Krista Franklin is a writer, performer, and visual artist, the author of Solo(s (University of ChicagoPress, 2022), Too Much Midnight (Haymarket Books, 2020), the artist book Under the Knife (CandorArts, 2018), and the chapbook Study of Love & Black Body (Willow Books, 2012). She is a recipient ofthe Helen and Tim Meier Foundation for the Arts Achievement Award and the Joan MitchellFoundation Painters and Sculptors Grant. Her visual art has been exhibited at DePaul Art Museum,Poetry Foundation, Konsthall C, Rootwork Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Photography, StudioMuseum in Harlem, Chicago Cultural Center, National Museum of Mexican Art, and the set of 20thCentury Fox’s Empire. She is published in Poetry, Black Camera, The Offing, Vinyl, and a number ofanthologies and artist books.

Dr. Crystal M. Moten, a south side Chicago native, is a public historian, curator and writer who focuses on the intersection of race, class and gender to uncover the hidden histories of Black people in the Midwest. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, her research has appeared in books, journals, documentaries, and other media. Dr. Moten has taught at colleges and universities across the country and prior to joining the Obama Foundation as the inaugural Curator of Collections of Exhibitions, she worked as Curator of African American History in the Division of Work and Industry at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Her most recent book is Continually Working: Black Women, Community Intellectualism and Economic Justice in Postwar Milwaukee (Vanderbilt University Press, 2023).

Jamala Rogers is a long-time organizer and feminist thinker in the Black Liberation Movement. She is the recipient of many awards for her devoted service to the community. She is showcased in the HistoryMakers® Digital Archives. Jamala is the author of two books, including Ferguson is America: Roots of Rebellion, and is a featured columnist in several publications. She is an editorial board member and contributor for BlackCommentator.com. You can hear Jamala on her radio program "Voices from the Battlefield" on Black Radio Hall of Fame and her podcast "Just Expressin' Myself" at Black World Media Network. Her blog site is jamalarogers.com.

Jeffrey C. Wray is a Professor of Film Studies and Timnick Chair in the Humanities at Michigan State University. An independent filmmaker, recent films include Songs for My Right Side, a 2020 half-hour drama and BLAT! Pack Live, a 2016 musical documentary. His 2014 feature film The Evolution of Bert premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival and was nominated for the Roger Ebert Award. Screenplays include the dramas Welcome to Idlewild and The Soul Singer, a 2018 Nicholl Academy Award Screenwriting Fellowship Quarterfinalist, as well as Eclipse, a political drama set in the turbulent summer of 1964. Essays “How Ella Mae Wray Seized the Opportunities of 1968” and "Ella Mae: The Personal and Political," were published in The Atlantic and Black in the Middle: An Anthology of the Black Midwest.

Chicago’s 1st Poet Laureate, interdisciplinary artist, and educator avery r. young [him, him, his] is a Leader for a New Chicago 2022 awardee, a Cave Canem fellow and a co- director of The Floating Museum. His poetry and prose have been featured in BreakBeat Poets, Teaching Black, Poetry Magazine and alongside images in photographer Cecil McDonald Jr’s, In The Company of Black. He is the composer and librettist for a new commissioned work from The Lyrics Opera of Chicago titled safronia. His full length recording tubman. is the soundtrack to his collection of poetry, neckbone: visual verses.