Joyful Clemantine Wamariya is a connector, an internationally renowned speaker, and a New York Times Bestselling Author. Her memoir The Girl Who Smiled Beads debuted with Crown Publishing in April 2018. In “vivid prose,” the memoir describes Clemantine and her sister Claire’s journey from their idyllic childhood in Kigali, Rwanda up until 1994, to seeking refuge in eight different countries throughout Africa, to finally receiving refugee status in the USA in 2000. The memoir has been published in 7 languages and in dozens of countries.

Clemantine received her BA in Comparative Literature from Yale University in 2014 and built her career as a storyteller and fierce advocate. She strives to catalyze development personally, locally, and globally. Currently, Clemantine is based out of San Francisco, California where she is spending her time co-building Thingy, a platform whose mission is to capture, organize and share creative ways of being to foster belonging.

An ASL interpreter will be provided for this event.