Pictured (left to right) are Rev. Courtney Clayton Jenkins, Kevin “Chill” Heard, and William Edward Burghardt DuBois. (Photo credits: South Euclid Church of Christ, Kevin Heard, Carl VanVechten Collection at Yale University’s Beinecke Library)
Regennia N. Williams, PhD
In recent weeks, those of us who love the arts and humanities have enjoyed live performances and digital content. I want to express gratitude to several individuals inspiring our communities through these events.
First, thank you to Rev. Courtney Clayton Jenkins, Senior Pastor at South Euclid United Church of Christ, for allowing the Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS) to share her interview. You can view her 2021 interview, “For Such a Time As This,”HERE.
I am grateful to Kevin “Chill” Heard for his role in the May 20, 2026, Adventures in Egyptian Art and Culture program at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Also, thank you to Terence Blanchard, President André Gremillet, and neighbors at the Severance Music Center for presenting the 2026 Mandel Opera and Humanities Festival, themed Courage. More details can be found HERE.
Lastly, I acknowledge my favorite historian, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, for his enduring legacy. PBS is streaming “W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause,” which is available HERE.
These individuals inspire the upcoming exhibition Watching God, Seeking the Sacred, and Writing History at WRHS.
Take care, and have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!
About Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director
Dr. Regennia N. Williams is the Founder and Executive Director of The RASHAD Center, Inc., a Maryland-based non-profit educational corporation.
Williams holds a PhD in Social History and Policy from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. A native Clevelander and a four-time alumna of Cleveland State University, information on RASHAD's “Praying Grounds, African American Faith Communities: A Documentary and Oral History” project is now available online at www.ClevelandMemory.org/pray/, a site that is maintained by CSU's Library Special Collections, home of the Praying Grounds manuscript collections. Praying Grounds was the primary inspiration for the launching of the Initiative for the Study of Religion and Spirituality in the History of Africa and the Diaspora (RASHAD) at CSU, and links to RASHAD's scholarly journal and newsletter are also available on the Praying Grounds site. On April 28, 2020, the RASHAD Center, Inc. became a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
In 2010, Dr. Williams was a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at Nigeria’s Obafemi Awolowo University, where she taught history and directed a RASHAD-related oral history project that focused on the role of religion in recent Nigerian social history. Other research-related travels have taken her to Canada, China, France, South Africa, and Austria.
In 2013, she conceived and produced “Come Sunday @ 70: The Place of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Jazz in World History and Culture, c. 1943-2013,” a project that included scholarly presentations and performing arts activities. From September 1993 until May 2015, she was a faculty member in the Department of History at Cleveland State University. She served as a Fulbright Specialist at South Africa's University of the Free State in the summer of 2019, and completed a short-term faculty residency at Howard University in the fall of 2019. She is based in Cleveland, Ohio.
As a public scholar, her current research projects focus on African American history and culture, especially as it relates to music, religion, and spirituality. She is a member of the Oral History Association, the Western Reserve Historical Society, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The RASHAD Center, Inc. 