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Snatch Back: YMI on Building Black Futures
What does it mean to protect Black space in a moment set on erasure?
In this episode, we sit down with Rev. Sean Palmer, Executive Director of the historic YMI Cultural Center, for a grounded, wide-ranging conversation about Black institutions, cultural memory, and the high-stakes work of building Black futures together.
Sean invites listeners to see Black cultural centers not as static organizations, but as living organisms shaped by joy and grief, strategy and spirit, history and imagination.
The challenge: To steward legacy without freezing it in time.
In a moment where Black space is under threat through policy, funding decisions, and cultural amnesia, Sean weighs in on what it takes to lead with both courage and care. From dismantling plantation logic in cultural center leadership to naming the danger of siloed Black organizing, this conversation is both a reckoning and a roadmap.
The YMI’s role? Preservation and possibility. Memory and movement. As Sean puts it: “This is a place of Sankofa. We will go back and fetch it—and we will take it into our Afro future.”
About Sean: Rev. Sean Hasker Palmer is a seasoned higher education leader with 20+ years of experience and a national expert in Black Cultural Centers. He currently serves as Executive Director of the historic YMI Cultural Center in Asheville, NC, following eight award-winning years at UNC Wilmington's Upperman Center. A member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and a Commissioner on the Gullah Geechee Corridor, Sean is also Vice President of the Association for Black Culture Centers (ABCC). He is the former supply pastor of Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, NC, and he is pursuing his Ph.D. at NC A&T. Sean has been working on a book that combines poetry and preaching entitled Black and Therefore Beautiful: Meditations for My People.
🎧 Ready to help snatch back what's owed — with interest? Hit play.
We'll see you same time, same place next month. Until then, peace.
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By Tzedek Social Justice FundWhat does it mean to protect Black space in a moment set on erasure?
In this episode, we sit down with Rev. Sean Palmer, Executive Director of the historic YMI Cultural Center, for a grounded, wide-ranging conversation about Black institutions, cultural memory, and the high-stakes work of building Black futures together.
Sean invites listeners to see Black cultural centers not as static organizations, but as living organisms shaped by joy and grief, strategy and spirit, history and imagination.
The challenge: To steward legacy without freezing it in time.
In a moment where Black space is under threat through policy, funding decisions, and cultural amnesia, Sean weighs in on what it takes to lead with both courage and care. From dismantling plantation logic in cultural center leadership to naming the danger of siloed Black organizing, this conversation is both a reckoning and a roadmap.
The YMI’s role? Preservation and possibility. Memory and movement. As Sean puts it: “This is a place of Sankofa. We will go back and fetch it—and we will take it into our Afro future.”
About Sean: Rev. Sean Hasker Palmer is a seasoned higher education leader with 20+ years of experience and a national expert in Black Cultural Centers. He currently serves as Executive Director of the historic YMI Cultural Center in Asheville, NC, following eight award-winning years at UNC Wilmington's Upperman Center. A member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and a Commissioner on the Gullah Geechee Corridor, Sean is also Vice President of the Association for Black Culture Centers (ABCC). He is the former supply pastor of Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, NC, and he is pursuing his Ph.D. at NC A&T. Sean has been working on a book that combines poetry and preaching entitled Black and Therefore Beautiful: Meditations for My People.
🎧 Ready to help snatch back what's owed — with interest? Hit play.
We'll see you same time, same place next month. Until then, peace.