Written by: Max Brumberg-Kraus September 27, 2018

“I am going to make what the spirit brings me:” Alumna Amoke Kubat on Art, Spirituality, and the Theology of Prince

Yoruba priestess, community activist, and local artist, Amoke Kubat graduated from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in 2017 with a Master’s of Arts & Leadership and a concentration in Black Church Leadership. I first met Amoke when I was a new student and she was a recent alumna. We grew to know each other better as the semester continued as she was auditing a class I was taking: Theological Interpretation of the Arts.

“My art has always been a response,” Amoke explains. “Like I wanted to say this to you and somehow we didn’t have enough time or hadn’t thought it through to process it. I kind of work it out in my head — a response to something I saw, something I felt, something I dreamed.”

Through writing, weaving, painting, doll-making, or performing, Amoke says art is a form of communication. “I am a reluctant priestess, always have been. I am very introverted. I can only use about two hours of being with people, and after that, I want to crawl under a rock! So, my priestess work and my artistry is more in the art itself: those messages, those commentaries.”

The truths that art communicates are clear both in what Amoke discerns from paintings discussed in class and in her play ANGRY BLACK WOMAN and Well Intentioned White Girl: “I was in a meeting and someone said I was angry, and in my head I go ‘Oh my god.’ Later, I see my friend, a white woman. We hadn’t seen each other in a while, we’re hugging, and I let out a sigh: ‘I am so tired of being considered the angry black woman when I am passionate.’ And my friend saw it and said ‘Yeah, by the ‘well-intentioned white girl.’” And I said “Ah, you know something huh? Maybe we should talk about this.’”

(Promotional from Facebook for ANGRY BLACK WOMAN and Well Intentioned White Girl)

Amoke and her friend continued to have conversations about the tensions between black and white women, particularly in Minnesota. Conversations led to workshops, workshops to a script, and in 2016, ANGRY BLACK WOMAN and Well Intentioned White Girl was produced at Intermedia Arts with Amoke acting in it. “It had two sold out shows, and they wanted to third. But i said no, I’m exhausted I can’t do it. I’m not an actress, I learned my lane,” Amoke laughs. “I couldn’t even remember my own dialogue. And being a first time playwright, my first monologue was three pages! So I’m trying to do a monologue–had clues everywhere– but at one point I just picked up the script and started reading it. I said what are they gonna do, kill me onstage?” Still in 201, the play has received several public readings, and Amoke is in the process of having the play tour.

When it comes to Amoke’s artistic process, it is one of spiritual embodiment. “I am a person who is very embodied. I feel things through my senses. I think I have more than five of them. I think I use more than five at least!” Sitting in the Intersection at United, Amoke gestures upstairs, where a dress she built is on display. “The textures of beads to my hands felt so familiar. When I let loose and said I am not going to make this traditional African costume, I don’t have the tools, the time, the know how, the mentors. I am going to make what the spirit brings me. I would listen and it would be like “Oh you need some blood.” And I would be like how do you translate blood without flinging it on the cloth! And I would go “feathers!” And then I would run around Michaels grabbing all these red boas. The project started evolving. Sometimes something didn’t look right; I’d rip it off-I had to trust the process, the spirit. I had to listen.”

More recently Amoke received an award at United for an essay on the Theology of Prince. “Prince was a creator that for all happenstance was the seed that busted through a sidewalk, the frozen tundra of this place. There’s kind of a joke about the Midwest that there is Black people in the Midwest and the punchline is why? That was something eye-opening to think about, this landscape where people come from. Black people historically have been disenfranchised with land bases, having property and being property, and tilling land for free. And here’s this amazing person that’s everything that doesn’t add up to the norm He was diminutive in stature, he comes from a family of poverty with abuse in his lifetime, tragedies that he didn’t speak of, but there was something in him that said i’m gonna bust through all this and I’m gonna make music.”

(Photo by current student Lisa Myers, and a visual art winner for Theology of Prince prize).

Amoke continues “I think of Prince as the human being: the erotic and the spiritual coming together in one body. He did a lot of investigation, exploration, and expression of the erotic. And I see the life spark as erotic. I see God as erotic, the creator as eroticism. You have to have an attraction. You have expansion and contraction, we have that in air, the sound waves, trees expanding and contracting–they go dormant and come back out–, things go into the ground, things leave the body: we see all of that. And I think musically Prince expressed that in a way that had not been expressed before. Of course he had people that he admired but it was like compost. He used all of that to become something new. Even though he didn’t call himself nonbinary or a specific gender, he took all of that and made his own salad–not a woman not a man something that you cannot understand. As a student of his music I came to understand a greater spectrum of humanity.”

A greater understanding of the human spectrum is clearly evident throughout Amoke’s visual art, her writing, her comments in the classroom, and in her advice to people looking to study at United. “This is a journey of self. I think it’s okay to come with some pre-ideas of where your destiny is, but be open to so much more. Be open to learning about yourself. Come with your preconceived whatever, but come as open as possible and as empty as possible.”

Listening to Amoke, one cannot help but feel inspired to go out, to communicate, and to create. “As a person who likes to create,” she advises “you are going to make stuff that people don’t like, you are going to do stuff that you don’t like. But you don’t stop there in that deadzone.” For Amoke, art has been a tool of dialogue, transformation, and “ a way to express the divine.”

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October 9, 2026

Alums Homecoming News Releases

Rev. Dr. A. Leon (Lee) Tredwell (’06) Honored As a 2026 Distinguished Alum

United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is excited to announce that Rev. A. Leon (Lee) Tredwell, PhD—who earned his MA in Theology and Biblical Interpretation from United in 2006—has been selected as a 2026 Distinguished Alum. An accomplished preacher, teacher, and published author, Dr. Tredwell has championed biblical narratives that affirm the divinity of all people, regardless of their race, creed, color, class, gender, or sexuality. Adopted at age four, Lee was raised in the Baptist faith and felt called to ministry as a child. Even so, after earning a degree in Political Science and Sociology at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, he spent the first ten years of his professional life as a grain trader for Cargill. After connecting with Drs. Ralph and Alika Galloway, Lee found United, and his call was reignited. He remembers Rev. Dr. Carolyn Pressler (Professor Emerita of Biblical Interpretation, 1990–2020) and Dean Richard Weis* with great affection. Both teachers, he observes, “taught us to wrestle with the biblical text until it opened up and spoke.” They also introduced Lee to Black and post-colonial hermeneutics, and Rev. Dr. Weis led him to passages in Jeremiah 38 (Hebrew Bible) that sparked his interest in learning more about a Black character named Ebed-Melech. Lee also cites the influence of Rev. Dr. Christine Smith’s (Professor Emerita of Preaching 1992–2013) preaching courses on his life. In Colorado, at the University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology, Lee completed a joint PhD program with a concentration in Religion and Social Change in 2017. Ronald Smith, a former United student who nominated Lee for this award, notes, “Dr. Tredwell has demonstrated that he is an innovator and compassionate leader who has served both inside the academy as a professor of African American Preaching at Iliff School of Theology, University of Colorado, Boulder, and in the larger community; he has served as [a] pastor, civil rights and human rights activist, and [a] chief executive officer in Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, and Texas.” Lee’s new book—Black, Queer and Blessed: My Story and the Biblical Story Churches Don’t Teach—was published in June 2025. As the description reads, “For all who believe God-Yahweh is angry, mad, disgusted, and against LGBTQIA+ folx, regrettably, you been had, misled, took, hood-winked and bamboozled! Black, Queer and Blessed, through lived experience and the excavation of the subjugated biblical narrative of Ebed-Melech, demolishes society’s antiquated mores.” The book is part memoir and part theological reflection on the Ebed-Melech revelation. In addition to his roles as teacher, preacher, and author, Lee has specifically worked to promote adoption of Black children from foster care and create affordable housing. These days, he serves as the pastor of Theology and Community Engagement at Allendale United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida. As Ronald Smith asserts, “Dr. Tredwell is the embodiment and an exemplar of United Theological Seminary’s mission, vision, and values.” * of blessed memory About United Founded by the United Church of Christ (UCC) as a welcoming, ecumenical school that embraces all denominations and faith traditions, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities has been on the creative edge of progressive theological thought and leadership since it was established in 1962. Today, United continues to educate leaders who, through the eyes of faith, engage in the dismantling of systems of oppression, explore multi-faith spirituality, and push the boundaries of knowledge.

Lena K. Gardner (’15) Honored As a 2026 Distinguished Alum

[caption id="attachment_11955" align="alignnone" width="1920"] photo by Bethany Birnie[/caption] United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is thrilled to announce that Lena K. Gardner—who graduated with an MA in Justice and Peace Studies in 2015—has been selected as one of our three 2026 Distinguished Alums. A highly respected social justice activist and community leader, Lena is the co-founder and executive director of Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU), a nonprofit founded in 2015 that creates life-giving and life-saving opportunities for spiritual community and Black-centered organizing. According to Rev. Dr. Rebecca Voelkel (’13), Lena has “been a force in the Twin Cities’ religiously rooted justice ecosystem for the last 15 years.” Dr. Voelkel, Lena’s nominator, traces Lena’s justice-organizing acumen back to 2011, when she served on the Faith Organizing Roundtable—a body that coordinated religious communities’ opposition to the anti-marriage amendment. Lena went on to champion marriage equality in the 2012–2013 legislative session. After a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, shot and killed Michael Brown, Jr., an unarmed 18-year-old Black teen, in 2014, Lena played a key role in transforming the Faith Organizing Roundtable into the Multifaith Anti-Racism, Change & Healing or MARCH. “In that same period,” Voelkel notes, “Lena was a core team organizer of Black Lives Matter Minneapolis and served on its steering committee.” Lena was deeply involved, quoted in many national and local articles, and interviewed on Minnesota Public Radio after former police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd in 2020. In April 2021, after a Brooklyn Center police officer killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, Lena co-wrote an article in the Sahan Journal demanding that Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecute the case, and that the Hennepin County attorney be removed. More recently, Lena embarked on another ambitious project. In May 2024, through the BLUU Cooperative Housing Initiative, she co-hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for an affordable housing complex for single parents in North Minneapolis. In a MinnPost article about the groundbreaking, Lena explained, “It’s really about trying to give back to one of the communities that made me…. We really see providing stable housing in a cooperative framework as one of the many paths to collective liberation and Black liberation. Ultimately, it’s about self-determination.” When Operation Metro Surge arrived in the Twin Cities in late 2025, Lena took action again. As Voelkel observes, she “returned to the MARCH steering committee…. When MARCH organized a clergy call (in five days) to which 700 clergy came, the ability to create and host such an amazing event owes part of its success to Lena’s relationships with communications specialists, graphic designers, and organizers.” Lena was also a driving force behind Neighbors Helping Neighbors (NHN), a mutual aid group she and Anna Stamborski founded in late 2025 to connect vulnerable ICE-targeted families with congregational networks whose members could provide shopping and transportation services. Through all of Lena’s indefatigable contributions to working for justice, Voelkel asserts, she “has focused on Black excellence, Black power, Black spiritual wholeness, Black beauty, and how non-Black folks can act in solidarity and followership of Black folks, particularly Black queer women. She has done so skillfully through building relationships across differences in ways that facilitate and deepen genuine relationships.”

Cori Berg (’98) Honored As a 2026 Distinguished Alum

United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is elated to announce that Cori Berg (’98)—advocate, artist, and educator—is a 2026 Distinguished Alum. Cori earned her Master of Arts (MA) in Theology and the Arts in 1998, and for more than 27 years, she has integrated creativity, art, and spirituality into her field. Cori arrived at United in the 1990s, having majored in theater and minored in studio art during her undergraduate studies. “I knew I had an artistic voice,” she recalls, “but it didn’t make sense in any of the traditional contexts.” After seeing an advertisement for United’s Theology and the Arts program, Cori drove from Dallas to the Twin Cities to visit as a prospective student. A campus art exhibit by Merle Janis was all she needed to see—“this school had something I needed: strength, boldness, vulnerability.” For Cori, “life is liturgy.” She credits United with introducing her to “the freedom in a progressive faith.” At United, Cori learned to expand her creativity, which became a launching pad for a vibrant career. “United gave me a safe, nurturing space to explore, dream, and execute big things,” she writes. “I’ve continued that through the rest of my career as an artist, an educator, an administrator, and a speaker.” Art is central to Cori’s work and features prominently in her curriculum development for children. Her art was featured in the 2012 opening parade for the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas, TX, a project that involved “seniors, children, and adults in all aspects” from a local Methodist community program. Ministry with Children and Spirituality, courses taught by Rev. Dr. Barbara Anne Keely (Professor Emerita, 1991–2015), were particularly formative for Cori’s future in education. “I remember she taught us to get on the floor and view the church nursery from a baby’s point of view,” Cori reflects. “I use this today over and over as I teach early childhood educators…. She introduced the idea of seeing oneself not as a separate body, mind, or spirit, but when one part of my being is suffering, to use the other parts to help lift that part.” More recently, Cori has been an active community member at Dallas Meditation Center, where she is known for her moving dharma talks that weave Buddhist themes into contemporary storytelling. In public schools and congregational settings, Cori has applied what she learned as a United student to the field of early childhood education, for which—nominator Rev. Jim Peck (’99) points out—she has become “one of the nation’s leading advocates.” When facing challenges in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cori leveraged her ingenuity and creative vision to support educators with online training resources. As a teacher and an administrator in spaces where lack of institutional funding and support are commonplace, Jim observes, “she uses her [United] education to work for justice and equity,” to “nurture relationships in the early childhood settings where she has served, with an expertise in working in settings in crisis to encourage recovery, healing, and new paths for serving the future.” In May 2026, Cori completed her MEd in Curriculum and Instruction at American College of Education, where she immediately enrolled to begin her EdD in Early Childhood Education. She serves as an executive director at the University of Kansas (KU) and anticipates returning to Dallas to live near her family at the end of the year while awaiting her next opportunity. We are delighted to celebrate Cori and her decades of faithful, innovative leadership in the field of early childhood education and art. About United Founded by the United Church of Christ (UCC) as a welcoming, ecumenical school that embraces all denominations and faith traditions, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities has been on the creative edge of progressive theological thought and leadership since it was established in 1962. Today, United continues to educate leaders who, through the eyes of faith, engage in the dismantling of systems of oppression, explore multi-faith spirituality, and push the boundaries of knowledge.