Wanda's Pick Radio Show Special, Saturday, July 26, 2014 with guests Amikaeyla Gaston & Kristoff St. John

Amikaeyla Gaston

Our first guest, Amikaeyla Gaston is a multiple-award-winning singer, international best-selling recording artist and cultural change catalyst working at the intersection between science and the arts - particularly music. As the Founder and Director of ICAHSI, the International Cultural Arts & Healing Sciences Institute, she travels the world as a cultural ambassador furthering surprising connections in unexpected places through the arts, activism, and advocacy.

Winner of eight Washington Area Music Association Awards for Best Jazz, World and Urban Contemporary Vocalist, Amikaeyla was named DC’s best female composer in 2006 and 2008. She also won the 2005 DC Mayor’s Arts Award for Innovation in the Arts, and was recently honored with first prize for Best World Music Composition from the 2010-2011 Maryland State Arts Council. Proclaimed as one of the “purest contemporary voices” by NPR, powerhouse Amikaeyla is “like listening to velvet waterfalls” (MTV) and her soulful flavor captures the listener with dynamic passion and sincerity. (http://amikaeyla.com/)

Following a tragic near-death experience caused by a hate-crime, Amikaeyla overcame death through music.  After a year and a half in the burn units of Bethesda Naval hospital, Amikaeyla fully recovered and attributes that miraculous recovery to sonic healing. Invited by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to come to India and sing at the commemoration of the Golden Buddha Statue, Amikaeyla realized that her true calling was to heal others through music.  Inspired and called to action by her connection with His Holiness, she subsequently founded the International Cultural Arts & Healing Sciences Institute. Since then she has been traveling the world as a cultural ambassador working with the UN and US State Department helping to alleviate the pain and trauma of war survivors, at-risk populations and refugees. She has appeared internationally on numerous radio and television programs performing and speaking, and recently was featured as a guest lecturer at the training academy for US diplomats at the Foreign Service Institute. There, Amikaeyla was asked to share insights, methods and tools with cultural and public affairs officers for the most effective use of art and artists in sharing the us with the world in ways beyond politics.

Her Music As Medicine - Healing with an Artful Purpose programming - a multi-faceted therapeutic approach through music, movement, & theater modalities - has taken her around the world to Cuba, China, Taiwan, Africa, India to work with women and children, and since last fall, she has been to Israel, Beirut, Amman,Damascus, Palestine, Tajikistan,Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan & Sierra Leone.  This program has gained recognition and has been reviewed on national and international television. She is a featured presenter and trainer for the WorldTrust organization on Conflict Management, Resolution, and Cultural Competency in non-profit and health organizations throughout the nation and her work has been utilized and implemented by the Department of Health & Human Services, The American Psychological Association, US Consulate General’s Cultural Affairs office, Sabreen International, Department of Health & Human Services, National CityDance, and many more.


Our second guest, Kristoff St. John is best known for his role on ‘The Young and the Restless’ but the actor has much more than “soap star” on his resume. The NAACP award winner is releasing a new documentary, “A Man Called God” that took 33 years to film.

Father and Son, Christopher and Kristoff St. John

“A Man Called GOD” is a documentary that was written and produced by “The Young and the Restless” star Kristoff St. John. It explores the St. John family traveling from Los Angeles to India in search of God. The documentary itself took place in 1980, and what the family would soon uncover is that their quest would turn into something more devilish than one would think.

With a fan base of 50 Million people worldwide, Sai Baba performs modern day miracles; Healing the sick and diseased, materializing solid objects out of the air. The St John family, Christopher, Maria and 14 year old Kristoff are slowly swallowed up by Sai Baba and his cult as they participate in the spiritual daily ‘Ashram’ routine, documenting on film their treacherous visit. The cult eventually overwhelms the family, with Sai Baba revealing his demonic thirst for pedophilia and other evils. Short clip from film: http://buzzworthyradiocast.com/?p=316

Music from: Amikaelya's Being in Love and Lush, John Santos's Filosofía Caribeña, Vol. 2, Sweet Honey in the Rock's interpretation of the classic: "Motherless Child."

Short link to radio show: http://tobtr.com/s/6724795