Attendees of The First Annual Spiritual Warrior Song Leader Training Retreat
Staff
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Ysaye M. Barnwell, Ph.D. MSPH, is a commissioned composer, arranger, author, actress and former member of the African American female a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey In The Rock. She is a vocalist with a range of over three octaves and appears on more than twenty-five recordings with Sweet Honey as well as other artists. For almost thirty years, and on three continents, Barnwell has led the workshop Building a Vocal Community - Singing In the African American Tradition, which utilizes oral tradition, an African world view and African American history, values, cultural and vocal traditions to build communities of song among singers and non-singers alike. Her pedagogy is highly respected among musicians, educators, health workers, activists, organizers, and members of the corporate and non-profit sectors.
Khepe-Ra Maat-Het-Heru was inspired by meeting Dr. Barnwell in October 2015 to create The Spiritual Warrior Song Leader Mission. She feels strongly that this work can and will change our lives and leave a significant legacy in the world. She is excited to be co-creating this event with you. As a Spiritual Warrior she is looking to connect the group through spirit before we enter into the sacredness of song. Khepe-Ra is very happy to be building a network with you! Hello! I am Marcelle Gauvin and I am honored to be a member of this team. I have spent my life pursuing the spiritual aspect of making music through voice. That pursuit informs my own artistic expression as a jazz vocalist and inspires me as a teacher and a voice retraining specialist. I work under the premise that if you can speak, you can sing and your voiceprint is an important contribution to the greater good. I am looking forward to sharing the technical tools I have accumulated through years of study and will strive to serve each of you in your journey to finding a healthy, clear and strong voice capable of carrying your message. We will explore the mind/emotion/body connection and discuss how it influences vocal production. Then we will celebrate the beauty of each individual voice in our group and listen as it takes on its unique role in the community we are building! I am Rachel Bagby and serving the Song Leader Mission feels like one of my ancestral assignments. I am the fourth-generation of an artists/activists/educators/healers lineage that reaches across the lines of race, class, spiritual, rural, urban and artistic traditions. A "Social Artist" I earned a law degree in Social Change from Stanford. Founder of Singing Farm in central Virginia, I'm a #1 bestselling author, commissioned composer, improvising vocal artist & was a founding member of Bobby McFerrin’s touring ensemble, Voicestra. For nearly 30 years, I've integrated my diverse skills and talents to provide training and mentoring to innovative leaders, help individuals and groups realize their visions, and catalyze positive change. I'm often told that my sensitive work as a mentor, community coach and peer-leader helps people develop illuminating ways of listening, sensing and giving voice to Life. Practicing what I preach is pure joy. It is an honor to begin this journey with you all. photo credit: janne watson Mark Robinson has over 35 years of experience in community organizing, community development, conflict transformation and non-profit leadership. Born and raised in the Last Colony, Mark currently lives in Washington DC. Mark also have experience in human performance as a former athletics coach and life coach and Warrior Athlete. As he moves into eldership, Mark looks to continue to be a learner as well as teacher/mentor. Aredvi is the management consultant for The Spiritual Warrior Society as well as a coordinator for the Spiritual Warrior Song Leader Mission. When she isn't busy helping activists and visionaries realize their dreams, Aredvi spends time learning and teaching human sexuality, organic gardening, and making herbal care products. Aredvi is excited to connect with amazing folks at the Spiritual Warrior Song Leader Mission and learn new skills for movement building. |
Song Leaders
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I am Aleya. I am a farmer educator scientist and organizer in the Maryland and Mid Atlantic region. I co own a small vegetable farm on the ancestral lands of Harriet Tubman where my partner and I host Agro and Afroecology gatherings reconvening black and brown folks with the land and their food and linking urban and rural communities. I am a returning generation farmer because I have my great grandfathers hands.
Greetings! I'm Nigel "Legin" John, husband of Khepe-Ra and founder/owner of LEGIN KNITS. I learned the craft of crochet, creating fabric by interlocking loops of yarn, using a crochet hook, from a Rastaman in San Fernando, Trinidad 20 years ago. Since then my passion for the craft has allowed him to continue to grow and innovate and expand my product offering. The fruits of my love for this art form can now be seen on streets across the globe and for this I am grateful! I am creative and artistic in a variety of different art forms so music and song have deeply affected my life. In building a proper future with my wife this Song Leader Mission is really something special and has been in the works consciously and subconsciously for some time now because I know Khepe-Ra was put on this earth to create this space for everyone to share. So I am not only happy to be a part of the organization but also really excited to be a student to learn and to contribute the best way I can. Rushelle Frazier is a performance poet, grassroots organizer, and ecosystem educator based out of Worcester, MA. Rev. Dele loves bringing a little more heaven to earth through meditation and land restoration. To transfer permaculture from academies of privilege to the community at large, Dele founded Nature’s Friends to train mission leaders for climate resilience in underserved communities. Dele, as she prefers to be called, is ordained in the United Church of Christ with Baptist affiliations. She is a contemplative, renaissance woman who has lived and worked on the prophetic edge of social change in Oklahoma, California, Washington D.C. and Virginia. A modern mystic, she combines Christ centered meditation with social justice; and sound with communal transformation. As a grandmother, Dele honors the legacies gained from her Mi’c Mac and Cherokee ancestors on this land as well as the amazing grace experienced by her Akan and Yoruba survivors of the Middle Passage. Her prayer is to walk in the Dele examples of compassion and courage As a spiritual director Dele emphasizes that redeeming the soul mirrors redeeming the soil. As a yoga therapist, she invites you to listen to your soul and gain conscious understanding of the inner journey. You may email[email protected] or follow the blogs at revdele.com to explore the intersections of faith, ecology and policy. “Deeply rooted trees emit a calm atmosphere, deeply rooted human beings do the same…” Hannah Sadtler is a social ecologist, group harmonist, and popular educator for community transformation. Raised by Quakers in the Northeast, she’s been living and loving in New Orleans since 2008; a city which has profoundly shaped her life and work. Hannah’s main organizing focuses in recent years have been the struggle for a just and liberatory education system, and racial justice movement-building with other people of European descent. Htpu (peace) family! I'm Priscilla, I'm an artist and activist. My King Preston and I Co-Founded our organization, Tehuti Ma’at Association, which serves as a resource mechanism to foster the social, political, cultural, intellectual and artistic development of people of African ascent with the objective of holistic empowerment through healing, knowledge and implementation. I'm based in Brooklyn, NY and highly inspired by the indigenous/aboriginal spirituality of humanity's ancestors. I spend my free time studying the ancient culture, practicing ancient African/Kemetic (Ancient Egyptian) Ari Ankh Ka most commonly known as yoga. My hobbies are writing and painting. Preston and I share our transition to healthy and conscious living through our photography and my writing at HightopsandHeels.com My name is Sasha. I'm a mother of one, and a lifelong vocalist. I have a degree in music and have experience singing with amazing musicians in the US and in West Afrika. I love to help others to discover the beauty of their voices all while embracing my own journey in music. Ba N Ra is a multi-talented performer, hip hop emcee, and poet. He is 23 years old from New York City and is a skilled and informed student of the Ancient Afrakan Khemmetic legacy, learning the ancient original language of the Ancient Hapi Nile Valley. He is skilled in speaking, teaching, and over standing the ways of Maat and the ancestors. Doumafis is a healer and samba, striving to make justice work in society. Beyond this justicialism, he seeks to share his praxis while working alongside the poor to find solutions to societal ills. Doumafis plays diverse leadership roles and maintains direct responsibility for various community-based projects in Roxbury, a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. During his leisure time, he enjoys writing, dancing, and photography. Doumafis is the author of two books, After the Dust Settles, the next practices for the transformation of Haiti, and Krik? Krak! DèyèMòn Gen Mòn. Tri-Lingual Press of Cambridge, MA published both books. Doumafis considers himself a traveler, a journey-person and a geographer with a specific focus on Ayiti dating from the pre-Columbus era to the present. Observing the peril and danger that the Folk of Ayiti face, he likes to recall "the present is not definitive." Doumafis is the proud father of Gabe and Ita. Currently, he resides in Boston, MA. Quindell Evans is a poet, songwriter, and sometimes a dancer who uses his performance abilities primarily to inspire & uplift at-risk youth & adults of NYC. From prisons & shelters to schools & foster homes, Quindell facilitates poetry workshops and hosts showcases to help people find their voice. For more, visit www.BluePoetTree.com, where you can find his music, videos & more. My name is Preston Roundtree. I am 24 years old. I was born and raised in Mobile, Alabama. Growing up in the hood in the south exposed me at a very early age to the extent in which white supremacy detrimentally effects the lives of people of African ascent. I moved to Washington DC at the age of 13 to live with my older sister after a series of traumatic events took place in Alabama. While living in DC my eyes were opened to the reality of how white supremacy exist and thrives in the north just as bad if not worse than it is in the south. Moved to NYC after dropping out of college to find myself and my purpose. After meeting my Queen in Brooklyn, NY and taking a life changing trip to Cabo Verde Africa from 2013 to 2014 I was been exposed to the global effects of white supremacy. Now I am seeking to align myself with those who wish to see this current system of European imperialism, neo colonialism, and global white supremacy dismantled and replaced with a system of truth and justice. Hi everyone my name is Jace, and I'm a one of the first poets. I sing everywhere I go!! I record and sing at all the litt open mics in New York. I am also a vegan Chef and love to educate on plant-based food and lifestyle. I am a part of bluepoettree.com and we sing on the subway sharing joy and making people SMILE. I'm looking forward to singing with you all ahnk uja sneb! Greetings! My name is Kendra Krueger and I am a woman working on many edges. Brought up in an artist community in New York City and then conventionally educated in electrical engineering, I've continued to oscillate between many worlds. I left my engineering life to discover fuller and more meaningful ways to gather knowledge and understand the universe. I find myself now working deeply in the permaculture community since the concepts of regenerative systems and patterns resonates strongly with me. I facilitate and teach primarily on social permaculture and work within my own community to create tools, resources and systems that help to acknowledge and heal social trauma. In the time in between I still practice my alchemy and art which I hope to one day use to help shift oue social and scientific paradigms. Hello! My name is Lylo, I am proud weirdo traveling around learning about my self through relationships and human dynamics. I am trans-boi and use the path of the warrior as inspiration and guidance to make home inside my body and relfect that outwards. I believe in magick and the power of love as well as nature and the inclination of resilience. I am prepared to get down on my knees to assist the next ones to stand on my back to see what I cannot yet. I am Kheper Ka M Heru, 23 years young. I am an artist preferably the art of spoken word poetry/hiphop a lover of sound, frequencies that stem from the heart & spirit I love helping others, make awesome vegan food & being around like minded individuals. I am Michelle. I am a questioning scholar-activist on a break from a geography PhD program with a background in climate justice, anti-racist, solidarity economy and other organizing. I'm also a classically-trained professional double bassist looking to play more in the Boston area, and am interested in the connections between individual and collective transformation. My name is D'Amber Hines and I am from Atlanta, Georgia. I moved to New Orleans for college about 8 years ago. While there I joined a team of reggae promoters to help bring more positive and influential music to a city known to be the birthplace of jazz. Even though I loved what I was doing, I still did not feel like I was doing enough to make a difference in my community. After taking a break from the music world, I began teaching at a local charter school for about 3 years. The school system is where I recognized so much injustice and discrimination directly and that's when I knew it was time to become more active in the fight against it. My name is Dan. I have a PhD in economics and I am currently serving as chairperson of the Department of Economics at Bridgewater State University where I have been a faculty member for over 20 years. I understand economics as a platform from which social justice issues and priorities can be evaluated and transformed into policies designed to enhance the greater good. I am a life long student of music and am particularly interested in exploring new approaches to enhance my leadership qualities. Mr. Randy Johnson is a leader that works on pursuing people's passions. He helps children and adults bridge the gap between their interests and direct action that will benefit the community. His work is completed in the hopes that it will unify and uplift those marginalized and oppressed. Creativity and critical thinking are 2 of his key pillars. |
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