Category: Celebrations of Life

Title: TBA

Kodac Harrison is a musician and a poet. He has 19 albums, and a book of poetry and lyrics called The Turtle and the Moon. He founded and ran Java Monkey Speaks, an open mic night in Decatur, GA that lasted for 18 years and out of which came five poetry anthologies. He served as the Visiting McEver Chair of Poetry at Georgia Tech in 2010 and 2016. He won an Atlanta Moth slam with his story about his dog, Rudy. Although Kodac grew up in Jackson, Georgia and graduated from Georgia Tech, he’s also done his fair share of wandering. He earned an MBA at Tulane University in New Orleans, served time in the Army on the West Coast, played gigs in New York, California, Georgia, the Carolinas, and the places in between, as well as in Germany, and other parts of Europe. He considers his heart to be a vagabond, and he follow it wherever it leads.

Facilitator: TBA

Musician: Jean Heinrich

“Leap of Action”

In this month of the MLK birthday and Holocaust Remembrance Day, a  look a civil rights activist Rabbi Abraham Heschel and his Jewish Existentialism.

Rev. Marti Keller describes her Big Life Goal as beholding life and bearing prophetic witness to what she discovers. She has done this through her short verse poetry, her creative nonfiction essays and blogs, her critical and immersion journalism, her justice advocacy for women and girls, and her 25 years of parish and community Unitarian Universalist ministry.

• Facilitator: Patton White
• Musician: Charli Vogt

“Looking Beyond the Mountaintop: Thoughts on the Beloved Community”

A reflection on Dr. King’s belief in the Beloved Community and the reality on the ground today.

Anthony Knight is the President & CEO of The Baton Foundation, a Georgia non- profit 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: TBA
• Musician: The E-Band

“Calling In Ourselves”

More and more we find ourselves in difficult conversations. In this talk, I will speak to the importance of what I call “integrity intelligence,” how we can prepare ourselves to speak authentically with others across differences and while maintaining our highest integrity.

From 2021: Loretta Ross is a Visiting Associate Professor at Smith College teaching “White Supremacy in the Age of Trump.” She started her career in the women’s movement in the 1970s, working at the D.C. Rape Crisis Center, the National Organization for Women, the National Black Women’s Health Project, the Center for Democratic Renewal (National Anti-Klan Network), the National Center for Human Rights Education, and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. Her forthcoming book is Calling In the Calling Out Culture. Her most recent publications are Reproductive Justice: An Introduction and Radical Reproductive Justice.

• Facilitator: Charlene Ball
• Musician: Craig Rafuse

Sara Drew serves as the Outreach Coordinator at First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta. She is a fairly recent graduate of Candler School of Theology where she completed concentrations in Chaplaincy and Justice, Peace building, and Conflict Transformation. She is also a Unitarian Universalist ministerial aspirant and a resident hospital chaplain at Emory’s Midtown Hospital. Sara seeks to continue to develop her abilities in connecting people to their strengths and providing radical hospitality.

• Facilitator: Wade Marbaugh
• Musician: Jean Heinrich

“What We Yearn for at Christmas: The Rebirth of Hope and Joy”

Stell Simonton is a longtime member of First Existentialist. She is a retired journalist who lives in Atlanta with her husband, Wade Marbaugh. She worked as a freelance writer for nearly a decade after spending 19 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Stell spends her time these days gardening, writing, painting and going to improv class. She grew up in Marion Junction, Alabama, and draws a lot of knowledge from her rural upbringing. Wade and Stell have two adult daughters: Anna lives with her partner in Minneapolis and Olivia lives with her partner in Atlanta.

• Facilitator: TBA
• Musician: Mick Kinney

Originally hailing from San Antonio, Texas, Kathy is a lifelong learner with diverse interests, holding degrees in psychology, biomedical sciences, music performance and public administration. She and her family live on a small farm in the woods in Conyers, Georgia, where they enjoy the company of chickens, quail, ducks, rabbits, cats, and dogs. During the work week, you can find her at Oxford College of Emory University, where she serves as the Director of Institutional Research.

• Facilitator: Libby Ware
• Musician: William Chelton

“Becoming an Artist”

Kodac Harrison is a musician and a poet. He has 19 albums, and a book of poetry and lyrics called The Turtle and the Moon. He founded and ran Java Monkey Speaks, an open mic night in Decatur, GA that lasted for 18 years and out of which came five poetry anthologies. He served as the Visiting McEver Chair of Poetry at Georgia Tech in 2010 and 2016. He won an Atlanta Moth slam with his story about his dog, Rudy. Although Kodac grew up in Jackson, Georgia and graduated from Georgia Tech, he’s also done his fair share of wandering. He earned an MBA at Tulane University in New Orleans, served time in the Army on the West Coast, played gigs in New York, California, Georgia, the Carolinas, and the places in between, as well as in Germany, and other parts of Europe. He considers his heart to be a vagabond, and he follow it wherever it leads.

• Facilitator: D. Patton White
• Musician: Kristen Hampton