Director, The God Box Foundation

Gilbert Kobina Bouhairie is a Systematic Theologian specializing in Pan African Religions from Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University, New York.

After being mentored by the late and great Founder of Black Theology, Dr. James Cone and the contemporary world-renowned scholar Dr. Cornel West, Mr. Bouhairie’s theological journey took him on many travels around the Pan African world engaging in intellectual and experiential conversations. This lead to Mr. Bouhairie founding The God Box Foundation (TGBF). The first Pan African Interfaith/Multifaith organization in the world that embraces, celebrates, and promotes the religious and spiritual diversity of the Pan African Family through theological reflections with Pan African Scholars, Activists and Practitioners.

Mr. Bouhairie is the Director of Operations for PANAFEST, the most celebrated Pan African festival in the world. He is also the Director of Operations for the Pan African Heritage World Museum. He was instrumental in creating the proposal for Ghana’s historic Year of Return 2019 and is currently a PhD candidate at University of Ghana, Legon. Mr. Bouhairie lectures at seminaries and universities in Ghana and the United States.

Co-Director, The God Box Foundation

Toni Afia Reynolds (she/her) is a reformed Army brat who once dreamed of a future in medicine, but fate intervened. After her undergraduate studies at Ottawa University in Ottawa Kansas, Afia attended seminary at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York where she focused her Master of Divinity and Masters of Sacred Theology degrees on the Nag Hammadi corpus of texts. She anchors all of her work in Pan Africanism and she is motivated to serve by offering theological analysis, art, healing, and facilitation experiences that work to repair the fractures caused by colonial Christianity and white supremacy. You can often find her sitting next to the ocean, playing a banjo, and singing to the Ancestors.

Founder, Mandinga LLC

Dr. Kenneth Dossar founder of Mandinga LLC, is producer, arts consultant, cultural historian, educator, social activist, and photojournalist, who has collaborated closely with cultural/arts organizations, traditional leaders and educational institutions, in creating public programs which explore the heritage of people of African decent. He produced a five-part Zumbi dos Palmares Afro-Bahia Cultural Series 2020-2021 for the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute’s streaming platforms. He has a doctorate in African American Studies from Temple University where worked as teaching assistant to the renowned Afro-Brazilian scholar Abdias do Nascimento. He was awarded his Ph.D. in 1994.

His dissertation - Dancing Between Two Worlds - An Aesthetic Analysis of Capoeira Angola, was the first dissertation to explore philosophical aspects of capoeira Angola. He performed field research in the Caribbean on the continuance of African traditions in music, dance, belief systems and other cultural practices. Professor Dossar is one of his generation’s intellectual pioneers exploring Bantu aesthetics in Bahia. His research on Central African culture in Bahia initiated new discussions of Bantu aesthetics and philosophy in Bahia. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Latin American and African American Studies and humanities courses at Temple University.

Ken Dossar has traveled to Brazil since 1983 researching Bahia’s African heritage and collaborated with traditional spiritual leaders including the late Makota Valdina Oliveira Pinto, Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau, Jamie Sodre, with Ilê Axé Asipá terrerio, and the Baobá Group of Salvador creating projects on Yoruba and Bantu aesthetics and culture for a variety of audiences.

As a community cultural leader, Ken Dossar has for many years represented his home City of Philadelphia and the State of Pennsylvania on cultural delegations and exchange programs between Brazil and the United States.

He has consulted with, produced, and presented events for leading international and national cultural organizations including the National Black Arts Festival, Dance Brazil, Festival Afro-Bahia, the Caribbean Culture Center African Diaspora Institute in New York City, and the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. For seven years he produced and hosted the popular program of Afro-Atlantic music Under One Sun for public radio WRTI, and was the lead music consultant in 2013 for National Public Radio's World Cafe exploration of - The Roots of Samba.

Ken Dossar creates and coordinates uniquely rich live and virtual public programs, exchanges, and encounters providing intimate and in-depth understanding of Salvador’s material and immaterial cultural traditions and history.