Rev. Sekou

Noted activist, theologian, author, documentary filmmaker, and musician, Reverend Osagyefo Sekou was born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in the rural Arkansas Delta. In May 2017, Rev. Sekou will release “In Times Like These”. Recorded at the storied Zebra Ranch Studio—a barn in Coldwater, MS, the album features the six-time Grammy nominated North Mississippi Allstars. Rev. Sekou’s newest collaboration is a unique combination of North Mississippi Hill Country Music, Arkansas Delta Blues, Memphis Soul and Pentecostal steel guitar. In January 2016, Rev. Sekou and the Holy Ghost released the critically acclaimed album, “The Revolution Has Come”. AFROPUNK celebrates the album’s ”deep bone-marrow-level conviction”. The single, “We Comin'”--was named the new anthem for the modern Civil Rights movement by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Reverend Sekou also served on the National Political Hip Hop Convention Platform Committee and was Senior Adviser the 2004 Kucinich Presidential campaign. Following Hurricane Katrina, Reverend Sekou moved to New Orleans, founding the local Interfaith Worker Justice Center. In 2006, the Institute for Policy Studies appointed him as Associate Fellow in Religion and Justice. He is a founding national coordinator for Clergy and Laity Concerned about Iraq (CALC-I), which represented over 300 faith-based institutions and organizations working to end the war in Iraq. In 2006, CALC-I led a civil disobedience at the White House at which more than 350 people were arrested, including sixty religious leaders. Reverend Sekou is featured in Orlando de Guzman’s 2015 documentary film Ferguson: A Report from Occupied Territory.. He was arrested multiple times during the Ferguson Uprising, including for ‘Praying while Black’ outside the Ferguson Police Department in September, alongside over 40 clergy, faith leaders and community members during the 500-strong Moral Monday protest during last year’s Ferguson October convergence, and, more recently, on Moral Monday 2015, as part of more than 50 people and faced federal charges following a sit-in at the Department of Justice. In February 2016, Reverend Sekou stood trial for his first arrest in Ferguson and was found not guilty. In May 2015, Reverend Sekou moved back to St. Louis to focus on organizing against police violence, predatory court systems, and economic and social injustice.

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