My Sister's Keeper: Wise Women lead the Way in Darfur,Sudan

Interview with the Rev. Melinda Weekes Esquire of My Sister's Keeper a Faith Based Organization helping women in Darfur Sudan to rise up and take back their land. MELINDA ELEANOR WEEKES, was born in the Bronx, New York and made a decision for Christ at an early age. She works as a Senior Associate at the Interaction Institute for Social Change, where she provides facilitation, training and strategic consulting services for leaders and organizations engaged in social change and transformation. She holds a Bachelors of Arts degree from Wesleyan University, a Masters of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School, and a Juris Doctorate from New York University School of Law. Ordained as an Itinerant Elder the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Rev. Weekes also serves as the Chaplain to the Protestant Community at Simmons College and as a member of the ministerial staff of Bethel A.M.E. Church in Boston, MA. Fusing her deep passion for the rich religious and cultural traditions of African Americans with her academic training, Rev. Weekes is a self-described “gospel music theorist” having been retained by the W.E.B. DuBois Institute of Research at Harvard University’s Afro American Studies Department to write the biographies of two gospel music icons (Edwin Hawkins and Tramaine Hawkins) for the African American National Biography. a multi-volume reference work edited by Professors Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Evelyn Higginbotham. Her Masters thesis, This House, This Music, explores the interpretive relationship between contemporary Gospel Music and the contemporary Black Church, and was published by the Black Music Research Journal (Spring/Fall 2005). Every Sunday evening from 7-10pm EST, you can hear her as host and producer of The Soul Sanctuary, a weekly gospel music internet radio show, featuring the best of gospel music, news, inspiration and provocative thought.