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UNDER THE TENT - A NEW WORLD COMING The following individuals will be speaking throughout our A New World Coming series: Yasmeen Yasmeen can sing anything! She is a spiritual carrier, a bridge of the old to the new. She has a unique way of blending a deep soul sound into various genres - from the classics, to gospel, to jazz, to hymns, to hip-hop, to blues, to spirituals, to whatever. She has a remarkable ear, remarkable stage presence, and, most of all, a remarkable spirit for music - whether it is with instrumentation or a capella. She is a singer, lyricist, published songwriter, author, professional counselor, and mother to her daughter, Summer. Yasmeen grew up under the singing voices of her mother from Alabama, her father from South Carolina, gospel hall-of-fame cousin Shirley Ables, church organists Professor Henry Mansfield and Professor Dorothy Davis, voice teacher Frederick "Wilkie" Wilkerson, Joy McClean Bosfield, and cultural icon Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon. She also received acting training from the D.C. Black Repertory Company, directed by actor Robert Hooks. Yasmeen sang with the internationally acclaimed a capella sextet Sweet Honey In The Rock for approximately twenty years, and then for another five years with Jeff Majors, shortly thereafter. Yasmeen has a Bachelor's Degree in English, a Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology and is finishing a Doctorate in Educational Psychology. Location: St. James AME Church,
1002 6th Avenue, Columbus, GA,
7pm Reverend Ruby Nell Sales Rev. Ruby Nell Sales looks at her work as a calling rather than a career. She answered the call to social justice at Tuskegee Institute, where she joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Her work placed her alongside some of the most brilliant minds of her generation, such as John Lewis, Stokeley Carmichael, Jean Wiley, Julian Bond, James Foreman, Janet Moses, Bob Mants, and Gloria Larry. Sales has been selected and honored as a HistoryMaker. As a magna cum laude graduate, Sales received a B.A. degree from Manhattanville College. She attended Princeton University and is only a dissertation away from her PhD in American History. Sales received a Masters of Divinity degree from the Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she was an Absalom Jones Scholar. At EDS, Sales developed a reputation as a preacher and has preached at churches and cathedrals around the nation. Sales is well-regarded for her work with young people, through SpiritHouse's SisterAll programs and its Jonathan Daniels and Samuel Younge Institute for young social justice activists and theorists. As a social justice activist, Sales’ work is cited in several books, journal articles, and films, such as the Veterans of Hope documentary series, Broken Ground: A Film on Race Relations in the South, and Dan Rather's American Dream Segment. For more information about her work, see the website www.spirithouseproject.org. Sales lives and works in Columbus, Georgia. Reverend Malik JoDavid Sales Rev. Malik JoDavid Sales descends from a long line of ministers. On both sides of his family, he comes from four generations of Baptist and AME ministers. His maternal grandfather, Rev. W. M. Boddie, is a retired Presiding Elder in the AME Church. Sales graduated magna cum laude from Xavier University, where he majored in theology. He received a Master's degree in Theological Studies from Harvard University and is currently completing a PhD degree in Systematic Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. Sales was ordained an itinerant elder in the AME Church in 2007. Presently, Sales serves as the Praise and Worship leader at St. Paul AME Church in Berkeley, California. Sales taught Introduction to Theology at Xavier University, from Summer 2003 to 2005. At the Calhoun Community College in Huntsville, Alabama, he taught Introduction to Religious Studies and Introduction to the New Testament. In addition to his work in theology, Sales is a prolific creative writer. He recently completed a science fiction manuscript. Sales is the son of Attorney Michael Sales, who graduated from Carver High in the Class of 1968. His mother, Attorney Juanita Lee, is a practicing attorney in Huntsville, Alabama and is President of the American Bar Association. Sales is the beloved nephew of Ruby Sales and the beloved grandson of Mrs. Willie M. Sales Griffin. He is married to Dr. Kedra Sales, who is a pediatrician. Reverend Michelle Armister Rev. Michelle Armster is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. She holds dual ministerial standing in the Mennonite Church and United Church of Christ, serving as co-pastor at St. Andrew UCC in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Armster received her MDiv degree from Lancaster Theological Seminary in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Armster is also an activist and co-director of the Mennonite Central Committee's Office on Justice and Peacebuilding in Akron, Pennsylvania. She provides resources, consulting, and training for churches, agencies, and communities. She has many years of extensive training in meditation, facilitation, conciliation, restorative justice, arbitration, victim/offender mediation, anti-racism, and alternatives to violence. Armster was the former board chair of the Lancaster Mediation Center, where she also serves as a volunteer mediator, formerly served on the Executive Committee of Lancaster NAACP and is currently Chair of the SpiritHouse board. Armster completed an Eastern Mennonite University Graduate Certification program in Conflict Transformation. Armster is a creative soul, weaving song and drama through all dimensions of her life. She has brought creativity to the variety of places in which she has found herself along her life journey: from lead vocalist of Class Action, an adult contemporary band, to her current one-woman show, "God's Image Carved in Ebony: The Testimony of Mrs. Amanda Berry Smith, the Singing Pilgrim."
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