Welcome to the Wake Up Everybody Virtual Community!
Where We Choose to Awaken, Transform and Ascend
Click Here to Register
Choose to Awaken with the WUE Nation!
On March 29, 2020, Spirit of A Woman, LLC, launched the Wake Up Everybody (WUE) Virtual series in partnership with community healers, thought leaders, coaches, medical and mental health professionals, educators and artists from across the nation. WUE was created to provide community members, from across the country and abroad, with an opportunity to keep their mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well beings balanced and whole as they navigated the impact of the devastating impact of the COVID-19 global health crisis.
WUE was originally designed as a 30 day offering that would provide “temporary” covering and support for participants until the quarantine period ended, however, the producers and community members quickly realized that the WUE journey would last much longer than they originally anticipated.
The series was created by Shawnee Benton Gibson, CEO, of Spirit of A Woman (SOW) Leadership Development Institute, who was inspired by the lyrics of the song “Wake Up Everybody” by Teddy Pendergrass, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes. The song, which was popular in the 70s, speaks of issues that we are still glaringly relevant today; (racism, war, poverty, sickness, political strife, corruption, etc). The WUE Virtual series was designed to “WAKE UP” the masses by providing empowering messaging, holistic healing tools, guidance for daily living and strategies for addressing the injustices, pain and imbalance that exists in the world.
All of the “Wake Up Everybody” sessions take place 5 days a week (every Sunday, Tuesday, & Thursday from 7:00am - 8:30am EST and every Monday and Wednesday from 7:00am -7:30am EST.) over Zoom and Facebook Live. Every session is facilitated by powerful and prolific presenters from various backgrounds and areas of discipline. Each facilitator guides participants through an interactive experience that fosters education, conversation, new insights, empowerment and expansion.
The WUE Family invites you to join our phenomenal community so that you can share, heal and grow as part of the collective. You are free to join as a community participant, as a session facilitator and/or a member of the admin team to support the magic that happens behind the scenes. We hope to hear from you.
Sunday, October 27th - "Crossing the Threshold; Embracing The Call: Building Community Through Rites of Passage"
Facilitated By: Kamau Ptah
Using his new book, Crossing the Threshold; Embracing the Call - Conceptualizing, Co-Creating and Building Community Through Rites of Passage, Rites of Passage Practitioner and Author, Kamau Ptah, will guide participants in reflection about their own life journeys through the view of rites of passage. Join us as Kamau shares significant phases of his journey and guides participants through experiences that were initiatory in their respective lives.
Monday, October 28th - "OMG.. Can I Add Anything Else to My Plate???"
Facilitated By: Sam Adewumi
Let's explore the concept of being busy. Why do we choose that path and how do we handle all that it brings. Come ready to co create with me as we drive into this timely and pertinent topic for the WUE family.
Tuesday, October 29th - "Confronting Conflict: Converting Challenges into Connection through Conversations"
Facilitated By: tasha dougé
This workshop is an invitation to reframe and transform conflict into a path for connection with ourselves and community. Discover different conflict styles, recognize your particular style(s), develop/deepen active listening skills, and harness these powers to cultivate conversations that foster respect and understanding, even in challenging situations. Our approach to conflict deserves and warrants a fresh perspective.
Wednesday, October 30th - "Ride or Die"
Facilitated By: K. Sweetness
Join us as we take a deeper look at where we go for help and assistance! Let’s talk about who, what, when!
Thursday, October 31st - "Moving Towards Longevity. Mobility for Vitality"
Facilitated By: Paule Jennings
Tune into this deep presentation and conversation about lifestyle habits that we can learn about and adapt to so we can reverse the pain and discomfort from being immobile and the natural wear and tear of life. We'll highlight fitness education and healthy lifestyle practices for people of all ages.
Upcoming Facilitators!
Husband, father, educational leader, teacher, traveler, drummer, scribe, author, practitioner of indigenous wisdom teachings and healing modalities are several terms that have been appropriately assigned to characterize Kamau Ptah. For 32 years, Kamau has been a custodian and a practitioner of the rites of passage system of transformative teaching and learning.
For 29 years, Kamau has been a custodian and a practitioner of the rites of passage system of transformative teaching and learning. Earning his BA from Hampton University in History/Social Science and Education and his master’s degree in School Administration from Cambridge College; Kamau currently serves as a nationally renowned consultant, who specializes in rites of passage, healing centered engagement, indigenous spiritual technology, culturally relevant practices, transformational disciplines, affirmative development, identity formation and restorative practices. Kamau is the founder and Executive Director of Akoben Enterprise Through a network of elders, healers, artists, cultural custodians, educators, business people and leaders, the work of Akoben Enterprise is a commitment of service to the ideals of identity restoration through transformational disciplines and the rites of passage practice.
Kamau was also a co-founder of the Urban Assembly Academy of History and Citizenship for Young Men (the first all-male school in New York City since the 1960s and the first that established a formalized rites of passage practice within a public-school setting). Additionally, he was the co-founder of the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color’s Sankofa Passages program, which infused the rites of passage practice within 7 schools in the city of Philadelphia.
Through the study and facilitation of rites of passage experiences and indigenous community building technologies, Kamau has established a creative style of leadership that is appropriate for stimulating the holistic development of educators and youngsters, hence awakening the sensibilities and intelligences to address the current challenges in educating and socializing our future.
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Mr. Samuel Adewumi, Founder and President of Creative Achievement Success (CAS Prep), holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and a Masters Degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Virginia. A product of the New York City public school system he went to the prestigious Brooklyn Technical High School where he graduated with honors and eventually returned as a teacher for 13 years and head football coach for 4 years. After spending several years in corporate America and as an entrepreneur, Mr. Adewumi was led towards the teaching profession and became a teacher in 2001. Here he discovered his love of educating and sharing his life experiences with children through the mediums of math, engineering and computer science. Mr. Adewumi founded CAS Prep as a means of providing quality SHSAT test prep services to underserved students in the Bedford Stuyvesant community. Since its inception in 2013, CAS Prep has grown beyond just providing SHSAT test prep services but also supports students from third grade through high school through its various programs. CAS Prep students currently come from all areas of Brooklyn and across New York City. Through its enrichment and SHSAT prep programs, CAS Prep has been responsible for sending students to the Specialized High Schools (SHS) each year of its operation and even more importantly has helped all of its student increase their confidence, desire and determination to succeed academically and in life. CAS Prep students who do not enroll in a SHS still continue on to have great high school careers and end up at the same top colleges and universities across the country as their SHS counterparts. CAS Prep alumni are in great high schools and colleges across the country or are gainfully employed and are pursuing their dreams. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, CAS Prep has pivoted its services online and is effectively using this platform to successfully educationally enrich the children it services. CAS Prep has also expanded its services to include SAT prep, and provides free virtual math instruction on a weekly basis to the students of NYC.
In addition to his leadership of CAS Prep, Mr. Adewumi is an advocate for the need to improve the education offered our children and also the need to support supplementary education for communities of color. He has written numerous op-eds on education for the Amsterdam News and other media and has presented at conferences and workshops. Mr. Adewumi believes that CAS Prep is a model that illustrates the possibilities of what can occur when dedicated adults of a community decide to bond together and support their children academically. His desire is to continue to provide more services to more children of our community and to inspire others to provide this experience to the so many gifted and talented children of NYC.
Sam Adewumi is a father, coach, teacher, healer and writer. He is cocreator of Ink and Insight and the LovecoLab a series of workshops and curated experiences aimed at personal and communal transformation. He believes in the power of community as a means of manifesting the healing that is needed and desired in our lives.
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tasha dougé (she/her) is a Bronx-bred & based, Haitian-infused conceptual visual and performance artist, activist, and cultural vigilante. Her practice leans on experimentation with different mediums that excavate and examine the nuances of the human experience. dougé centers her Blackness and womanhood as a starting point to challenge notions and ideologies around identity, history, iconography, and the political. Her work is shifting to also explore connections with memory, time, and nature. dougé’s practice is devoted to women's empowerment, illuminating the contributions of Black people, and using her "voice as the first tool within my art arsenal.” As an Intimacy Doula, tasha dougé, helps people (re)engage with all facets of intimacy. She advocates for a deeper understanding of the word by exploring when, where, how, and with whom it shows up. She offers guidance as people navigate their relationship to intimacy through prompts and different exercises. The aim of her work is for people to make their way back to intimacy through memorable and empowering experiences. She has been featured in Sugarcane Magazine, Essence, and The New York Times. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions at The Andrew Freedman Home, Bronx, NY; The Apollo Theater, Harlem, NY; Rush Arts Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; BronxArtSpace, Bronx, NY; The Shed, New York, NY; RISD Museum, Providence, RI; Hygiene Museum, Dresden, Germany; and other notable institutions and galleries. dougé is an alum of the Laundromat Project's Create Change Fellowship, The Studio Museum of Harlem's Museum Education Program, Haiti Cultural Exchange’s Lakou Nou residency, the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute’s Innovative Cultural Advocacy Program and their inaugural Digital Emerging Artist Retreat. She also serves as PT faculty at Parsons of The New School and second faculty at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research.
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K. Sweetness Jennings, born in Queens New York, attended SUNY College at Old Westbury, York College and eventually obtained her BA in Sociology from the College of New Rochelle of New Resources, Rosa Parks Campus in Harlem. She is a Credentialed Alcohol Substance Abuse Counselor (CASAC), with 15 years of experience.
Her final pursuit of higher education took place at New York Theological Seminary to get a Master of Professional Studies. Her working experience has been in residential treatment and detox short term programs in Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens. K. Sweetness also has experience with the mentally ill and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) population.
While attending higher education to get the letters behind her name and working full-time, she also engaged in prison ministry during her membership at the Presbyterian Church of St. Albans and Springfield Gardens United Methodist Church. She is a proud alumnus of the College and Community Fellowship program based in Harlem, NY where her passion for writing poetry was ignited. She is currently working on her memoir.
The K. Sweetness brand was established after completing a woman’s empowerment program, "Be The Tree" Rites of Passage Program for Women in January 2023 where she declared “Creating balance while powering in my peace” as her brand. Her purpose in this season of her eventful life is to, “embrace her divine destiny by being peaceful, extending love and grace; one healthy relationship at a time”. She believes her passion and education will assist her with living her purpose out loud and intentionally.
Upon the completion of the "Be The Tree" Program with Spirit of A Woman LLC., she is officially a Cycle Breaker while also being labeled a seeker and change agent. Her motto’s are:
“Never allow others to do more for me then I am willing to do for myself”
“To be fully dressed I must put on a smile.”
“If I decide to pray there is no need to worry.”
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A proud New Yorker born and raised in Jamaica, Queens, sits in front of you with a wealth of knowledge in the field of coaching, is Paule Jennings II.
Experience matters! Paule played football at LIU on a scholarship on a 3 time championship winning team. He later began his college coaching career in 2010 at Amherst College, winning another championship with an undefeated program in 2011. Paule studied Organizational Leadership in the MBA program at Nichols College in 2013 & 14’ and simultaneously began his study of Exercise Science and Strength and Conditioning. After winning yet another championship in 2018 with Nassau Community College, he went back to his studies in Kinesiology and became a movement observer, focusing on connective soft tissue repair. Now, he teaches and practices holistic and natural mobility and locomotion. He has worked with and coached high performance athletes that have or currently play in the National Football League.
Today, Paule aims to share educational knowledge and awareness so we can all move with a purpose of motivating vitality! This brother moves with a particular consciousness of self, family and his community. He is a proud father, proud son and proud brother, and a man of principle, love and grace.
Coach Paul Jennings II
AKA “Coach P.”