Author: 1stexistentialist

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January 13, 2019 – Dr. Marian Meyers

Neoliberalism and the Unraveling of Democracy and the Social Contract

Dr. Marian Meyers is a professor in the Department of Communication and an affiliate of the Institute of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Georgia State University. Her research interests include the media’s portrayal of women and other socially marginalized groups from an intersectional perspective that views race, class, gender and other markers of social identity as inextricably interconnected. She has published articles or books on topics ranging from the status of women in higher education, the portrayal of women in the media, and how African American women journalists cover the news. Her most recent scholarly interest is neoliberalism, the effects of neoliberal ideology on democracy, and the dissemination of neoliberal beliefs through mainstream media. Her most recent book, due out in February with Routledge, is Neoliberalism and the Media. It explores how the media are complicit in promoting and naturalizing neoliberal ideology.

  • Facilitator: Barbara Van-Helsdingen
  • Musician: Jean Heinrich
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January 6, 2019 – Franklin Abbott

“Happiness”

Franklin Abbott has been a practicing psychotherapist in Atlanta for nearly forty years.  He is also a poet, musician, community organizer and amateur oral historian.  His connection to the Congregation and Old Stone Church goes back more than forty years to early urban radical faery gatherings held in the sanctuary before First E became its steward.  He has spoken at First E many times, performed music and poetry there, coordinated events and memorials.  He and First E founding minister Lanier Clance were close friends and co-hosted an eclectic existential radio program on WRFG for over five years in the mid-’80’s. His current project is a double CD of 44 original poems and 14 original songs titled “Don’t Go Back To Sleep”.

Franklin Abbott has been a practicing psychotherapist in Atlanta for nearly forty years.  He is also a poet, musician, community organizer and amateur oral historian.  His connection to the Congregation and Old Stone Church goes back more than forty years to early urban radical faery gatherings held in the sanctuary before First E became its steward.  He has spoken at First E many times, performed music and poetry there, coordinated events and memorials.  He and First E founding minister Lanier Clance were close friends and co-hosted an eclectic existential radio program on WRFG for over five years in the mid-’80’s. His current project is a double CD of 44 original poems and 14 original songs titled “Don’t Go Back To Sleep”.

  • Facilitator: Robert Stewart
  • Musician: Ken Gregory
  • Special Musician: Amol Khanapurkar


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December 30, 2018 – Althea Natalga Sumpter

“Watch Night:  Waiting for Freedom”

“On December 31, 1862, many enslaved waited in praise houses and churches on the Sea Islands to hear if the Emancipation Proclamation would become real. The first day of 1863 became the first day of freedom for many forced into bondage throughout the Southern states. The New Year’s Eve Watch Night service has been celebrated ever since that day to commemorate the end of slavery.”

Althea Sumpter is a researcher/scholar who uses her expertise as an ethnographer to document cultures and preserve the Southern story of the United States. Using as a prototype the oral histories she has collected from Gullah Geechee elders in her own culture, she teaches ways to research the cultural history within a community, along with methods to use documentation technology to memorialize and preserve those stories for future generations. She holds a Doctor of Arts in Humanities degree (African/African American Studies and New Media Technology) from Clark Atlanta University, as well as Bachelor and Master of Media Arts degrees from the University of South Carolina.

With extensive experience in the media production industry and an Emmy-nomination, Sumpter has taught digital media production and scriptwriting at Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, Clark Atlanta University and The Art Institute of Atlanta. She is a member and past chair of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission, created by Congress in 2006. Her research and her work can be viewed at altheasumpter.com.

Facilitator:  Libby Ware

Musician:  Kathy McGuire

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December 23, 2018 – Rev. Marti Keller

“Holiday Thoughts – Little Women and Why It Matters”: 

“One of the most famous holiday lines in a novel may be this one, ‘Christmas won’t be Christmas without any present,’ grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

In this 150th anniversary year of the publication of what has been described as equal parts thinly disguised family memoir, complex social chronicle, and young adult novel. we will look at its American Christmas holiday messages, what is said and still says about growing up female– and whether it will survive the 21st century as a popular classic book.”

Marti still ranks Little Women among her favorite books, and arguably her first favorite book, has seen most if not all of the film adaptations, and is eagerly awaiting Greta Gerwig’s much anticipated remake with Meryl Streep, Saoirse Roman, and Timothee Chlamet, scheduled for a Christmas 2019 release.

Marti Keller graduated from David Starr Jordan Junior High in Palo Alto, California, and went on to degrees in journalism and theology. This is her 20th year as a Unitarian Universalist parish and social justice minister. She is the consulting minister for the UU Fellowship of Auburn, Alabama and the minister with the Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation for whom she carries the gender equity and justice portfolio. She is a published poet and creative non-fiction author, and the project director for Decatur Haiku, a year of focus on this Japanese micro verse form.

Facilitator:  Jan Lister

Musician:  Alan Dynin

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December 16, 2018 – Rev. Kim Sorrells

“Light in the Darkness:  A Meditation on Winter Holidays” 

Kim is a graduate of Candler School of Theology (Emory University) and Berry College, and is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. Prior to Saint Mark, they have served as a hospital chaplain and worked in homeless services through their time in Americorps. Kim has special interest in using spirituality and contemplative practices to equip us with the inner peace to be justice makers in the world. Kim is also a Registered Yoga Teacher and draws on this and other spiritual traditions to inform their ministry. Outside of their formal employment Kim serves as chair of the Spiritual Leaders Committee for the Transgender Health and Education Alliance (THEA), and is a member of the Atlanta Coalition of LGBTQ youth.

Facilitator:  Rev. Marsha Mitchiner

Musician:  Alan Dynin

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December 9, 2018 – Dr. Robert Baker

“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Fifty Years Later”: 

H. Robert Baker joined the faculty at GSU in 2006.  His research explores the relationship between slavery and American Legal and Constitutional history.  His first book, The Rescue of Joshua Glover: A Fugitive Slave, the Constitution, and the Coming of the Civil War was published by Ohio University Press in 2007.  In 2012, The University Press of Kansas published Prigg v. Pennsylvania: Slavery, the Supreme Court, and the Ambivalent Constitution.  His current research explores the influence of historical consciousness on constitutional thinking, as well as the nature of constitutional change over time.

Dr. Baker currently serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies and is also the advisor to history majors pursuing a Pre-Law concentration.

Facilitator:  Robert Stewart

Musician:  Charlie Vogt

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December 2, 2018 – Anthony Knight

“Power, American History, and Black Bodies”

Anthony Knight is the President & CEO of The Baton Foundation—a Georgia nonprofit organization that serves the emotional, intellectual and cultural needs of Black boys in grades five through nine. Before founding the Foundation, Mr. Knight worked for twenty-two years as a museum educator and consultant. Mr. Knight has extensive experience with and interest in African American history and culture, public and living history, informal education and Black youth.  Mr. Knight’s work with The Baton Foundation reflects his ongoing interest in the issues and practices related to the collecting, preservation and interpretation of information about and material culture from the African Diaspora. Mr. Knight’s undergraduate work was in Spanish and English (Ohio Wesleyan University), and his graduate work was in museum education (The George Washington University). Mr. Knight also holds a degree in Spanish-to-English translation from the Núcleo de Estudios Lingüísticos y Sociales, Caracas, Venezuela. Mr. Knight is a New York City native.

 

Facilitator:  D. Patton White

Musician:  Aviva and the Flying Penguins

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November 25, 2018 – Dr. Sharon Mathis

Giveaway Ceremony and Top Ten Gratitude List for a Challenging Year:

The Native American giveaway ceremony honors abundance, gratitude, and relationships by bringing together family and friends for gift giving and celebration. If you’d like to participate in our give away, please bring a small item representing your gratitude to give away at random to someone present.

Dr. Sharon Mathis is a recently ( gratefully) retired psychologist, who practiced psychotherapy for thirty plus years. She is a founding member of First E.; a theatre performer, director, and writer; and a gardener. She looks to the natural world to teach and nurture her spirituality.

Dr. Sharon Mathis is a recently ( gratefully) retired psychologist, who practiced psychotherapy for thirty plus years. She is a founding member of First E.; a theatre performer, director, and writer; and a gardener. She looks to the natural world to teach and nurture her spirituality.

Facilitator:  D. Patton White

Musician:  Kathy McGuire

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November 18, 2018 – Rev. Angela Denise Davis

Still Active:

“How the use of silence can help us mediate conflict via intentional action.”

Angela Denise Davis, M.Div., M.S., is an ordained minister, writer, public speaker, and digital media creator interested in the life tasks of work and spiritual issues located at the intersection of race, class, gender, sexual identity, and disability. Her call in life is to facilitate conversations and theological reflections along the fence line of those differences. She is a black, blind, lesbian clergywoman who understands how all of her identities gift her presence in the world. She wants to share what her presence in this world brings, and celebrate the gifts of others as we hold space for the emergence of peace and grace in the world.

In May 2010, she founded a spiritual collective called Sister Harriet. This was a spiritual landing pad for “holy rollers, heretics, heathens, hell raisers, and all other persuasions.” In addition to monthly gatherings, Sister Harriet offers listeners inspiring messages via a weekly podcast. Angela is also the creator, host, and producer of the ZAMI NOBLA Podcast, a bi-weekly digital offering targeted at black lesbians 40 years and older.

Angela speaks to educational institutions, communities of faith, conferences, and organizations on topics ranging from personal motivation, career development, spiritual reflection, spiritual activism, social justice, LGBT and religion, Black lesbian health and well-being, and disability awareness and advocacy. In addition, she will wax poetically on all things related to the ukulele if given the chance.

She is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University where she earned a B.A. in Art. She also holds a master of divinity from Vanderbilt University Divinity School, and a master of science in rehabilitation counseling from Georgia State University.

Facilitator:  Robert Stewart

Musician:  Jez Graham

 

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November 11, 2018 – Rev. Joan Armstrong Davis

The Light in the Tattoo Shop:  

This is a sermon about the heritage of the Enlightenment and how the principles of that 16th -17th Century movement are still relevant to the values which undergird our liberal religious congregations today. This Sunday service comes just days after the 2018 mid term elections and, therefore, it also affords us the opportunity to explore how we deal with the outcomes of that election, looking for what it has to teach us and the ways forward which can bring hope and healing for ourselves and others. 

Reverend Joan Armstrong Davis is a parish based Unitarian Universalist minister, having served congregations in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Wisconsin. She is a 1989 graduate of the Candler School of Theology at Emory University where she returned in 2003 for a residency in
pastoral care at Emory University Hospital.

Joan currently serves the Northwest Unitarian Universalist congregation in Sandy Springs, GA as their Affiliated Community Minister where she facilitates the work of their lay led pastoral care ministry team.

Facilitator:  Barbara Van-Helsdingen

Musician:  William Chelton

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