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Ministry at the Mary Lou Williams Center

Sean Palmer sees nurturing black students as a form of ministry

Sean Palmer found his path to ministry at the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture at Duke. Photo by Marsha A. Green.
Sean Palmer found his path to ministry at the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture at Duke. Photo by Marsha A. Green.

Name: Sean Palmer

Position: Assistant director for the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture

Years at Duke: Two as an employee, three as graduate student

What I do at Duke: I help black students and those who are interested in black culture plan, vision and map out their projects, and I support them around their personal goals and issues of race. I also support student-programming efforts at the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture. I help with Jazz @ the Mary Lou every Wednesday. We did a Watch Party during election night, and each year, we do other celebrations like Kwanzaa and observances like World AIDS Day.

How I got this job: Before I came to Duke, I worked in student affairs. I came to divinity school at Duke expecting to fulfill my call to the ministry, but I started work in the Mary Lou Williams Center while I was in grad school. Now I consider working with students my ministry.

My dream job: I've always wanted to be a college president, or have a job like Olivia Pope in the TV show "Scandal" as someone who deals with crisis management. Maybe there's a connection there.

My first job: I worked in grounds management for Lexington High School in South Carolina while I was a teenager.

Conversation starter: Ask me about food, especially desserts. My grandmother taught me to make sweet potato pies and apple pies.

What I love about Duke: The way you can sit down and someone sits down next to you and a conversation starts that goes very deep. I've never been in a place where it is so easy to brew these deep conversations.

When I'm not at work I like to: Read. I'm currently reading "The Cross and the Lynching Tree" by James Cone. I also keep a blog - "A Bit of Brotherly Advice" - that mixes leadership, spirituality and African-American culture. My friends also like to call on me for event planning. They know that if I plan their party, even the plants will match the color scheme.

If I could have one superpower it would be: The ability to create joy where there is sorrow.

Favorite music: Gospel, neo-soul and jazz. I hear jazz every Wednesday at the Mary Lou Williams Center, and I sing with the Divinity School Gospel Choir and the Praise Team.

Favorite movie: "School Daze" by Spike Lee. It was a profound movie for me to see just as I was coming out of high school.

Something most people don't know about me: I love theater and acting out scenes from the movies. Let me into your space, and I'm likely to give you a monologue.