VIDEOS 

Adrienne Curry is the director of the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Office of Black Catholic Ministries. Curry ministered in a variety of roles in the Archdiocese of Chicago, including program director for Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishop’s Baltimore-based international relief agency. She worked in Lexington as a pastoral associate for parish social ministry. In Youngstown, her responsibilities included overseeing programs of the diocesan Office of Social Action and managing grants from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Catholic Review

Dr. Kim R. Harris is the Assistant Professor of African American Thought and Practice in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University. In addition to teaching courses on Black liberation and Womanist theologies, Harris leads music in a variety of liturgical and academic settings. She is a liturgist, composer, and recording artist, presenting lectures on the music of the Black Catholic experience, the spirituals of the Underground Railroad, and the freedom song of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Harris is a member of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium and the North American Academy of Liturgy. She is an academic member of the African American Catholic Center for Evangelization in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, as well as a liturgical consultant for the Archdiocese of New York Office of Black Ministry.

Diana L. Hayes is a Professor of Systematic Theology in the Department of Theology at Georgetown. Her areas of specialization are Womanist Theology, Black Theology, U.S.Liberation Theologies, Contextual Theologies, Religion and Public Life, and African American and Womanist Spirituality. Her courses include Black Liberation Theology, Womanist Theology, American Liberation Theology, Race, Class, Gender and Religion, (all of which she has also taught at the graduate level, Religion and Liberation (a Theology majors seminar) and the required intro course, The Problem of God (from a comparative world religions in the US perspective). Dr. Hayes is the first African American woman to receive the Pontifical Doctor of Sacred Theology degree (S.T.D.) from the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) and has also received three honorary doctorates. She is the author of 6 books and over 50 articles.

Dr. ValLimar Jansen has sung and/or toured professionally throughout the United States, Canada, the UK, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Belgium, Panama, St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Bonaire, Ghana, Israel, China, Singapore, and Japan. Dr. Jansen played Beneatha with the Broadway touring cast in the European premiere of Raisin. She went on to co-author a one-woman musical about the life of Ethel Waters that received a special commendation from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Recently, ValLimar received the Kennedy Center Medallion for Excellence in Educational Theatre. See more of her bio at https://www.vallimar.com/meetvallimar

Fr. Chisholm currently serves on the governing board of Fordham University in New York and is a fourth-degree Member of the Knights of Peter Claver, a Catholic fraternal organization. Fr. Chisholm is 71 years old. He was born in New York City and raised in Harlem, where his family attended St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church. He went to Catholic schools in Harlem and the Bronx. See more of Fr. Chisholm Bio on https://www.loyola.edu/department/mission-integration/jesuit-education/jesuit-community/chisholm-gregory.html

Rev. Manuel B. Williams, C.R., CFRE, M.Div., Th.M., has served as Director of Resurrection Catholic Missions of the South, Inc. and Pastor of Resurrection Catholic Church in Montgomery, Alabama since July 1990. Born in Aliceville, Alabama and raised in Montgomery, Father Williams is a 1971 alum of Resurrection Catholic School and is a graduate of St. Jude Educational Institute High School (1975), the University of Notre Dame (B.A. 1979), Aquinas Institute of Theology, St. Louis (M.Div. 1987), the National Institute for Planned Giving, the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA (1993), and Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA (Th.M. 2015).

Fr. Patrick A. Smith (Pastor) is a sought-after speaker, preacher, revivalist, and retreat director for youth and adults. He serves as a regularly featured priest on the Sunday morning Archdiocesan Mass for Shut-ins. Since his ordination, Father has been called upon by the Archdiocesan Offices of Evangelization, Youth Ministry, Young Adult Ministry, Vocations, the Pro-Life Office, and the Offices of Black Catholics and of Adult Religious Formation. In 2009, Fr. Pat participated in the Eucharistic Congress as a workshop leader and a speaker at the outdoor Youth Rally.

An evening with Sr. Cora Billings. "In 1956, 17-year-old Sister Cora Marie Billings of Philadelphia entered the Sisters of Mercy in Merion, Pennsylvania, becoming the first Black member of the Philadelphia community. Catholicism has always been a part of Sister Billings’ life, coming from a devout Black Catholic family who fought against racial barriers to fully participate in the Catholic faith and tradition." The Catholic Virginian