Image: “Instantaneous Cowry Shell” by Duwayne Washington

Harvard University | Friday, April 3, 2015 CGIS South Building - Tsai Auditorium | 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA

Sponsored by:

Hutchins Center for African and African American Research Harvard Center for African Studies Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School W.E.B. DuBois Graduate Society Department of African and African American Studies The Orisa Community Development Corporation WGBH Boston Ase Ire

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M SUGH U ZA VAN BIENVENIDOS E KAABO AKWABAA BYENVENI MERHBE BEM VINDOS WELCOME

Welcome to the third conference of the African and Diasporic Religious Studies Association! ADRSA was conceived during a forum of scholars and scholar-practitioners of African and Diasporic religions held at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School in October 2011 and the idea was solidified during the highly successful Sacred Healing and Wholeness in Africa and the Americas symposium held at Harvard in April 2012. Those present at the forum and the symposium agreed that, as with the other fields with which many of us are affiliated, the expansion of the discipline would be aided by the formation of an association that allows researchers to come together to forge relationships, share their work, and contribute to the growing body of scholarship on these rich traditions. We are proud to be the first US-based association dedicated exclusively to the study of African and Diasporic Religions and we look forward to continuing to build our network throughout the country and the world. Our first official conference as an organization, Divine Space and Sacred Territories, held in 2013 was a great success, as was our second conference Love Supreme: Devotion, Intimacy, and Ecstasy in African and Diasporic Religions held last year. We are delighted to welcome you to our third conference today.

Although there has been definite improvement, Indigenous Religions of all varieties are still sorely underrepresented in the academic realms of Religious and Theological Studies. As a scholar-practitioner of such a tradition, I am eager to see that change. As of 2005, there were at least 400 million people practicing Indigenous Religions worldwide, making them the 5th most commonly

practiced class of religions. Taken alone, practitioners of African and African Diasporic religions comprise the 8th largest religious grouping in the world, with approximately 100 million practitioners, and the number continues to grow. Despite their noted absence from Religious Studies in the past, more and more, the knowledge embedded in the rich traditions of Africa and the Americas is coming to the fore. The ADRSA is proud to be a part of that development.

African religions have always been dynamic and cosmopolitan, transcending spatial boundaries to

blend and reform themselves in conjunction with neighboring traditions. Once introduced into the Americas, the pluralistic nature of these traditions lent to the development of unique African Diasporic religions that have grown, moved, and changed over time. The divination, ritual, song, dance, incantation, craft, festival, spirit possession, dreams, herbalism, acquisition of sacred knowledge and many other aspects of these traditions have traversed the African continent and the world to become

formidable forces in the realm of world religions. Practitioners of the traditions represented here today exercise active agency and engage with the world on every level, using every one of their senses and sensibilities. They mend what is broken, balance what is askew and maintain equilibrium until the time comes to mend and rebalance again. It is this intricate, fascinating and empowering process and the ways in which it is manifest in through the creation of spiritual soundscapes that we look forward to exploring today. We pray that the connections we make and the conversations we begin will endure long after the conference has ended.

With best wishes and sincere gratitude, Funlayo E. Wood Founding Director, African and Diasporic Religious Studies Association Doctoral Candidate, Department of African & African American Studies, Harvard University

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FEATURED ARTIST | DUWAYNE WASHINGTON

Duwayne Washington originally hails from East Orange, NJ but now resides in beautiful Tallahassee, Florida with his wife and two children. As a child, he drew for energy release but was usually too busy playing outside to be focused on art aside from some drawings on small pieces of paper here and there. Music was Washington’s first art form and at age 11, he joined his middle school band playing clarinet and oboe. He was truly passionate about the instruments and played through high school, adding the drums to his musical

repertoire in college. Upon staying with a friend around 1997, he was introduced to painting. His friend had oil paints, q-tips, and ceramic tiles and they would stay up all night painting. From that moment on He was turned on to the visual arts thanks to his friend’s generosity. He bought three brushes and oil paint and began to paint on found objects and has been painting, drawing, sculpting and creating digital art ever since.

To view and purchase Duwayne’s work, visit http://duwayne-washington.artistwebsites.com

Portrait at the Masquerade (Watercolor and Acrylic on paper)

The Lips of Oshun (Digital Painting)

African Fertility Sculpture (Digital Painting)

In Duwaye’s own words: When I do artwork, I prefer to have some Jazz on I get in the zone. Creativity is an amazing divine gift from The Creator. I am thankful every day to have the focus and passion to be creative. I have a lot say in my work and I am trying to achieve a balance between content and transcendental clairvoyance. I am listening to my intuition to hear what the artistic accidents reveal to my consciousness and follow them. Lately I've been working on my art technique while attending Tallahassee Community College. I use digital art as a tool in some of my artwork, t-shirts, etc. I put it back in the artistic toolbox when I'm done. I am building my art foundations in hands-on painting, drawing, and sculpture and I love the whole process of planning, mixing, and application of creative materials. I enjoy how time and space stops while engaged in the "Art Zone." Artists are, in my opinion, psychics whose channel is the paintbrush and canvas. I want to open myself up to the voice leading me to the inspiration and listen.

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African and Diasporic Spiritual Soundscapes Third Conference of the African and Diasporic Religious Studies Association

Harvard University | Friday, April 3, 2015

8:00 am – 8:50 am Breakfast & Networking 9:00 – 9:30 am Opening of the Day Funlayo E. Wood Doctoral Candidate, African and African American Studies & Religion, Harvard University | Founding Director, ADRSA

Libation Awo Oluwole Ifakunle Adetutu Alagbede, Chief Priest, Ile Omo Ope, New York, NY

Welcome Francis X. Clooney, S. J., Director, Center for the Study of World Religions 9:30 – 10:00 am Opening Plenary| Sonic Spirituality: Iterations of Divine Remembrance from Ile Ife 'Til Infinity Kokhavah Zauditu-Selassie, MFA, DA, Professor of English, Coppin State University

Panel Preludes by Lisa Òṣunlétí Beckley, Professor of Music and Humanities, Tallahassee Community College | Asst. Director, ADRSA

10:00 – 11:00 am Panel 1 | Hallowed Howls, Harmonies, and Sacred Sounds Chair: Laura S. Grillo, PhD, Professor of History of Religions, Pacifica Graduate Institute Joseph S. Gbenda, PhD (Benue State University)

Animal Sounds, Appearances and Movements as Religious Subjects in Tiv Indigenous Religion

Jesse Miller (Florida State University) Regeneration, Reproduction, and Societal Harmony in Case Studies of African Death Ritual Through Sound

M. Ifaboyede Ajisebo Ogunninhun Abimbola (Ifa Heritage Institute) Ifa and Orisa Chants: Sacred Sounds of Yoruba Religion

11:00 – 12:30 pm Panel 2 | Rhythmic Resonances and the Politics of Performance Chair: N. Fadeke Castor, PhD, Professor of Anthropology and Africana Studies, Texas A&M University Didier Michel Sylvain (Columbia University)

“The Loop Takes You Somewhere…”: Sonic Vibration and Transcendence in “Afro-Electronica”

Jason Baumann Montilla (CUNY Graduate Center) “Congo de Guinea Soy, Buenas Noches Criollo:” Diaspora, Subjectivity and the Songs of Espiritismo

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Alison McLetchie, PhD (Claflin University) Hosanna: Religious Rhythms and Chants in Calypso

Sheriden M. Booker, PhD (WURArts) Performative Așeșe: Orișa-Inspired Folklore and Popular Music as Extensions of Sacred Spiritual Soundscapes

12:30 – 1:15 pm

Lunch break

Nearby quick eats: Panera, Al’s Sub Shop, the Greenhouse Café, Darwin’s, Qdoba, B. Good

1:30 pm

Keynote Address| Awise Wande Abimbola Professor Emeritus, African Languages and Literatures, Obafemi Awolowo University

Awise Awo ni Agbaye (Spokesperson for Ifa throughout the World)

*Raffle Drawing Immediately Following Keynote *

2:15 – 2:30

African and Diasporic Religions Film Festival Trailers The Summer of Gods Search for the Everlasting Coconut Tree Sacred Journeys: Osun-Osogbo

2:30 – 3:45 pm

Panel 3 | Clamorous Confrontations and Collaborations

Chair: Stephanie Y. Mitchem, PhD, Professor of Religious Studies, University of South Carolina

Youssef Carter (University of California, Berkeley) “Am Na Ndam: Communicating Spiritual Genealogy and Diasporic Inheritances through Song”

Mariam Goshadze (Harvard University) Sound Politics in Accra: Homowo Festival and Religious Confrontation

Abimbola Adelakun (University of Texas, Austin) Doing Things with Ase

Khytie K. Brown (Harvard University) Sound Baptism: Rhythm and Sound as Spiritual Alchemy in Revival Zion and Rastafari

4 pm – 4:45 pm

Performance | "Of Water and Spirit": The Sonography of Water in African Cosmology

Maya James Maya Louisa Stephanie Tisdale Zahrah Aya

4:45 pm – 5:00 pm

Closing Remarks

6:30 pm

After Party and Show Featuring WolfHawkJaguar | Opening by Universal Vibrations

The Middle East Upstairs | 480 Massachusetts Avenue (Central Square)

Saturday, April 4, 2015 | 11 am – 4 pm

African and Diasporic Religions Film Festival CGIS South | 1730 Cambridge Street | Tsai Auditorium

The Summer of Gods Search for the Everlasting Coconut Tree Sacred Journeys: Osun-Osogbo

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KEYNOTE SPEAKER |AWISE WANDE ABIMBOLA

Professor Wande Abimbola is President and Founder of Ifa Heritage Institute. He served as Vice Chancellor (President) of the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) from 1982-1989. From 1992-1993 he was Senate Majority Leader of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. From 2003-2005, Professor Abimbola served as Special Adviser on Cultural Affairs and Traditional Matters to the President of Nigeria. He was installed as Awise Awo ni Agbaye (Spokesperson of Ifa in the Whole World) in 1981 by the Ooni of Ife on the recommendation of a conclave of West African Babalawos.

Born in the historic city of Oyo, the Awise comes from a long line of tradition bearers. His late father, Abimbola Iroko, a veteran of World War I and a renowned hunter whose brave exploits are still being celebrated by Ijala artists, was the Asipade (Leader of the Ogun Community) of Oyo until his death in 1971. His late mother, Sangodayo Ifagbemisola Awele, a high priest of Sango, lived

mentally and physically well until she departed the earth in 1987 at the age of 109. Wande Abimbola received his first degree in History from the University College, Ibadan in 1963, when that was a college of London University. He received his Master's Degree in Linguistics from Northwestern

University, Illinois, USA in 1966, and his Ph.D. in Yoruba Literature in 1970 from the University of Lagos. He became a full Professor of African Languages and Literatures at the University of Ife in 1976. The Awise's academic background is very much rooted in oral tradition. He was an apprentice in Ifa chanting and rituals before he began formal schooling at the age of 12. The Awise Agbaye taught in three Nigerian universities, namely the University of Ibadan from 1963-65, University of

Lagos from 1966-72, and the University of Ife from 1972-91. He has also taught at many universities in the USA, including Indiana University, Amherst College, Harvard University, Boston University, Colgate University, and the University of Louisville.

Join Us Tomorrow for Film Screenings and Discussions with Eliciana Nascimento (The Summer of Gods) Adimu Madyun aka WolfHawkJaguar (Search for the Everlasting Coconut Tree) Chief Nathaniel B. Styles, Jr. and Funlayo E. Wood (Sacred Journeys)

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INVITED GUESTS

Nurudafina Pili Abena (Universal Vibrations) Oral

Traditionalist/Teacher/Musician, Nurudafina Pili Abena has been drumming for 40 years. She studied drumming as a child with Master Babatunde Olatunji as well as with many masters of traditional folklore from African and Eastern origins. She has performed and studied in West Africa (Senegal), Kenya (East Africa), and in Cuba as well as nationally throughout the United States of America. She uses the drum as a link between these ancient cultures and our present musical art. Nurudafina founded the “Universal Vibrations School of Oral Traditions” in 1976. She is considered one of the original women elders and is respected internationally as a woman drummer and teacher. Nuru is a “Woman on a Mission,” using drumming to unite people from diverse backgrounds and to dispel the ignorance surrounding African music and Diaspora Cultural folklore.

Babalawo Oluwole A. Ifakunle Adetutu Alagbede, affectionately known as “the Babalawo of Harlem” is the Chief Priest of Ile Omo Ope Temple in New York City. He is a Traditional African Orisa Practitioner, professional performing artist, father, and master chess player. Awo Ifakunle attended Hunter College, studying community health and physical education and is the student of Professor Ogunwande Abimbola who is the Awise Agbaye (spokesman of all babalawo in the World). His Oluwo (officiator of Ifa ceremonies), and his master teacher is Chief Araba Malumo Ifatukemi Alagbede of Elejibo, Lagos, Nigeria in whose compound Awo Ifakunle was initiated to Obatala and Ifa over 20 years ago. Additionally, the Awo has been tutored by Chief Priest Awise of Osogbo Ifayemi Elebuibon on Ifa divination and chants of Ifa. Locally, Awo Ifakunle was the Godchild and student of both Oba Oseijeman Ofuntola Adefunmi I (iba e), who was the first King of Oyotunji African Village in South Carolina where he lived in for a time in the 1970s. Awo Ifakunle regularly lectures on Ifa-Orisa Tradition at Ile Eko Sango Oshun Milosa shrine in Trinidad and Tobago, at High Schools in New York City and at Colleges and Universities including Harvard University, New York University, and Sara Lawrence College.

N. Fadeke Castor, PhD is an Anthropologist and African Diaspora Studies scholar, Ifá/Orisha student

and initiate. She was introduced to the Yoruba religion in 1993 in Oakland, California. After five years in an Ifá/Orisha house there the ancestors lead her to graduate school. Her PhD took her to Trinidad for three years of ethnographic research, supported by grants from Fulbright-Hays and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. Alongside her fieldwork on race, culture and politics she engaged with her extended family and ancestral cultural practices, including the Trinidad Orisha religion. After receiving her PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Chicago (2009) she initiated to Ifá through Oloye Solagbade Popoola at Ile Eko Sango Mil’osa/Irentegbe Temple in Trinidad (2010), fulfilling an ancestral mission. Her Ifá studies continue under Oluwo Popoola with recent study trips to Nigeria in the summers of 2013 and 2014.

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Currently, Dr. Castor’s interests include religion, modernity, post-colonialism, performance, decolonization, citizenship, identity and representation in popular/public culture in the African Diaspora, specifically in the Caribbean and West Africa. In her written work she explores emerging forms of cultural citizenship in the African Diaspora, with special attention to decolonizing practices. Currently under review, her book manuscript, “Sacred Imaginaries: Performing Africa, Decolonizing Blackness,” examines how new lineages of Ifá have become rooted in Trinidad Orisha. In “Sacred Imaginaries” she argues that Trinidad Ifá/Orisha can be seen as forces of black liberation, informing local practices of decolonization while drawing on spiritual epistemologies rooted in transnational networks.

Osunkemi Liz Coleman (Universal Vibrations) says: I am a percussionist and educator specializing in African and African Diaspora music genres. As a cultural arts consultant, I work with community-based and academic institutions to create and develop multicultural program activities for youth and adults. For over twenty years I have been performing for diverse audiences in venues ranging from schools and hospitals to some of the world’s great stages.

Laura S. Grillo earned her Ph.D. in History of Religions from The University of Chicago, specializing in African religions. She holds an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary and an A.B. in Religious Studies from Brown University. Laura has lived and worked in Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya. She is the author of numerous articles on African religions in peer-reviewed journals, anthologies and encyclopedias including The Encyclopedia of Religion and Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion. For her earlier work on West African divination was awarded research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Academy of Religions and the West Africa Research Association. Her current book in progress, An Intimate Rebuke: Female Genital Power in Ritual and Politics in Côte d’Ivoire, was generously supported with a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard Divinity School in the Spring of 2013. Laura teaches at Pacifica Graduate Institute.

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Adimu Madyun aka WolfHawkJaguar Passion, Spirit, and Pain directly influence the melodic tunes of multi-talented Urban World Music artist WolfHawkJaguar. His music stirs the soul with a mixture of Spirituality, raptured in the heart of Hip Hop, Reggae, Rhythm and Blues. Currently residing in Oakland, the California native is a prolific musician, actor, and award-winning film maker who is taking his style of edutainment around the world. His album, Hunter Poetry, released in 2012, takes listeners on a beat-laden exploration of Diasporic spiritual themes and in summer 2013 he was invited to perform selections at the 10th Orisa World Congress in Ile-Ife Nigeria. A camera crew followed him on the journey to document his adventure and what came out is the magical film "Search for The Everlasting Coconut Tree" which will premier at our African and Diasporic Religions Film Festival on Saturday, April 4.

Stephanie Y. Mitchem (Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1998) is Professor of Religious Studies with a joint appointment with the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, College of Arts and Sciences at the

University of South Carolina, Columbia. Dr. Mitchem joined the University of South Carolina in 2005. She was promoted to full professor in 2008. Prior to joining USC, Mitchem was Associate Professor in Religious Studies and Women’s Studies at University of Detroit Mercy, Detroit, Michigan. She focuses her research on exploring the rich socio-religious contexts and meanings of African Americans and Africans across the Diaspora. In addition to numerous articles, she is author of African American Women Tapping Power (Wipf and Stock 2010, reprint); African American Folk Healing (New York University Press, 2007); Name It and Claim It: Prosperity Preaching and the Black Church (Pilgrim Press 2007); Introducing Womanist Theology (Orbis Books, 2002/2014); and co-edited with Emilie M. Townes, Faith, Health, and Healing Among African Americans

(Praeger 2008). She is a Board of Trustees member and contributing editor for Crosscurrents. Since 2007, she has served in various capacities at USC including the University of South Carolina Press Board; College of Arts and Sciences Academic Planning Council; Director of African American Studies. Most recently, she served a term as Chair of the Department of Religious Studies (2008-2014.) In addition, Mitchem was recipient of an Academic Leadership Development Fellowship, 2010-2012.

Eliciana Nascimento is an award winner film director and producer. She holds an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in Cinema from San Francisco State University. Her short film The Summer of Gods premiered at Cannes film Festival in 2014, won the Spirit Award and Best Cinematography at the Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival and won the Special Recognition for Directing Narrative Award at the Black Star Film Festival. This film has been shown in several film festivals, events and community screenings around the world and will screen at our Film Festival on Saturday, April 4. Eliciana was born and raised in Brazil where she grew up among African-influenced religions. Her family is rooted in Candomblé and Umbanda traditions, and while Eliciana always sympathized and participated peripherally with those traditions, it wasn't until she moved to the U.S. that she fully immersed herself in Orisha worship through Ifá and Santeria traditions. After her mother

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passed in 2010, Eliciana accepted the call to become an initiate in Cuba. She continues to study and develop her priesthood. With this film, she reveals the beauty, culture and mythology of her people. Her hope is that it will encourage the preservation of Orishas traditions by inspiring viewers to honor them and learn more.

Chief Nathaniel B. Styles , Jr.’s career for the past 30 years has focused on International Relations with an emphasis on Cultural and Economic Revitalization for Indigenous Communities, in the United States, Africa and The Caribbean. He has received numerous titles including Otunba Fosungbade of Alayemore Kingdom, Ido Osun, Nigeria, bestwoed upon him in 2011.

Otunba began his Ifa/Orisa Initiations in 1970, fulfilling his destiny to re-unite his family in the Turtle Islands (Americas) who have Distinguished themselves in various fields with the Ancient Traditions and Customs of their West African Yoruba and Mende Ancestors.

Styles is the co-visionary and Executive Director of the Osun’s Village and African Caribbean Cultural Arts Corridor, a 43 City Block Cultural Arts, Entertainment and International Trade District, that was designated by the 2006 Florida Legislature via House Bill-121 and Senate Bill 308. The Osun Village in Miami is the first municipal designation to an African Deity in America. Chief Styles and the Village were featured in the 2014 PBS documentary, Sacred Journeys: Osun-Osogbo, which will be screened at our film festival on Saturday, April 4.

The Osun’s Village and African Caribbean Cultural Arts Corridor is the first of many initiatives Chief Styles has lead, to promote workforce development in the cultural industry, cross-cultural awareness, international trade and commerce and other ventures and values.

Dr. Kokahvah Zauditu-Selassie is professor of English in the Humanities Department at Coppin State University. A 2009-2010 Fulbright Scholar at the University of Cocody in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, she has been a National Endowment for the Humanities Dissertation fellow, an NEH seminar and institute participant, a National Council for Black Studies fellow at the University of Ghana, Legon, a Fulbright-Hays fellow in Cairo, Egypt, a Fulbright-Hays seminar participant in the Republic of South Africa, a New York University Scholar-In Residence, a Mellon fellow at the Gorée Institute in Dakar, Senegal, and a Fulbright-Hays Scholar in the Republic of South Africa. Dr. Zauditu-Selassie has lived, studied, lectured, and traveled extensively throughout Africa, South America, and the Caribbean.

She is the author of, “I Got a Home in Dat Rock: Memory, Orisa, and Yoruba Spiritual Identity in African American Literature” in Orisa: Yoruba Gods and Spiritual Identity in Africa and the Diaspora, as well as several journal articles including, “Step and Fetch It: The Reclamation of African Ontology in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God,” “Women Who Know Things: African Epistemologies, Ecocriticism, and Female Spiritual Authority in the Novels of Toni Morrison,” and “Every Goodbye Ain’t Gone: Using Adinkra Symbols to Frame Critical Agenda in African Diasporic Literature.” She is also the author of a book of critical essays titled, African Spiritual Traditions in the Novels of Toni Morrison, a 2009 publication of the University Press of Florida, which won the Toni Morrison Society’s 2010 award for the best single-authored book. Her latest publication is a collection of short stories titled, At the End of Daybreak, published by Middle-Passage Press. Her novel, The Cracked Sky/Le Ciel Brisé is forthcoming.

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PANELISTS

Ifaboyede M. Ajisebo McElwaine Abimbola’s lifelong commitment to social justice, cultural decolonization and religious activism has brought her squarely to the service of Ifa. She co-administered the “Safeguarding the Ifa Divination System” project, which resulted from UNESCO’s Proclamation of Ifa as an Oral and Intangible Masterpiece of Humanity in 2005 and led to the establishment of the Ifa Heritage Institute, Oyo, Nigeria. Ajisebo has traveled a great deal throughout the African Diaspora to perform rituals in her dual role as practicing Iyanifa and Apetebi of the Awise Awo ni Agbaye. She has presented on Ifa and Yoruba Religion at many academic conferences and addressed the controversial topic of gay rights in the Yoruba religion at the 10th OrisaWorld Congress. Ajisebo holds an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from UMASS Boston and a B.A. in African Studies, Women’s Studies, and Religious Studies from St. Lawrence University. She has served as an Anti-Racism Trainer for the Greater Boston Regional Youth Council, Curriculum and Staff Development Specialist for Framingham Adult ESL Plus, and Consultant and Professional Development Trainer for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary

and Secondary Education. In 2013, the Ooni of Ife and Grand Patron of OrisaWorld installed her and two others as Asoju Esin ati Asa Yoruba (Ambassador of Yoruba Religion and Culture). In the same year, the Ogun community of Oyo Town, Nigeria honored her with the title Iya Idi Ogun Alaafin Oyo.

Abimbola Adunni Adelakun is a second year PhD student in Performance as Public Practice in the Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Texas, Austin, USA. Her dissertation is a study of Yoruba traditional religious practices in contemporary Nigerian culture. Her work examines the performance of religion in daily life and how it intersects -and interferes- in the social and political spaces that have been designated as “secular.”

Adelakun holds a double Master’s degree: one from University of Ibadan in Communication and Language Arts while the second is from University of Texas, Austin, in African and African Diaspora Studies. Her MA thesis studied popular culture and how it shapes cultural identity across the nexus of race, nationality, class and gender.

Abimbola is a writer and a regular columnist with Nigeria’s bestselling newspaper, PUNCH. She engages her country – the leadership, the populace and her the various issues confronting the polity. She is also a novelist and her debut novel is titled Under the Brown Rusted Roofs. The book is a narrative of life in Ibadan, a Yoruba town in Southwestern Nigeria. It traces the story of a family in a semi-urban setting over a period of three decades and reflects all the cultural changes they undergo and also, the resilience of traditional cultural practices. Her second book is currently being edited and will be published in 2016. She blogs her articles at opele.net

Jason Baumann Montilla is currently completing his PhD in English at the CUNY Graduate Center, focusing on Latina/o literature and Africana studies. His dissertation is on the influence of Gothic fiction on Latina/o and African American prison memoirs. He also has his MFA in Poetry from the City College CUNY and an MLS from Queens College CUNY. He teaches courses in Latina/o studies, prison literature, and the Gothic in the colleges of the City University of New York, as well as courses on museum studies, archives, and multiculturalism in the Graduate School of Information and Library Studies at the Pratt Institute. Jason works for the New York Public Library as Coordinator of Collection Assessment, Humanities, and LGBT Collections. He has curated two exhibitions for the Library on LGBT history — 1969: The Year of Gay Liberation and WHY WE FIGHT: Remembering AIDS Activism. Jason is a priest of Yemayá in the Lukumí rite, Babalorisha oní Yemayá, initiated in New York City in 2004, and has studied and practiced Espiritismo for over 25 years.

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Sheriden M. Booker, PhD is an initiate of the orisha Oba in the Afrocuban Lukumi tradition and an Elegbe in the Nigerian Yoruba religious tradition. For the past 15 years, she has traveled and studied the history of the African Diaspora and orișa traditions in Nigeria, Brazil, and Cuba. She holds a doctorate in African American Studies and Anthropology from Yale University, where she was the recipient of a Ford Foundation Doctoral Fellowship for her research on the arts and race in post-Special Period Cuba. Her academic interests include the impact of neoliberal capitalism on cultural production and religion, and the ways Afro-Atlantic cultural practitioners formulate and embody narratives of resistance, tradition, and racial consciousness within and against these new social matrices.

In addition to her participation in numerous academic symposiums and roundtables on orișa traditions, she has organized a biannual Cosmopolitan Ilé panel series at CUNY’s Medgar Ever College, engaging students and the broader community around "African-Centered Institution Building in the Americas", and "Youth, Entrepreneurism, and Africa". In 2013, Booker was invited by Governor Rauf Aregbesola and the Osun State Office of Economic Development to speak about challenges and opportunities for tourism, cross-cultural exchanges, and community development through the annual Oșun Oșogbo Festival.

Booker studied Arts Administration at New York University and has 10 years of experience as a fundraiser and development professional with various New York-based nonprofit arts organizations. She is the founder of WURArts, an arts consulting company which also serves as the umbrella for Cosmopolitan Ilé.

Khytie K. Brown is a second year doctoral student in the department of African and

African American Studies at Harvard University with a primary field in Religion. Her research emphasis is on religious expression and cultural production in the Caribbean, with particular attention to disruptions of the sacred/profane binary, sensory epistemologies and the interplay between private religious discourses and public space. Her current research examines affect, embodiment, ritual and identity production as enacted in two traditionally disparate spaces: the sacred seal ground of Jamaica’s African-derived Revival Zion Christianity and the secular dancehall spaces of Kingston’s urban streets. Khytie received a joint BA in Sociology and Religion from Emory University in 2010, where she was a Mellon Mays Fellow, and her Master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School in 2013 where her concentration was Religion and the Social Sciences. Believing strongly in scholar-activism, Khytie serves as a mentor for the Harvard Prison Education Project, co-president of the W.E.B. Du Bois Graduate Society and leadership council member for the African and Diasporic Religious Studies Association (ADRSA).

Youssef J. Carter is a doctoral candidate in the department of Anthropology at

the University of California-Berkeley. For the past several years, he has served as founding co-chair of the African Diaspora Studies Symposium, an annual meeting recently re-named in honor of the late Dr. Sylvia M. Jacobs, at North Carolina Central University. Youssef has also served as an educator at virtually all levels of academia that have included both youth and more experienced learners. Regarding research, he is interested in what the circulation of religious material, aesthetics, communal invocations, song composition, and bodily performance can reveal about diaspora, memory, and religious subjectivity. Therefore, his current project looks closely at interactions among Muslims of varying African descent and the co-construction of a diasporic spiritual network, specifically in the context of a transnational Sufi order.

Waistbeads and More

www.KoleJewel.com

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Joseph Saruwan Gbenda. PhD is a Professor of African Traditional Religion & culture. He is the current Head of Department of Religion and Philosophy, Benue State University Makurdi, Nigeria. He studied Religions at Saint James Seminary Makurdi, College of Education Katsina Ala, University of Calabar, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He bagged a PhD in African Religion and Culture from the University of Nigeria Nsukka in 2004.His fields of work includes African Religion, Comparative Religion, and Indigenous Approaches to Conflict Transformation, Religion and Ecology. He has published numerous papers and books on African Religion, Africanization of Christianity, Eschatology, Religion and Ecology among others. As an International scholar, he is a member of the Institute of Religion in an age of Science, a Sharply Booth Fellow of 2014; Forum on Religion and Ecology among others. His recent trips to attend international conferences include the United States of America, Canada, United Kingdom, the Netherlands and South Africa.

Mariam Goshadze is a PhD Candidate in the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University. Mariam’s research emphasis is on indigenous religious beliefs in the Republic of Ghana, with particular focus on religious expression in urban and diasporic settings, religio-cultural practices pertinent to migrations, indigenous beliefs and national self-identity and the interplay between Pentecostalism and indigenous practices. Her current research examines power struggle between Pentecostal churches and Ga indigenous chiefs in the urban context of Accra. Mariam has presented her work at Religion and Spirituality Conference, Midwest AAR and Florida State Graduate Symposium and published in Religion and Society Journal, as well as in Identity Studies.

Born and raised in the Republic of Georgia Mariam received her BA in Soviet and Eastern European History from the American University in Bulgaria in 2007 and her Master’s degree in Nationalism Studies from Central European University in 2008. Her MA thesis titled “Instrumentalization of History in Georgian-Abkhazian Conflict” was published in 2009.

Passionate about child protection, Mariam worked for two years in a Child Protection Center in Tbilisi providing free legal, psychological and social assistance to child victims of abuse. Active in several student organization at the University of Missouri - Columbia where she completed her second MA degree in Religious Studies, currently

she is a Dudley Public Service Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences where she organizes community service opportunities for students.

Maya James, daughter to the Atlantic Ocean is a poet, playwright, fiction writer, and

actress. She grew up surrounded by old women and their stories. Ever since she was a little girl, they would sidle up beside her smelling like hard work and peppermints; needing to unload their troubles, prayers, and blessings on an unbiased ear. This inspired that little bookish girl to pursue the writer’s life. Ms. James' poetry has been published in Drum Voices Revue and Fokus Magazine. her fiction, creative essay, and poetry has been published in the The Liberator Magazine, and she is a fellow of the Callaloo writing workshops out of Texas A&M Univ. Ms. James is also a first place winner of the College Language Association's Short Story Competition; winner of the Dr. Floyd Gaffney National Playwriting Competition at the Univ. of California, San Diego; and recipient of Howard University’s Owen Dobson Award for Dramatic Writing. Ms. James was also a presenter at the 2013 ADRSA Divine Space and Sacred Territories Conference. Ms. James is a graduate of Howard University with a B.F.A. In Theatre Arts. She currently resides in Brooklyn, NY writing and working with students in Harlem, NY as a Helen Gurley Brown Education Fellow with the New York Public Library.

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Maya Louisa Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York Maya Louisa began dancing at the age of three. Eventually training at the Alvin Ailey Junior Division School, she spent High School choreographing and performing to the music of her favorite artist, Aaliyah. Maya holds a degree in Cultural Anthropology and a minor in Dance from Howard University. While at Howard she joined Afro-Cuban dance company, Alafia and toured internationally including Europe, South America, and the Caribbean. She also spent a summer residency with Ballet Hispanico under the direction of Tina Ramirez. Maya holds a certificate of professional development and study from the Board of Education Dance institute based on the Katherine Dunham model. In New York City Maya was a principal dancer with Oyu Oro Afro-Cuban Experimental Dance Ensemble with whom she toured nationally. She frequently travels to Cuba to deepen her knowledge of Afro-Cuban dance studying with both Ballet Folklorico Cutumba of Santiago de Cuba, and Cojunto Folklorico Nacional of Havana, Cuba. Maya currently performs and choreographs in both New York City and Los Angeles.

Alison Mc Letchie completed her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of South Carolina in 2013. Her dissertation, “The Parasitic Oligarchy? The Elites of Trinidad and Tobago,” explores the networks and connections between the elites in Trinidad and Tobago. Her 2012 chapter entitled “The Holy Temple of Soca: Rev. Rudder in Attendance” in The Future is Now: A New Look at African Diaspora Studies argues that calypsonian David Rudder’s music and performances suggests that Carnival is a religious festival. Alison also has an M.A. in Anthropology, “Incidents of Douglarization: The Worship of la Divina Pastora in Trinidad,” and Certificate in Museum Management. She was awarded the first George Priestly Social Justice Award for Graduate Student Paper at the Caribbean Studies Association for “Doh Interfere with Husband and Wife Business: Domestic Violence in Trinidad and Tobago” which examined ideas of domestic violence in calypsos sung by men. Her most recent project explores issues of identity and community in a small African American Catholic town in the rural Low Country of South Carolina. Other interests include racial and ethnic identity formation and transformation, the Caribbean Diaspora in the United States, religion, calypsos and Creolization. She teaches sociology at Claflin University in Orangeburg, SC.

Jesse Miller says: I am a highly motivated graduate student with backgrounds in

Religious Studies and Anthropology, which I aim to use to help advance the field of Religious Studies in regards to discourse about Africa. I am currently at Florida State University, pursuing my Masters/PhD in History and Ethnography of Religion with focus on Africa. In particular, I focus on both Francophone and Anglophone countries of West Africa. My advisor, Dr. Joseph Hellweg also researches West Africa, particularly Francophone nations such as Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, etc. The primary area of my research focus is funerary practice in West Africa. I feel that the moment of death can speak volumes about people, and their beliefs. My secondary interest is Islam in Africa.

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Didier Michel Sylvain is an electronic music composer and second year PhD

student in ethnomusicology at Columbia University with interests in the metaphysical and political dimensions of futurism in black music, and, more generally, interdisciplinary work surrounding sound, race, and technology in the African diaspora. Didier’s master’s thesis explored the thematic trope of “Afrofuturism” in the electronic music compositions of a small group of African diasporic artists and technologists in New York City. His dissertation project will build on this research with a particular ear towards what a digital Haiti sounds like and means, investigating practices of digitization in (and modes of appropriation between) digital audio production schools, composer home studies, and public streets and spaces. As a composer, Didier’s work additionally examines possibilities for a creative pedagogical approach that transforms research into music, and that makes music as a modality for performing and amplifying research.

Stephanie Tisdale has an insatiable appetite for all things African. She has been

blessed to travel throughout parts of the continent and the diaspora learning from the versatile expressions of the African worldview. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Stephanie went on to graduate from Howard University (2005) with a B.A. in English and a minor in African American Studies, Lincoln University (2011) with an M.Ed. in Elementary Education, and Temple University (2013) with an M.A. in African-American Studies. She’s worked as an Academic Advisor with Philadelphia Freedom Schools, and as a teacher at Imhotep Charter High School and Sankofa Freedom Academy. Stephanie is a writer and Partner with Liberator Magazine, and is the founder of SpicyWildMango (a catering and event planning company). She is also a music artist and performs as “Electric Lady.” Stephanie currently resides in Brooklyn, NY and works as an Educator.

Zahrah Aya paints what she dreams; the details and intensity of her visions are captured in the images of her artwork. She was told by her late mother and also her father to follow her dreams and manifest them into reality. With good music and food by her side, Zahrah Aya made these visions come alive. Zahrah’s fascination with the Yoruba idea of “coolness,” and its association with Oshun, has influenced her artwork over the years. Whether painting live or exhibiting her pieces, “coolness” is Zahrah and she is grateful for the opportunity to share her gift. She is a graduate of Lincoln University, with a B.S. in Physics (2002) and an M.Ed. (2011). Her work as an educator has taken her to a variety of places including Ghana, Brazil and South Korea. Currently, she resides in the D.C. metro area and is a private school Math Specialist. She is pursuing an additional Master’s in Educational Leadership at her lifetime alma mater, Lincoln University.

Third World Newsreel (TWN) is an alternative media arts organization that fosters the creation, appreciation

and dissemination of independent film and video by and about people of color and social justice issues. Find

out more and purchase videos at:

www.twn.org

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ABOUT THE ADRSA LEADERSHIP COUNCIL

Funlayo E. Wood (Director) is a doctoral candidate in African and African American Studies with a primary field in Religion at Harvard University. Her research centers on theological, philosophical, and semiotic aspects of Ifá-Orisa

religious practice and comparative analysis of the tradition, within all of which she privileges Yoruba language as a conduit to understanding. She has additional interests in African and indigenous religions, more broadly, African/a philosophy, and intersections between religion, science, and technology. Funlayo has had her work published in the Journal of Africana Religions and has presented in academic and public forums in the United States and Nigeria and was featured in the 2014 PBS documentary, Sacred Journeys: Osun-Osogbo. An initiated priestess of Obatala and Iyanifa, Funlayo has dedicated her life to the Ifá-Òrìsà tradition and relishes in contributing her voice as a scholar-practitioner.

A native of New York City, Funlayo holds a BA in the African Diaspora in the Americas and an MA in history, both from the City University of New York, and an AM in African Studies from Harvard University. Throughout her post-secondary career, Funlayo has conducted research on African Indigenous religious systems including time spent at the University of Legon in Accra, Ghana, Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, the University of Ibadan in Ibadan, Nigeria, and at various cultural-historical sites in Nigeria and Egypt. Augmenting her scholarly work, she receives consistent spiritual instruction from her Master-Teacher, Awo Oluwole Ifakunle Adetutu Alagbede.

Funlayo’s research has received generous support from institutions including the Colin Powell Center for Leadership and Service at The City College of New York, the United Stated Department of Education (FLAS), the Fulbright Foundation, and the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School

where she was a Junior Fellow (2011-2012). She is currently a fellow with HDS’s Science, Religion, and Culture Program and a contributor to the Primals Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to work with ADRSA, Funlayo serves as the Executive Director of the Orisa Community Development Corporation, a non-profit organization dedicated to community building, contributes to the popular religion blog State of Formation, and the creator of Ase Ire, an inspirational, informational web space and resource center.

Lisa Òṣunlétí Beckley (Assistant Director) was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi and raised on the campus of Rust College. Classically trained as a harpist from the age of nine, she received a Bachelor of Arts in Harp Performance from Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. After getting accepted to the College of Music at Florida State University she received a Master’s degree in Harp Performance and played principal harpist in the Florida State University Orchestra, Big Bend Community Orchestra, Valdosta Symphony Orchestra, and the Central Florida Symphony Orchestra to name a few. However, after taking a community African Drum and Dance Class she began pursuing an interest in ethnomusicology and soon after received her Master’s degree in the field. The African Drum and Dance class also opened the door to her spiritual community and shortly after beginning dance classes she began investigating the oriṣa tradition. Since 2000, Òṣunlétí has been studying the oriṣa tradition, becoming a member of her current ile in 2005 and being initiated to the orisa Oṣun in 2010.

Òṣunlétí is an Associate Professor of music and humanities at Tallahassee Community College (TCC) and a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology at Florida State University both in Tallahassee, Florida. She is the founder and director of the TCC African Drum and Dance Ensemble and teaches Western Music History and World Music Cultures. A two-time Fulbright-Hays Scholar, she has conducted research on music associated with women and social change in South Africa as well as engaged in intensive Yoruba language studies in Nigeria. Currently, she is working on her dissertation entitled, “To and Through the Doors of Ocha: Music, Spiritual Transformation, and Reversion among African-American

Lucumí.” Though she loves her work, Òṣunlétí is most proud of her accomplishments in her family. As a mother, she

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seeks balance through her daily spiritual practice and study, and through her unique relationship with music and dance.

Khytie Brown (Leadership Council Member) See bio in panelist information section above.

Kyrah Malika Daniels (Leadership Council Member) is a doctoral candidate in African & African American Studies with a primary field in Religion. Her research centers on Black Atlantic religions, sacred art, and ritual healing traditions in Central Africa and the Caribbean. She is currently conducting field research for her dissertation, a comparative religion project based in Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo that focuses on ritual healing objects used to address spiritual and mental illness. Her research ultimately examines how various African-derived religious communities in the Caribbean and Central Africa ritually and holistically address illness on a social, psychological, and spiritual level.

Following the earthquake of 2010, Kyrah worked in St. Raphael, Haiti with Lakou Soley (Community of Sun) Academic and Cultural Arts Center, a grassroots organization that encourages the incorporation of art and performance in classroom activities for students who experience enduring traumas. She currently serves as a Graduate Student Associate at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, and her work has been published in the Journal of Africana Studies and the Journal of Haitian Studies. A California native, Kyrah graduated from Stanford University in 2009 with a B.A. in African & African American Studies, and received her M.A. in Religion at Harvard in 2013.

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CONFERENCE SPONSORS

The Hutchins Center for African and African American Research (formerly the Du Bois Institute) is the nation’s oldest research center dedicated to the study of the history, culture, and social institutions of Africans and African Americans, broadly defined to cover the expanse of the African Diaspora. The Hutchins Center’s research projects and visiting fellows form the vital nucleus around which revolve a stimulating array of lecture series, art exhibitions, readings, conferences, and archival and publication projects.

Building on Harvard University’s longstanding scholarship and education on Africa, the Center for African Studies fosters the creation and

dissemination of knowledge about Africa and African perspectives, across the University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Professional Schools. As a University-wide entity, the Committee works collaboratively with Harvard’s many loci of Africa-related expertise to expand upon and create new opportunities and resources for education and research, and to enhance connections among and between scholars, students, and groups focusing on Africa-related knowledge at the University, in the broader community, and through partnerships on the continent.

The mission of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School is: to advance interdisciplinary, international, and interreligious exchange, learning, and research on the world's religions; to bring together the rich intellectual resources of faculty and students at Harvard Divinity School and at other Schools and departments of Harvard University with an international scholarly network to explore issues of religion in today's complex, globalizing, and changing world; and to build a deeper and broader understanding of the histories and contemporary patterns of the world's religious communities by hosting scholars and practitioners at the Center as residents and program participants.

Since its formation in 1983, the W. E. B. Du Bois Graduate Society has worked to create a conducive educational environment for historically underrepresented minorities in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS). It has acted as an umbrella organization to serve the needs of African-American, Puerto Rican, Mexican American, and Native American graduate students.

The Department of African and African American Studies brings together scholars and scholarship from many disciplines to explore the histories, societies, and cultures of African and African-descended people. The field of African and African American Studies is not only interdisciplinary but also comparative and cross-cultural.

The Orisa Community Development Corporation is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting the economic, social and cultural development of the global Orisa Community. We will fulfill our mission through providing strategic planning, programs and initiatives that build sustainability, pride, and the perpetuation of traditional ways of life in the context of modern society.

Ase Ire is an inspirational, informational webspace and resource center which is aimed at “Promoting the Power of Positivity” using African-centered principles and philosophies.

WGBH is proud to be PBS’s single largest producer for television, the Web, and mobile. Some of your favorite series — Nova, Masterpiece, Frontline, American Experience, Antiques Roadshow, Curious George, Arthur, and Simply Ming, to name a few — are produced in their Boston studios, and they showcase emerging producers on their national multicast World Channel.

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