away, convinced that no one would hire a teacher who looked like him. Yet the more he practiced, the more he recognized that the real work was not to fit in but to come home to himself. Yoga, for Chris, became a practice of self-connection, one that deepened his relationship with everything else.
The Chameleon Unmasked tells the story of what happens when a man decides to take off the masks, set down the armor, and walk through life with his heart uncovered. It is a story about ownership, truth, and the freedom that comes from authenticity. This is the foundation of his mission and his movement, The Walker Way, an invitation to others to live fully, speak truthfully, and remember that they too are already enough.
Bio:
Chris Walker is a Human Connection Coach, Yoga Teacher, and motivational speaker who guides individuals and organizations toward authentic presence and purpose. After more than a decade in corporate leadership, he founded The Walker Way, a coaching and podcast platform where he integrates mindfulness, leadership, and embodied wisdom. Drawing from his own journey of identity and resilience, Chris guides others to dissolve the walls that keep them unseen and to rediscover the power of self-connection. His work continues to inspire individuals and organizations to lead with empathy, integrity, and heart.
sunday, 2 november 2025 | 12-2PM
Human Book Title: Born Different on Purpose
By: tbird luv (United States)
Theme: Resilience, Originality & Fearless Authenticity
Author Title: Polymath Artist, Speaker & Coach
Instagram: @tbirdtallflame
Book Summary:
From an early age, TBird was told she was too much, too expressive, too emotional, too different. The world asked her to quiet her colors, yet her spirit moved to its own rhythm. Through art, story, and voice, she learned that what set her apart was not a flaw to be fixed but a pulse to be followed.
Born Different on Purpose unfolds as a journey of remembrance, an artist reclaiming the full range of her being. Through humor and raw honesty, TBird shares moments of falling apart and coming alive, inviting us into the creative tension between truth and transformation.
Her storytelling carries the rhythm of lived experience, the laughter that heals, the silence that teaches, the word that sets something free. It is a call to meet life with unguarded presence and to remember that the courage to be fully oneself is, in the end, its own kind of art.
Bio:
TBird Luv is a polymath artist, speaker, and coach dedicated to awakening the untapped brilliance within individuals and systems. For over two decades, she has guided more than 10,000 leaders, creators, and changemakers worldwide through her signature philosophy of Fearless Authentic Expression, a synthesis of embodiment, transformative arts, and regenerative leadership. A storyteller of resilience and imagination, TBird helps people reclaim their voice, rediscover their aliveness, and translate their truth into impact. Her work invites others to live unapologetically, creating lives that are art forms of courage, compassion, and purpose.
