It was from, and because of the hard living conditions of slavery, the spiritual was born. The spiritual was the creation of the American slaves brought from Africa. Spirituals expressed the history, treatment, and thoughts of Black people in the United States.  The combined experiences of Africa and America served to produce the spirituals. They served the propose of religious expression to communication, often by code. They possessed a folk literature that was varied and rich. They had their native musical endowment to begin with, and the Spirituals possessed the fundamental characteristics of African Music, rhythmic qualities, form and intervallic structure.

Dr. April Massey, Ph.D.–my Dean at UDC is coming on again and we are going to talk about building bridges across disciplines, across humanities and STEM, gender, race, and more. Please join us–she is doing what many wish they could do in higher ed!!!!!

In Professor Jameel Paulin's 2020 MFA project "Congo Square", an audio-visual album produced and developed for virtual reality, Paulin situates Afrofuturism and hip-hop within the long history of Afrocentric aesthetic and spiritual practices; examining vodun and Congo Square as moments where African ancestors transformed the way that their descendants could exist in and re-shape the modern world by maintaining African centered worldviews.   Jameel Paulin is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at Colorado College.

Three Black British women from different centuries who are pioneers in using the power of the pen and in doing so have highlighted the Black experience in Britain:  Mary Seacole 19th century - First Black woman to publish an autobiography Claudia Jones 20th century - founder and publisher of the first Black commercial newspaper Bernadette Evaristo 20/21st century - first Black winner of the Booker prize Olive Vassell was born and raised in London. Her research interests focus on the African Diaspora, especially Black Europe and the Black British media. A journalist for more than two decades, Olive has worked both in the UK and the US. In 2009, she founded euromight.com, the first Black pan-European news site. Most recently she authored a chapter on the Black British and Irish Press for the pioneering, three-volume, Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, 1641-2017 (published November 2020). She is currently writing and editing a book, Mapping Black Europe: Monuments, Markers, Memories. In 2020, she was awarded a Fulbright Specialist award during which she will partner with the Namibia University of Science and Technology. Olive is an associate professor at the University of the District of Columbia where she heads its Digital Media program.

 Dr. Rosie Sneed is currently an associate professor in the Biology Program, Division of Science and Mathematics at the University of the District of Columbia, Washington DC.   Dr. Sneed’s current research centers on planarian regeneration. There are two major branches to this research. The first involves the role of cannabinoids on regeneration, gene expression, and cellular proliferation in both Girardia dorotocephala and Phagocata gracilis. The second branch deals with the role of regeneration in the life cycle of the two species mentioned above. Girardia dorotocephala has a much higher regenerative capacity than Phagocata gracilis.  

Vanessa Maddox CEO of V.R. Maddox Consulting LLC Founder, #BlackWallStreet:  Loudoun Community Think Tank Vee Maddox CEO, V.R. Maddox Consulting LLC Founder, #GetHired Employment Community Founder, Black Wall Street:  Loudoun Member, Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce Co-Chair, BBEC 202-607-4402   Connect with me on LinkedIn

Ajeune Lynch is a black feminist committed to improving the lives of black queer people and femmes. She is a graduating senior at UDC. Ajeune currently serves as a housing advocacy specialist for a local non-profit. She is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Jamila A Stone, a recent alum of the English Program at UDC, not only successfully published a Urban Fantasy/Paranormal/LGBTQ book series and a murder mystery/crime series but created her own publishing company here in Washington, D.C.    Driven to write without fear of censorship while facing the lack of opportunity for POC to publish on viable, equal platforms, Jamila created her own publishing company called Black Glory Publishing House. Jamila A Stone lives in Washington, D.C. with her two dogs. https://www.amazon.com/Jamila-A-Stone/e/B07ZFV2354/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1 https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AJamila+A+Stone https://readersfavorite.com/rfreviews/search?search=Jamila+A.+Stone&by=authorname https://jamilastone.com/

Born and raised in South Dakota, Chase Duffy has been studying in DC for the past four years and UDC for the last two. He has been working on a collection of poetry over this time. He intends to go into teaching high school English in the DC area after graduation.

Dr. Craig Wynne, the newest professor in the English Program at UDC, will be the next guest on my podcast show At the Edge:  Think Culture.  We will talk about Dr. Wynne’s latest book “How to be a Happy Bachelor” (2020), where he discusses how to think critically about society’s perceptions of marriage, how to overcome your stigma and fear of being alone, and even how to respond to society’s judgments. https://petermcgraw.org/the-happy-bachelor/ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/happy-singlehood/202009/changing-the-language-singlehood  

Dr. Lawrence T. Potter, Jr., was appointed UDC’s Chief Academic Officer/Provost in February 2019. With more than two decades in higher education, Dr. Potter has moved through the professorial ranks as an assistant, associate, and full tenured professor. On the higher education leadership front, he has served as a department chair, associate dean of the faculty, two-time chief diversity officer (CDO), Director/Principal Investigator of a McNair Scholars Program, and Dean of Arts and Sciences for eight years, at two Minority-Serving Institutions.