JD Steele and Ahmed Ismail Yusuf perform an original piece with the MacPhail Community Youth Choir. Meet You at the Crossroads: A Salon Concert was part of the annual Cultural of Encounter Ideas Festival April 6, 2025. (Evan Neubauer/The Crest) 
JD Steele and the MacPhail Community Youth Choir demonstrated the power of Black Gospel-style music. (Evan Neubauer/The Crest) 
Ahmed Ismail Yusuf and his music group Araa performed Somali Blues. (Evan Neubauer/The Crest)
A cross-cultural salon concert kicked off the beginning of the 2025 Culture of Encounter Festival Sunday with performances led by Ahmed Ismail Yusuf and J.D. Steele in celebration of Somali culture at the Schoenecker Center Performance Hall.
The “Meet You at the Crossroads” salon concert was sponsored by the Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies at St. Thomas. It was the first of many interreligious activities and events held between April 6 and 11.
The theology department planned the salon concert, which is a live musical performance in a smaller space that is meant to welcome greater audience connection.
Before the music began, co-producer David Jordan Harris gave a welcoming address and thanked the audience for attending, and St. Thomas President Rob Vischer told the story of The Good Samaritan.
In the story, Jesus waits for a person to help a beaten and homeless man, who is passed by a priest and a Levite. The man is then nurtured and cared for by a Samaritan, who was presumably an unlikely helper.
Vischer said, “a technical, narrow definition of ‘neighbor’ is not available to us,” referring to the importance of accepting, understanding and showing interest in all people.
“Our commitment as a university is to equip and empower every student who sets foot on our campus to help build this culture of encounter,” Vischer said.
The concert then began with a performance in two halves. Yusuf directed five other vocalists and instrumentalists in the first half, and the second featured Steele and the MacPhail Community Youth Choir.
The first half featured several songs sung back-to-back entirely in Somali. The stage had four vocalists singing a ballad alongside a lute player and a percussionist to fuel the background melody.
Alina Kiedinger, an interfaith senior at St. Thomas, helped plan the Culture of Encounter festivities.
“It was very lively, and I really liked the interactiveness of it,” Kiedinger said.
Next, Steele, who is a renowned singer and songwriter best known for his work with Prince, led the youth choir.
“I knew that in these days and times, people need inspiration and encouragement. Always when I get in front of an audience, I know that people want to be inspired, want to be uplifted,” Steele said.
More familiar songs were performed in the second half, like “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson and “Glory” by Common and John Legend.
Steele said that other than performing with the group, collaborating with Yusuf and the Somali group was one of the most inspiring parts of the performance.
“When I went to their rehearsals, I sensed the similarities in Somali blues and American blues,” Steele said. “It just knocked me out.”
Steele said the work that he does with groups of different cultures feeds his ambitions.
“I’ve built my career around doing cross-cultural collaborative work: working on making music for Flamenco and East Indian dance companies and Greek plays,” Steele said.
Steel then invited Yusuf back to the stage to help him perform a Somalian poem that Yusuf had written.
“If you sing from the heart and you express yourself, you’re going to reach other people’s hearts,” Steele said. “As what comes from the heart, reaches the heart. I really believe that.”
Kayla Osiecki can be reached at osie4769@stthomas.edu.
