Join us for an interactive workshop titled “How the Wail of the Blues & the Cacophony of Jazz Culminate in the Healing Communal Ritual of Sinners.” This workshop explores the powerful themes of intra-communal healing inherent in the musical genres of blues and jazz,—emerging from the lived realities of African American communities—have served as powerful vehicles for expressing grief, resistance, resilience, and spiritual renewal.

We will trace these genres back to their roots in African ritual traditions, where music was inseparable from healing, memory, and community. By referencing the film Sinners, we’ll uncover how the raw emotion of Delta blues and the improvisational complexity of jazz reflect a deeper spiritual lineage—connecting Black cultural expression to ancestral practices of collective care and liberation.

Through facilitated dialogue, interactive discussion, curated song and sound examples, participants will experience, explore, and gain a deeper understanding on how these traditional musical forms function not only as art, but as sacred technologies for survival and spiritual transformation.

We believe this interactive workshop would be a valuable and timely addition to the National Jazz Museum in Harlem’s programming, offering a unique perspective on the cultural and therapeutic significance of blues and jazz rooted in African Diasporic traditions. It aligns with your mission to preserve, promote, and celebrate jazz, while also exploring its rich historical and cultural connections with a contemporarily significant, history-making film.

International artivist (artist/activist) and creative organizational consultant Dr. Angela M. Mosley epitomizes “live life out loud.” A Blues performance artist and community developer, her nonprofit organization, You Artistry Collaborative, champions the Arts as a medium to engage in social justice and nontraditional learning for the 21st-century workforce. Drawing from her academic and professional experiences in Higher Education Administration – Student Affairs, she expands her community initiatives to diversify the perspective of underrepresented communities in tech through STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) training and global leadership. Dr. Mosley has partnered with HBCU Stillman College and the School of Business, Entrepreneurship, and Computational & Information Sciences as a Senior Fellow and Visiting Professor to develop research and programming that speaks to creative artists as entrepreneurs and integrated AI technology. Her foundational research explores the women of the Blues and their contemporary advocacy of Hip-Hop womanism, and she’s currently working on an autobiographical documentary of her journey as a Chicago Blues woman.

Alade McKen, Ph.D.:

Dr. Alade S. McKen is a New York native with over 20 years of experience in education, cultural leadership, and youth development. His work is grounded in critical emancipatory inquiry, exploring how ancestral wisdom, cultural traditions, and community knowledge can foster healing, transformation, and liberation—especially among youth and intergenerational communities.

Dr. McKen’s research and practice center on spiritual and communal healing frameworks and the revitalization of indigenous and diasporic knowledge systems. He has led rites of passage programs for youth, developed cultural curricula that honor identity and memory, and serves as a professor, cultural healer, and spiritual practitioner.

Deeply engaged in African spiritual traditions and ceremonial practices, Dr. McKen is committed to cultivating spaces that center belonging, intergenerational wisdom, and cultural reclamation.

He holds a B.A. from Binghamton University, a Master’s from Baruch College, and a Ph.D. from Iowa State University. Above all, he is guided by his role as a devoted husband and father of three, anchoring his life in love, legacy, and cultural purpose.