Sacred Traditions: Exploring African-Based Spirituality

6 PM Cash Bar
6:30 PM Lecture Hall doors open
7 PM – Conversation between Omisade Burney-Scott and Shantrelle P. Lewis
Please register for this event.

María Magdalena Campos-Pons has long centered African spirituality in her work through the usage of colors and symbols, representing the many òrìṣà found in spiritual practices across the African Diaspora. Building upon the symbolism in Campos-Pons’s solo exhibition Behold, join Shantrelle P. Lewis, initiated Lucumí Sango Priest, and Omisade Burney-Scott, initiated Priest of the Orìṣà Osun and Egungun in the Isese Tradition of IFA, for a conversation about African Traditional Religions, the role of women in the tradition and the practice of honoring one’s ancestors. Sponsored by The William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust.

ABOVE LEFT: Photo of Omisade Burney-Scott by SASSS.
ABOVE RIGHT: Photo of Shantrelle P. Lewis by Jeremy Tauriac.

About Omisade Burney-Scott (she/her)

Omisade Burney-Scott is a seventh-generation Black Southern feminist, storyteller and reproductive justice advocate. She is also the creator and chief curatorial officer of The Black Girls’ Guide to Surviving Menopause (BGG2SM), a multidisciplinary narrative and culture shift project focused on normalizing menopause by centering the stories of Black women, transgender, gender-expansive people and other marginalized groups of the Global Majority. The core program offerings by BGG2SM include a podcast that provides guidance and support for marginalized communities through the various stages of menopause, curated intergenerational storytelling gatherings and a digital zine titled “Messages from the Menopausal Multiverse.”

Burney-Scott has been featured in various prominent media outlets, such as Oprah Daily, Forbes, VOGUE, WebMD, NPR, InStyle Magazine, The Washington Post and The New York Times. She has written articles for Yes! Magazine, Blavity, Oprah Daily, The Honey Pot Company and Ms. Magazine. Over the past 25 years, Burney-Scott’s work has been grounded in social justice movement spaces focused on the liberation of marginalized people, beginning with her own community. She has worked in the nonprofit sector around social justice since 1995 and has been an organizational development and capacity-building consultant for 20 years for nonprofit and philanthropic organizations.

Burney-Scott is a 1989 graduate of The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She serves on the boards of the Acorn Center for Restoration and Freedom and the National Menopause Foundation, as well as the Honey Pot Company Pulse Panel. She was recently selected for the Open Society Foundations Soros Justice Fellowship to expand the storytelling work of the Black Girl’s Guide to Surviving Menopause to work with formerly incarcerated/system-impacted people. Burney-Scott resides in North Carolina and is the mother of two sons.

About Iya Shantrelle P. Lewis (she/her)

Shantrelle P. Lewis is a multi-hyphen creative and scholar who accesses multiple disciplines to help elucidate African Diasporic history, aesthetics, culture and spirituality. After premiering at BlackStar Film Festival, her critically acclaimed directorial debut, In Our Mothers’ Gardens, was released on Netflix via Ava Duvernay’s ARRAY. Her book, Dandy Lion: The Black Dandy and Street Style, was published by Aperture in 2017. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, LA Times, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, NPR, BBC, Washington Post, Slate, The New Yorker and the Philadelphia Inquirer. She co-founded SHOPPE BLACK with her husband and fellow Howard University alum, Tony Oluwatoyin Lawson. As an initiated Lucumí Sango Priest, Hoodooist and New Orleans native, Lewis can be found waxing poetic about all things African spirituality online and in person at the BEAUCOUP HOODOO BOOKSTORE + BOTANICA, the annual BEAUCOUP HOODOO FEST this October and within her community, the ATRS BOOK CLUB.