Ministry at the Mary Lou Williams Center
Sean Palmer sees nurturing black students as a form of ministry
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.