Reverend Ike

Mark Victor Hansen is best known as the co-author for the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series and brand, setting world records in book sales, achieving #1 New York Times Bestseller fifty-nine times, with over 500 million books sold, and becoming the Time Magazine Publishing Phenomena of the Decade. Mark is a prolific writer, also coauthoring other popular books such as the Power of Focus, The Aladdin Factor, Dare to Win, One Minute Millionaire, and his latest, co-authored with his wife, Crystal Dwyer Hansen, Ask! The Bridge from Your Dreams to Your Destiny.

Xavier Eikerenkoetter is a musician and spoken word artist who has served as a spiritual minister for forty years and worked alongside his father, Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, better known as Reverend Ike. After Reverend Ike’s death in 2009, he served as spiritual leader of the congregation housed at the United Palace, formerly known as United Palace Cathedral. He founded two nonprofit organizations, including the United Palace of Cultural Arts in New York, and the Rhythm Arts Alliance in Los Angeles, which works with gang-affiliated youth and teaches transformation through mentorship and ancestral practices like rites of passage and West African drumming. He received a BA in philosophy from Columbia University and a master’s in counseling psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute.