ɬ�﷬

Artists, Speakers, and Ensembles

is a professor of music and director of the Center for Worship at ɬ�﷬. He is a composer, conductor, gospel/jazz vocalist, and pianist. He is a native of Detroit, Michigan. 

is a professor at Baylor University in the Department of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media. He is the author of over two dozen books and hundreds of magazine articles, and is the director of Baylor's Black Gospel Music Restoration Project. 

(Lima, Peru) has a doctorate in cultural anthropology and is the founder and director of DE CAJóN Project and Movimiento Afrolatino ɬ�﷬ (MÁS), two community arts organizations dedicated to raising awareness of the cultural contributions of ɬ�﷬ of African descent in Peru and Latin America, respectively. She currently holds two positions as the assistant director of the African Studies and of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies programs at the University of Washington.  

is an Afro-Latina artist born in Caracas-Venezuela where she began her career as a dancer combining dance and theater training. MÁS (Movimiento Afrolatino ɬ�﷬) has become the platform where she continues serving as a conduit for empowerment for herself and others. 

(Veracruz, Mexico) is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington. She focuses in the study of community music and the embodiment of rhythms in the Fandango tradition from Veracruz, Mexico, as elements of resistance and healing from individual and collective trauma.

 has been active in community movements in ɬ�﷬ and throughout the Pacific Northwest for several years. He earned a doctorate in ethnomusicology from the University of Washington, and has worked broadly in the area of intercultural communication and conflict resolution.  

Yoelin Connor (Santa Rosa de Aguan, Honduras) is a ɬ�﷬-based Garifuna community leader. He is a founding member of the (MAS) and , two organizations devoted to the empowerment of African descent communities through arts and education.  

is a ɬ�﷬-based performance group dedicated to educating populations about the cultural contributions by ɬ�﷬ of African descent in Peru, and has been performing throughout the Pacific Northwest for the last nine years.

is a collective of artists, activists, educators, and students of the fandango tradition, practiced in the region of Veracruz, Mexico. Their purpose is to build a fandango community in ɬ�﷬ and connect it to the larger movement in other parts of the United States and Mexico.

 (Garifuna roots) is a Garifuna ensemble that features the music, dance and culture of the Garinagu, or Garifuna, ɬ�﷬. The Garinagu are original from the Caribbean coast of Central America, including Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and are the descendants of West African, Central American, Carib, and Arawak ɬ�﷬.