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.

Union Theological Seminary

Rev. Samuel Cruz, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Religion and Society at Union Theological Seminary. He completed his Ph.D. at Drew University (Madison, NJ) in 2002 under the directorship of Dr. Otto Maduro. Dr. Cruz also received his M.A. degree, Magna Cum Laude, from New Brunswick Theological Seminary. Prior to Union, Cruz was a lecturer in the Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies Department at Rutgers University.

Dr. Cruz’s publications include two books: Masked Africanisms: Puerto Rican Pentecostalism (Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2005) and Christianity and Culture in the City: A Post Colonial Approach (Lexington Books, 2013). He has an extensive background in the field of Sociology of Religion publishing and presenting ethnographic research on Afro-Latinx spiritualities, most specifically on Pentecostalism and African spiritualities of the Caribbean. He has lectured throughout Central America, the Caribbean, and the United States. He is currently a guest editor for the Religions Journal’s Special Edition on Global Latinx Pentecostalism and he is working on the publication of his edited volume about African spiritualities in the Americas.

Dr. Cruz now serves as the Senior Pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in the predominantly Latinx community of Sunset Park, Brooklyn. His progressive sermons follow in the legacy of Latin America’s ecclesial base communities and liberation theologians which assist his congregation in being social activists within their community. Pastor Cruz is known in New York City and Puerto Rico for advocating for Afro-Latinx rights regarding sexuality, gender, race, immigration policies, the prison industrial complex/police brutality, environmentalism, fair housing/gentrification, the release of political prisoners, and the independence of Puerto Rico. Dr. Cruz has been featured in the Stop and Frisk docu-series: “The Pastor”; he is a frequent guest on MSNBC, the Melissa Harris-Perry Show, and a guest host to WBAI-FM.

Eliza Pflucker Herrera is a Afrolesbian, Antiracist Black feminist, with a background in Anthropology from the National University of San Marcos in Lima, Peru. She is the co-founder of Presencia y Palabra: Mujeres Afroperuanas and creator of the Instagram page LeaMujeresNegras, an anti-racist proposal and dissemination of writings and epistemologies of Black women, Afro-Descendants and of the African Diaspora.

Eliza has more than 10 years of work experience in human rights activism, racialized women rights and the collective rights of Indigenous and Afro-Descendant people.

Monica Cadena is an Afro-Chicana California-based artist, writer, plant ally working within the intersections of indigenous sovereignty, food systems and wellness advocate through a decolonial lens. The former co-founder of Wear Your Voice Magazine, Monica’s passionate about highlighting stories from those at the intersections of healing and social justice activism and centering healing-based initiatives. Her current project “Am I Black or Am I Brown? The Struggle for Black Liberation Within the Brown Rights Movement,” covers the influence of the African Diaspora (post Civil Rights Movement) of the African Diaspora in the Chicano Rights Movement.