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"La Sirena" means "The Serene Mermaid." "

"Imakhu" means "Minister; One Worthy of Honor."

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Queen Mother Imakhu, has enjoyed a well-rounded, fifty year career.  

Artist, motivational speaker, lecturer, documentarian, author, Kemetic theologian and scholar, and yoga instructor.

 

     Imakhu has reached and empowered diverse populations as a touring performer and workshop presenter.  She has taught African/Latino drumming, dance, theater, music, visual and literary arts throughout her fifty year career. She has also specialized in teaching physically challenged, at-risk, and detention home Black and Latinx youth throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. She continues to teach drumming, dance, meditation and yoga to youth, elders, domestic violence survivors, business people, and health professionals. Queen Mother also performs in concert as a solo artist. Her shows are motivational, uplifting, and educational.

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    Imakhu was born in Elizabeth, NJ, then raised in 1960’s Kenilworth, NJ, where she remembers routinely seeing crosses burned. Her family knows her as Elaine Artís Lloyd-Nazario. She is the proud mother of two adult daughters from her first marriage. 

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     Former columnist/reporter for FIRST WORLD NEWS. Former host/producer for October Gallery Radio and PAINT Radio in Philadelphia, PA. Former host/producer of JUXTURES ON WDVR Public Radio, NJ. Former host/producer of REACHING FOR THE SKY on WLVR Radio, Bethlehem, PA. Director and playwright. Touring actress, storyteller, vocalist, poet, dancer, and musician/percussionist throughout the U.S. and Canada. Member of NJ Storytelling Network, Inter/Multifaith Storytelling Network, and Artists Standing Strong Together. Founder of AKERU MultiMedia. First African American woman to found and run her own 24/7 online Black Consciousness radio station. Host/Producer of video/podcast series, ASHE: The Truth is Black & Brown. Founder/Producer/Host of motivational series, "Transformation Tag Team."  Imakhu is the original creator, executive director/producer and co-founder of Newark Latino Film Festival, LLC. Founder/director/producer of Newark Latino Fashion Show. Co-founder/producer of Cultures Across the City Music Festival. Founder of Greater Essex LatinX Art & Film Fest and BLACKNIFICENTLY LatinX. Her book, "Renegade Wise Woman," a poetic collection of her works from the 90s to present, includes her collaborative piece written with Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets. Her popular audience favorites heard internationally on public radio stations, and her contemporary poetry and prayers written in Ancient Egyptian language. Her poems have most recently been published in the anthology, "When Women Speak."Queen Mother Imakhu's poetry is included in the anthology, "When Women Speak." In 2023, she was year-long Artist-in-Residence at Newark's Weequahic Public Library, where her photography was in exhibition, and she produced public motivational events. Imakhu has a 2024 residency at Branch Brook Library. She teaches SHENU Khametic Yoga on Saturdays, Noon - 2pm in the BlkBox at Gant-Gilbert Arts Collective, Newark, N.J. 

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Spiritually, Queen Mother Imakhu has also enjoyed a well-rounded realm of experiences. Born into and raised in the Baptist Christian tradition. Member of Union Baptist Church, 1968-78. Member of Youth on the Move for Christ Ministries, Springfield, NJ, 1975-84. Director and choreographer of The Joyful Praisers dance ministry, First Baptist Church, Anderson, NJ. Practitioner of African spiritual cultures since the 90's. Ordained as an Interfaith Healing Minister by Metaphysical Universal Ministries Seminary of Allentown, PA, and an Ordained Interfaith Minister by Spiritual Healers & Universal Ministries in 1999. Initiated as a High Priestess into Children of the White Rose Mystical Order in 2003, and then initiated into the Handmaidens of Nubia lineage in 2003. A Khametic faith practitioner and teacher, she was enstooled as an ankh carrying Queen Mother in the Khametic tradition by Grandmaster Kham of Shrine of Khpra, Brooklyn, NY in 2005, and as a Uas carrying Elder and double-ankh carrying Zunut (Doctor/Scholar/Healer) in 2013. Queen Mother Imakhu is known for her expertise in Ancient Khametic (Egyptian) culture, yoga, and language. Her groundbreaking research has advanced the reclamation, understanding, and practical incorporation of ancient Khametic spiritual culture into today's world. In 2006, Imakhu was initiated as a Bantu nganga (water healer) and peacemaker by Don Miguel Ortiz Hill and Baba Mandaza Kandemwa. 

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Queen Mother has established the first official Khametic Water Faith,

"Neh-ti Mer."  SHENU Khametic Living Waters Institute is her teaching temple and social activism organization. She has baptized and initiated many across the country, and gives classes to help people learn the sacred Kemetic Water Mysteries. Her unique Khametic yoga classes teach Ancient Egyptian Yoga from a mystical priesthood perspective. A popular workshop presenter, performer, scholar, and podcaster, Queen Mother Imakhu continues to build bridges of peace while fighting for justice as an activist. Her latest book is, "Iwa Mer (The Khametic Way of Water)."  Her new podcast is "SHENU Living."

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 Over the years, Queen Mother has served the greater Newark community by offering free yoga and meditation, spiritual and business mentoring classes to the city's artists, and pandemic food distribution to Newark residents and neighbors-with-no-addresses.  Among her awards, Queen Mother Imakhu was honored by the Greater Newark Women's Assembly for her leadership, being a role model, and ongoing commitment to community service. 

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  On a personal note, Queen Mother's interest in history and culture are close to home. Her father, Tommie Lloyd, was the first African American accepted into the NJ Tool & Die Association. Her father was Gullah Geechee from South Carolina.  Imakhu’s mother, Jean Whitley Lloyd-Mayfield, was the first African American Girl Scout Leader in Kenilworth, NJ – at a time when crosses were still being burned. In the 1600’s, Virginia manumission laws were changed because her maternal ancestors were left land by their slaveholder in his will – something unheard of at that time. They chose, instead, not to take residence. This was the side of the family that ultimately became Artis (originally Ortiz). Her ancestor Billy Artis fought in the Nat Turner uprising. Imakhu lectures on the rich history of her family, which is Bantu, Haitian, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Brazilian, Gullah, Melungeon, and Bajan. She has been studying the hidden history of enslaved Afro-Latinx/Hispanic/people of color in the United States.

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The dove is a dear symbol to Queen Mother Imakhu. Her previously known African name was Eyele Yetunde. In Yoruba, Eyele means dove. The dove is sacred to the orishas Obatala/Oxala and Yemoja. (Yetunde means Mother has returned.) In Umbanda/Macumba tradition the Pomba Gira is the sacred messenger dove. The dove in Christianity is Holy Spirit, Peace.  Imakhu is minister. Elaine is heavenly light. Lloyd is holy, sacred. The dove serves as a reminder of the calling over her life as a storyteller, musician, peacemaker, minister, and motivator.​