LANGSTON HUGHES STAGE
FESTIVAL PARTICIPANTS
Ajuan Mance
Ajuan Mance is an artist and writer based in Oakland, California. She is a Professor of Illustration at the California College of the Arts and a Professor Emeritus of English at Mills College. Ajuan is the author of two scholarly books, Inventing Black Women: African American Women’s Poetry and Self-Representation, 1877-2000 and Before Harlem: An Anthology of African American Literature from the Long Nineteenth Century. Ajuan is also the author and illustrator of the portrait collections 1001 Black Men: Portraits of Masculinity at the Intersections and Living While Black: Portraits of Everyday Resistance, as well as the children’s picture book What Do Brothas Do All Day. Ajuan’s comics have appeared in several anthologies, including, most recently, Drawing Power, COVID Chronicles, and We Belong: An All-Black, All-Queer Sci-Fi and Fantasy Comics Anthology. Gender Studies, her first book of comics, was nominated for the 2024 Ignatz Award for Best Comics Collection.
Akinseye Brown
Akinseye (Ah-Keen-Shay-Yay) Brown is an artist, illustrator, and writer that uses African culture, science-fiction, and fantasy to tell visual stories. Brown has 20-years experience in illustrating and sells his prints and paintings through his company Sokoya Productions, LLC. Brown continues to inspire and educated through art and storytelling.
Alejandro Heredia
Alejandro Heredia is a writer from the Bronx. He has received fellowships from LAMBDA Literary, Dominican Studies Institute, UNLV’s Black Mountain Institute, and elsewhere. He received an MFA in fiction from Hunter College. Loca is his debut novel.
Alexander Hardy
Alexander Hardy is a grits-powered writer, Mental Health First Aid National Trainer, home cook, and lupus survivor. He will probably ask what delicious meals you’ve eaten recently. Hardy battles spiritual ashiness as co-founder of GetSomeJoy, a creative wellness agency, and is on a lifelong quest to make better empanadas. In 2022, after his mother died, he curated, designed, and published griefKit: Tools and considerations for raggedy times as a creative wellness resource for GetSomeJoy. Hardy does not believe in snow or Delaware.
Andrea Hairston
Andrea Hairston is a novelist, playwright, and scholar. Aqueduct Press published: Will Do Magic For Small Change, a New York TimesEditor’s pick and finalist for the Mythopoeic, Lambda, and Otherwise Awards; Mindscape, winner of the Carl Brandon Award; andLonely Stardust, a collection of essays and plays. Her play, Thunderbird at the Next World Theatre, appears in Geek Theater. A novelette, “Saltwater Railroad,” was published by Lightspeed Magazine. “Dumb House,” a short story appears in New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color edited by Nisi Shawl. Andrea received the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts Distinguished Scholarship Award in 2011 and has gotten grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Her latest novel, Master of Poisons, came out from Tordotcom Publishing and is on the Kirkus Review’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2020. “Seven Generations Algorithm,” a short story is in Trouble the Waters edited by Sheree Renee Thomas, and Pan Morigan. Redwood and Wildfire, winner of the Otherwise and Carl Brandon Awards, will be out February 1, 2022 from Tordotcom. In her spare time, Andrea is the Louise Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre and Africana Studies at Smith College and the Artistic Director of Chrysalis Theatre.
Anita Okoye
Anita Okeye is an adult graphic novels editor at Abrams ComicArts and Megascope's. Megascope is a line of graphic novels dedicated to showcasing speculative and non-fiction works by and about people of color, with a focus on science fiction, fantasy, horror, history, and stories of magical realism.
Anthony Pugh
Anthony Pugh originally from the Twin Cities, Minnesota, a graduate of Minneapolis College of Art and Design moved out to New York City and has been working as a freelance illustrator and artist for over 20 some years. His genesis of Comic Book Art and Graffiti has been the ongoing inspiration and staple of his work. Working in a variety of mediums and disciplines has honed his craft to be the benchmark of what he does incorporating drawing, comic books, funky lettering, murals and animation into every project. Most recently as the artist for an Original graphic novel for Abrams books, DEVOUR.
B.A. Parker
B. A. Parker is the Ambie-Award winning co-host of NPR's Code Switch, reporting stories such on racial trauma in horror films, honoring her ancestors, and the myth behind self-care. Prior to joining Code Switch, she was co-host and lead producer at The Cut podcast with New York Magazine. In a previous life, Parker was a film professor at Morgan State University and Stevenson University, where she forced 19-year-olds to watch Point Break and Wong Kar-wai films. She, then, found her way to a production fellowship with the radio show This American Life. She has produced for NPR's Invisibilia, Gimlet's Heavyweight and WNYC's Nancy.
Brittany Luse
Brittany Luse is an award-winning journalist, on-air host and cultural critic. She is currently the host of It's Been a Minute, a podcast and nationally syndicated radio show from NPR that examines the complex intersection of news, pop culture, and politics. Previously Brittany hosted The Nod, Sampler, and For Colored Nerds podcasts. Brittany has written for publications like Vulture and Harper's Bazaar, and she’s been profiled by The New York Times, The Detroit Free Press, The New Yorker, and Teen Vogue.
Cebo Campbell
Cebo Campbell is an award-winning, multi-hyphenate creative based in New York and London. He is a winner of the Stories Award for Poetry, and his writings are featured in numerous publications. As cofounder and CCO of the renowned NYC creative agency Spherical, Cebo leads teams of creatives in shaping the best hotel brands in the world. His range of talents as a creative director have sent him all over the globe infusing creativity, from working with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in the UK, to concepting the Million Miracles humanitarian campaign throughout Africa and India, to writing and directing the VR short film Refuge: Triumph in Tulsa, based on the famed Black Wall Street in Oklahoma. Cebo’s expansive work as a writer, designer, and director are powered by a singular mindset: contribute meaningfully to the culture. And he does. With everything he touches.
Cebo’s upcoming works will include two fiction novels and a feature-length screenplay.
Chigozie Obioma
Chigozie Obioma was born in Akure, Nigeria. His novels, The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019) were shortlisted for The Booker Prize. He is also the author of The Road to the Country (2024), a two-time Booker Prize finalist. His novels have been translated into more than 29 languages. They have won awards including the inaugural FT/Oppenheimer Award for Fiction, the NAACP Image Award, the Internationaler Literaturpreis, and the LA Times Book Prize, and been nominated for many others. The Fishermen was adapted into an award-winning stage play by Gbolahan Obisesan that played in the UK and South Africa between 2018-2019. Obioma was named one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2015 and is the Helen S. Lanier Professor of Creative Writing and English at the University of Georgia and the program director of the Oxbelly Fiction Writers retreat. He divides his time between the US and Nigeria.
Chris Jackson
Over his career Chris has published a wide range of bestselling and award-winning authors. He is the recipient of the Center for Fiction Medal for Editorial Excellence, the Authors Guild Publisher Award for Literature that Inspires Change, and the Asian American Writer’s Workshop Editorial Achievement Award. His own work has appeared in magazines and journals including The Paris Review, O: The Oprah Magazine, Callaloo, and The Atlantic.
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Chukwuebuka Ibeh
Chukwuebuka Ibeh was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. His writing has appeared in McSweeneys, New England Review of Books and Lolwe. A 2023 Spruceton Inn Artist Resident, he was runner-up winner of the 2021 J.F. Powers Prize for Fiction, and was a finalist for the Gerald Kraak Award and Morland Foundation Scholarship. His debut novel, Blessings, was shortlisted for the 2024 Wilbur Smith Prize. He is currently a teaching fellow in Fiction at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Clover Hope
Clover Hope is an acclaimed journalist whose writing has appeared in the pages of Vibe, Vogue, Esquire, Essence, Elle, GQ, Wall Street Journal Magazine, The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Wired, ESPN, and Billboard, among others. Prior to going freelance, Hope worked as a staff writer and editor at Billboard, XXL, Vibe, and Jezebel. She’s currently an NYU professor and creative consultant whose notable productions include Beyoncé’s Emmy-winning visual film Black Is King (2021) and the Hulu docuseries RapCaviar Presents (2023). Her book, The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop, is a comprehensive, illustrated history of women in hip-hop, available in bookstores and as an Audible Originals audiobook.
Daniella Brito
Daniella Brito is a Dominican-American writer and curator from New York City. Trained in art history, Brito draws from visual cultural studies, queer theory, and decolonial aesthetics within their writing to document queer performance histories. Their writing has appeared in publications like The Brooklyn Rail, The Kitchen Magazine, Hyperallergic, e_flux, and elsewhere. They have written exhibition catalogues for institutions like The Studio Museum in Harlem, Rutgers University, Deli Gallery, among others. Brito is currently a Curatorial Specialist at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and a Curatorial Fellow with Rada Collaborative.
D-NICE
Derrick “D-Nice” Jones is a hip-hop icon and cultural influencer who gained widespread acclaim for launching Instagram Live’s “Club Quarantine,” raising millions for frontline workers and HBCUs, and earning honors like the NAACP Image Award for Entertainer of the Year and a 2020 Time Person of the Year nomination. He co-curated the Biden-Harris inauguration playlist and performed at major events including the Super Bowl LV pre-show, Hollywood Bowl, Met Gala, NBA All-Star Game, Academy Awards, Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center. Celebrating milestones, he marked the fifth anniversary of Club Quarantine with nationwide shows and continues to perform at major festivals such as Essence Festival and the Global Citizen Festival. Beyond music, D-Nice has expanded into film production and food and beverage ventures while maintaining a focus on social impact, receiving awards like the 2024 UNCF Charlotte Masked Hero Award. His influence spans entertainment, charity, and sociopolitical causes, making him a dynamic force in hip-hop and beyond.
DAMON YOUNG
Pittsburgh writer DAMON YOUNG’s debut memoir, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays(Ecco), won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. A founder of the culture blog Very Smart Brothas and creator and host of the Crooked Media podcast Stuck with Damon Young, Damon has been a contributing columnist for The Washington Post Magazine, a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, and a columnist for GQ and was the inaugural writer-in-residence at the University of Pittsburgh’s David C. Frederick Honors College.
Dana A. Williams
Dana A. Williams is Professor of African American literature and Dean of the Graduate School at Howard University. She is former president of the College Language Association and the Modern Languages Association, and is the author of In the Light of Likeness—Transformed: The Literary Art of Leon Forrest. She is also the editor of several books. Her work has been published in prestigious journals, including PMLA, CLA Journal, African American Review, Early American Literature, American Literary History, and the Langston Hughes Review. Her research has been supported by the Ford Foundation, the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She co-directs the Center for Medical Humanities and Health Justice, a Mellon Foundation-funded collaboration between Howard and Georgetown universities. Williams lives in Maryland.
David Crownson
Born and raised in the exotic town of Frenchtown, New Jersey, David Crownson grew up with a passion for storytelling which started with comics and film. This has served him as an actor and writer. He is the writer/creator of Harriet Tubman: Demon Slayer, published by his company Kingwood Comics. This best-selling comic is soon to become a Disney television series produced by Prentice Penny (HBO's Insecure, Netflix's Uncorked). He loves his mom, girlfriend, long walks, and petting your dog. Recently , Confluential Films is adapting Crownson's Killer Bee graphic novel to the big screen starring Jurassic World Dominon DeWanda Wise. Screenplay adaptation will be written by the legendary Terry Rossio and Kevin Arbouet ( Pirates Of The Caribbean and Shrek franchise and upcoming Cash Money)
Dedren Snead
Dedren Snead is an artist, developer, creative consultant, emerging technologist and futurist from Atlanta, Georgia. Dedren uses graphic novels, animation, gaming and augmented reality to build inclusive storytelling platforms in the Metaverse that performs for social good. His futures company SUBSUME looks to close the digital Divide between marginalized voices and cultures through inclusive shared media works that fosters technology equity and makes the transmedia experience accessible and sustainable for all. A serial entrepreneur, his most recent project is an educational technology platform that connects K-12 and early-career students to pathways in creative and technical careers through gamified project-based learning modules and workforce
DéLana R.A. Dameron
DéLana R.A. Dameron is a Black southern equestrian and an artist whose primary medium is storytelling. Her debut work of fiction Redwood Court was a NYT Editor's Choice and a Reese's Book Club Pick. She is the author of two books of poetry How God Ends Us and Weary Kingdom. Dameron’s second work of fiction Fairfield County is forthcoming from Dial Press in June 2026. She currently resides on her farm Saloma Acres, near her hometown of Columbia, South Carolina.
Dorothy H. Price
Dorothy H. Price is a writer, author, and former English teacher. She started writing at 11, when her big sister gifted her with a birthday journal. She still has it, along with a crate full of journals she's written in over the years. In 2008, she had an idea for a picture book. A year later, she was still writing picture books. In 2010, Dorothy joined the SCBWI, and has been on her writing way ever since!
Erika Hardison
Erika Hardison is a cultural journalist and founder of Fabulize—a Black feminist nerd magazine. Her work has been published in HuffPo, Elite Daily, Book Riot and Publishers Weekly. She’s currently working on her upcoming book, “So You Think You Know…Static (Shock)” with University Press of Mississippi.
George M. Johnson
George M. Johnson is an Award-Winning Black Non-Binary Writer, Author, and
Executive Producer located in the LA area. They are the New York Times
Bestselling Author of the Young Adult memoir All Boys Aren’t Blue discussing their adolescence growing up as a young Black Queer boy in New Jersey through a series of powerful essays.
Glory Edim
Glory Edim is the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, a podcast and digital literacy platform that celebrates the uniqueness of Black literature and sisterhood. She edited the Well-Read Black Girl anthology, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and named a best book of the year by Library Journal. Her latest book On Girlhood is a collection of groundbreaking short stories that explore the thin yet imperative line between Black girlhood and womanhood. The winner of the Innovator's Award from the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, Edim worked as a cultural practitioner for over ten years and serves on the board of Baldwin for the Arts. She resides in Washington D.C. with her son, Zikomo.
Howard W. French
Howard W. French is a professor of journalism at Columbia University and a former New York Times bureau chief for Central America and the Caribbean, West and Central Africa, Japan and the Koreas, and China, based in Shanghai. The author of six books, including Born in Blackness, French lives in New York City.
Ibi Zoboi
Ibi Zoboi is the New York Times Bestselling author of books for children and teens, including American Street, a National Book Award Finalist, Pride, a modern remix of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and the Walter Award and LA Times Book Prize-winning Punching the Air, co-written with Exonerated Five member Yusef Salaam. Ibi is a two-time Coretta Scott King Author Award honoree for The People Remember, her debut picture book, and Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler. She is the winner of the 2024 CSK Author Award for Nigeria Jones. She is the editor of the anthology Black Enough: Stories of Being Young and Black in America and has written Okoye to the People, a Black Panther novel for Marvel. Born in Haiti and raised in New York City, Ibi lives in New Jersey.
Iris Mwanza is a Zambian American writer. As deputy director of the Gender Equality Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she leads strategy and investment for the Women in Leadership portfolio, and she has previously worked as a corporate lawyer in both Zambia and the US. Mwanza holds law degrees from Cornell University and the University of Zambia, and an MA and PhD in international relations from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. In addition to her work at the foundation, Mwanza serves on the supervisory board of CARE International and on the board of directors of the World Wildlife Fund-US.
Imani Perry
Imani Perry is the National Book Award–winning author of South to America, as well as seven other books of nonfiction. She is the Henry A. Morss Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, and is a 2023 MacArthur Fellow. Perry lives between Philadelphia and Cambridge with her two sons.
Irvin Weathersby
Irvin Weathersby is a Brooklyn-based writer and professor from New Orleans. His work has been featured in the LA Times, Elle, LitHub, Guernica, Esquire, The Atlantic, EBONY, BET, and elsewhere. He has earned an MFA from The New School, an MA from Morgan State University, and a BA from Morehouse College and has received fellowships and awards from the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation, the Research Foundation of CUNY, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Mellon Foundation. In Open Contempt is his first book.
Isis Asare
Isis Asare, a Stanford, Harvard, and Columbia alum, is also the CEO/Founder of Sistah Scifi, the first Black-owned bookstore focused on science fiction and fantasy in the United States as validated by the American Booksellers Association. In 2024, Asare took the helm as Executive Director of Aunt Lute Books, the intersectional feminist, nonprofit press that has championed underrepresented authors for over four decades.
Ivana Akotowaa
Ivana Akotowaa Ofori is a Ghanaian storyteller, writer and poet. She has been nominated and shortlisted for various awards, including the Nommo Awards, and her work has appeared in anthologies such as Africa Risen and Daring Shifts, and in online magazines such as Jalada Africa and AFREADA. The Year of Return (2024) is her debut novella.
Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow
Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow writes children’s books that center Black and Muslim protagonists. Her books continue to make many “Best of” lists, including Time’s “10 Best YA and Children’s Books” of the year and Book Riot’s “20 Best Children’s Books of All Time.” She is a two-time winner of the Muslim Bookstagram award and she has earned the prestigious Walter, Irma Black, and Golden Kite award honors. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and two sons.
Jennifer Baker
Jennifer Baker is an author and editor/project manager with over 20 years' experience in book publishing. She's also the creator/host of the Minorities in Publishing podcast, and has been a faculty member at Bay Path University’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction and The City College of New York. In 2019, she was named Publishers Weekly Superstar for her contributions to inclusion and representation in publishing and was a recipient of the 2024 Axinn Writing Award from Adelphi University. Jennifer is the author of Forgive Me Not (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2023), a 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. Forgive Me Not was also listed as a 2023 NYPL Best Book for Teens, a 2023 Best of the Best by the Black Caucus American Library Association, and was included on the Texas Library Association's 2024 TAYSHAS Reading List and Capitol Choices’ 2024 Noteworthy Books for Teens. She also edited the short story anthology Everyday People: The Color of Life (Atria Books, 2018). Her fiction, nonfiction, and criticism has appeared in various print and online publications.
Katie Mitchell
Katie Mitchell is a storyteller and bookseller. Katie lives, works, and writes in Atlanta, Georgia. Her online and pop-up Black bookstore, Good Books, has been featured in The New York Times, NBC, NPR, PBS, and many other outlets. Katie is a Dorothy Porter Wesley fellow.
Kiese Laymon
Kiese Laymon is a Black southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is the Libbie Shearn Moody Professor of English and Creative Writing at Rice University. Laymon is the author of Long Division, which won the 2022 NAACP Image Award for fiction, and the essay collection, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, named a notable book of 2021 by the New York Times critics.
Ladan Osman
Ladan Osman is the author of Exiles of Eden (2019), winner of a Whiting Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and The Kitchen-Dweller’s Testimony (2015), winner of the Sillerman Prize. Her work in film includes The Ascendants; Sam, Underground; and Sun of the Soil. She lives in New York.
Leslie-Ann Murray
Leslie-Ann Murray is a fiction writer from Trinidad & Tobago, and a citizen of East Flatbush, Brooklyn. She created Brown Girl Book Lover, a social media platform where she interviews diverse writers and reviews books that should be at the forefront of our imagination. Leslie-Ann is working on her first nonfiction essay collection, This Has Made Us Beautiful, about incarceration, race, immigration, education, and the overwhelming impact of these political forces on herself, the boys and men in her life, and the women in her community. She has been published in Poets & Writers, Zone 3, Ploughshares, Blackbird Journal, Adroit Journal, The Rumpus, The Audacity, and Salamander Literary Magazine.
Mahogany L. Browne
Mahogany L. Browne, a Kennedy Center’s Next 50 fellow and MacDowell Arts Advocacy awardee, is a writer, playwright, organizer, and educator. Browne received fellowships from All Arts, Art for Justice, AIR Serenbe, Baldwin for the Arts, Cave Canem, Hawthornden, Poets House, the Mellon Foundation, Rauschenberg, Wesleyan University, and Ucross. Browne’s books include Vinyl Moon, Chlorine Sky (optioned for a play by Steppenwolf Theatre), Black Girl Magic, and banned books Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice and Woke Baby. Founder of the diverse lit initiative Woke Baby Book Fair, Browne currently tours Chrome Valley (highlighted in Publishers Weekly and The New York Times) and is the 2024 Paterson Poetry Prize winner. Browne holds an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree awarded by Marymount Manhattan College and is the inaugural poet-in-residence at Lincoln Center.
Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Maurice Carlos Ruffin is the author of National Bestseller, The American Daughters, as well as The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You, a One Book One New Orleans selection, which was longlisted for the Story Prize. His debut, We Cast a Shadow, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the PEN America Open Book Prize. All three books were New York Times Editor’s Choice selections. Ruffin is the winner of the Iowa Review Award in fiction and the Louisiana Writer Award. Ruffin is an associate professor of Creative Writing at Louisiana State University.
Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Ph.D.
Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Ph.D., is the author of three books: Big Girl a New York Times Editors’ Choice and winner of the Balcones Fiction Prize and the Next Generation Indie Book Award for First Novel; The Poetics of Difference: Queer Feminist Forms in the African Diaspora, winner of the William Sanders Scarborough Prize from the MLA; and the short story collection, Blue Talk and Love, winner of the Judith Markowitz Award from Lambda Literary. She has earned honors from Bread Loaf, the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, the Mellon Foundation, the Center for Fiction, the NEA and others. Originally from Harlem, NY, she is Professor of English at Georgetown University in Washington DC.
OlaRonke Akinmowo
OlaRonke Akinmowo is an interdisciplinary artist that specializes in collage, papermaking, printmaking, stop motion animation and interactive installation. In 2015 she started The Free Women’s Library, a social art project that features a collection of 4000 books written by Black women. This particular work is fueled by the tenants of Black Feminism, Community Care, and the transformative power of both reading and creating.
The Pickney Players were established in Kingston, Jamaica by Artistic Director Malika Lee Whitney. Presently based in NYC the group is comprised of talented artists who are widely known for their extensive versatility as theater performers, poets, writers, authors, dancers, musicians, singers, artmakers radio hosts, and double dutch Coaches. The Pickney Players have performed throughout a wide base of local, national and global locations. In terms of the company base in NYC invitations to venues include Aaron Davis Hall, Apollo, International African Arts Festival, Summerstage Kids, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Newark Symphony Hall, The Public Theater, Theater for the New City, Maine Arts Festival, Wave Hill, Harlem School of the Arts, New York Historical Society, Studio Museum, The Schomburg Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of the Chinese in the Americas, American Museum of Natural History, Bank Street College,Princeton University, Hunter College, Bronx Community College, CUNY, Fordham University, New York Live Arts, and numerous public, private, charter schools, libraries,youth and senior centers.
Raquel Willis is an award-winning author, activist, and media strategist dedicated to collective liberation, especially for Black trans folks. She is the co-founder of the Gender Liberation Movement and an executive producer with iHeartMedia's first-ever LGBTQ+ podcast network, Outspoken. Raquel hosts two podcast series: AfterLives and Queer Chronicles. She is also the author of The Risk it Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation, which was published via St. Martin's Press in November of 2023 to critical acclaim. Raquel served as the Grand Marshal for NYC Pride in 2024 and was honored as one of TIME's Women of the Year and the TIME100 for 2025.
Rio Cortez is the New York Times bestselling author of picture books for children, including The ABCs of Black History and The River Is My Ocean. Her debut poetry collection, Golden Ax, was longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award for Poetry and the PEN Open Book Award. She currently works at HarperCollins, where she endeavors to amplify and strengthen support for BIPOC writers through retail marketing strategy. Born & raised in Salt Lake City, she lives and writes in Harlem, USA.
Seph Rodney
Seph Rodney, PhD, is a former senior critic and opinion editor for Hyperallergic. He has written for the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, and other publications. He is featured on the podcast The American Age. His book, The Personalization of the Museum Visit, was published by Routledge in 2019. In 2020 he won the Rabkin Arts Journalism Prize. In 2022 he won the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant.
Samiya Bashir is the author of four poetry collections, including Field Theories, winner of the Oregon Book Award. Her newest book, I Hope This Helps, called her “magnum opus” by Jericho Brown, was just released this Spring from Nightboat Books. A sought-after editor, teacher, and writing coach, Bashir serves as the June Jordan Visiting Scholar at Columbia University.
Shamira Ibrahim
Shamira Ibrahim is a Brooklyn-based culture writer by way of
Harlem, Canada, and East Africa who explores identity and cultural production as a critic, reporter, feature/profile writer, and essayist. Her work has been featured in publications such as New York magazine, Essence, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, BuzzFeed, Vox, OkayAfrica, The Root, Mic, The Baffler, and Harper’s Bazaar.
Sharon Gordon is an author, actress, producer, host, media personality, and advocate known for her ability to inspire and empower through storytelling. With a dynamic career spanning decades, Gordon’s work is a testament to the power of resilience and authenticity. Born in Kingston, JA -Sharon migrated to New York in her teenage years. Sharon’s exceptional work has garnered her numerous accolades, cementing her legacy as a cultural ambassador and community icon. Among her many honors and awards. She is the winner of 2025 “What’s Your Story, Jamaica?" 4th annual storytelling competition.
Slick Rick, born in London, England, is an iconic rapper and storyteller whose contributions to hip-hop have left an indelible mark on the genre. Known for his smooth delivery, witty lyrics, and distinctive eyepatch, Slick Rick's unique style and storytelling abilities have made him a revered figure in the music industry. At a young age, Slick Rick and his family moved to the Bronx, New York, where he was exposed to the burgeoning hip-hop culture of the 1970s and 1980s. Drawing inspiration from his Jamaican heritage and the vibrant urban landscape, Slick Rick developed a unique narrative style that would set him apart from his peers. In 1985, Slick Rick joined forces with Doug E. Fresh, and their collaboration produced the timeless hit single "The Show" and its iconic B-side "La Di Da Di." Slick Rick's debut album, "The Great Adventures of Slick Rick" (1988), further solidified his status as a master storyteller. Tracks like "Children's Story" and "Mona Lisa" showcased his ability to weave intricate narratives and captivate listeners with his vivid and humorous storytelling. Slick Rick's impact on hip-hop is a testament to the power of storytelling and the enduring influence of a true musical genius.
The Soapbox Presents
THE SOAPBOX PRESENTS is a platform, literally and figuratively, for Black and brown expression. Founded by Marija Abney, in response to the murder of George Floyd, The Soapbox Presents creates a space for us to commune, resist, be rejuvenated and revived as we celebrate the brilliance of Black and brown people through the performing arts. Since 2020 we have provided free arts programming to community featuring some of NYC’s most talented artists. From Mahogany L Browne (Lincoln Center’s first poet-in-residence) to Sean Mason (arranger, composer, pianist, and featured guest of the Wynton Marsalis Quintet), The Soapbox Presents gives Black and brown artists the opportunity to give back to their communities. And each and every artist featured on our platform gets paid. We are the recipients of The Mellon Foundation’s Humanities in Place grant 2021-2024, in 2021 we were acknowledged by the United Nations for our work in their inaugural International Day of People of African Descent, in 2022 we were celebrated in the “Positively Black” segment on NBC New York, and most recently in 2023, we received Open Plan’s People’s Choice Award for best activator in their first annual Public Space Awards. We've performed at The Apollo, Symphony Space, and Lincoln Center but most significantly on the street corners and sidewalks of New York City.
Steven G. Fullwood is co-editor of the new anthology, Artists As Writers (with Seph Rodney), which offers 32 succinct first-person narratives by writers of varied genres about the day-to-day life of writing for a living. He is also co-director of the Nomadic Archivists Project (with Miranda Mims), a pioneering initiative that partners with individuals, community groups, organizations, and institutions to establish, preserve, and enhance collections that illuminate the global Black experience.
Tim Fielder is an Illustrator, concept designer, cartoonist, and animator born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and raised in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He has a lifelong love of Visual Afrofutuism, Pulp entertainment, and action films. He holds other Afrofuturists such as Samuel R Delany, Octavia Butler, Pedro Bell, and Overton Lloyd as major influences.
Tina Andrews is an international award-winning writer, producer, director, actress, author, playwright, and visual artist. Her nonfiction book Sally Hemings, An American Scandal won the NAACP Image Award and the Memphis Writers Conference Award of Excellence, and was based on her acclaimed CBS miniseries Sally Hemings: An American Scandal, which she wrote and executive produced. The series, adapted from her play The Mistress of Monticello, was the highest-rated miniseries of its season and earned her the Writers Guild of America Award—making her the first African American to win in the Long Form category—as well as another NAACP Image Award. Tina has acted in over 100 film and TV roles, including Roots, Conrack, and Days of Our Lives, where she originated the role of Valerie Grant in daytime television’s first interracial romance. Her collaboration with mentor Alex Haley led to the PBS miniseries Great Men of African Descent. Recognized with honors including a New York City Council Proclamation, Tina has also appeared on Oprah, CBS This Morning, and Frontline. She divides her time between New York, Los Angeles, and London.
TJ Sterling is an artist, writer and the president and lead artist of RAE Comics, which stands for Red, Arcis, the Latin word for stronghold, fortress or house and Entertainment. RAE Comics features diverse and underrepresented characters that go outside traditional American comics mixed with Eastern philosophies, creating something unique.
Tochi Onyebuchi is the author of Goliath, a Locus Award and Dragon Award finalist, the young adult novel Beasts Made of Night, which won the Ilube Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel by an African, its sequel, Crown of Thunder, and War Girls. His novella Riot Baby, a finalist for the Hugo, the Nebula, the Locus, the Ignyte, and the NAACP Image Awards, won the New England Book Award for Fiction and an ALA Alex Award. He holds a B.A. from Yale, a M.F.A. in screenwriting from the Tisch School of the Arts, a Master's degree in droit économique from Sciences Po, and a J.D. from Columbia Law School.
Tricia Hersey
Tricia Hersey is an artist, poet, theologian, and community organizer. She is the founder of The Nap Ministry, an organization that examines rest as a form of resistance by curating sacred spaces for the community to rest via Collective Napping Experiences, immersive workshops, performance art installations, and social media. Tricia is a global pioneer and originator of the movement to understand the liberatory power of rest. She is the creator of the Rest is Resistance and Rest as Reparations frameworks, and the author of the New York Times bestseller Rest Is Resistance. Her research interests include Black liberation theology, womanism, somatics, and cultural trauma. Tricia is a Chicago native and currently lives in South Georgia.
Vinson Cunningham joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2016. Since 2018, he has served as a critic for the magazine, writing about theatre, television, and more. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2024, and was awarded the George Jean Nathan Award for Drmatic Criticism for 2021-2022. And, in 2020, he was a finalist for a National Magazine Award for his Profile of the comedian Tracy Morgan. He teaches at the Yale School of Art and Columbia University’s School of the Arts, and is a co-host of Critics at Large, The New Yorker’s weekly podcast about culture and the arts. His début novel, “Great Expectations,” came out in 2024.
Wyatt Cenac is an Emmy Award–winning comedian known for the HBO late-night comedy docuseries Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas. Additional credits include aka Wyatt Cenac, People of Earth, and The Daily Show. He’s released four stand-up albums; his 2014 album and Netflix special, Wyatt Cenac: Brooklyn, was nominated for a Grammy. Cenac was a writer for Mike Judge’s King of the Hill, served as a consultant for South Park, and wrote an animated musical starring Steve Urkel . . . Yes, that Steve Urkel. Every now and again he pops up in a film, most notably Barry Jenkins’s Medicine for Melancholy.
Yahdon Israel is a senior editor at Simon Schuster and founder of Literaryswag, a cultural movement that intersects literature and fashion to make books accessible. He brings an entrepreneurial spirit to these pursuits as the founder of a popular book club, host of a literary podcast, creative writing teacher, event producer, as well as his work in support of several prestigious literary awards.
Yasmin Angoe is the Anthony Award-nominated author of the critically acclaimed Nena Knight Series, including Her Name is Knight, They Come at Knight, and It Ends with Knight, and the bestselling domestic psychological thriller, Not What She Seems. Hailing from Northern Virginia, Angoe is a first-generation Ghanaian American who grew up in two cultural worlds. She taught English in middle and high schools for years and served as an instructional coach for virtual teachers. She now writes fiction fulltime and freelances as a development editor. Yasmin lives in South Carolina with her husband their four children.
Zenzele Z. Johnson at the core is a memory processor, arts educator, and writer born and raised in Harlem, New York. Her work sits at the intersections of visual culture in amplifying media/digital literacy, archival processes, and Black pasts and futures. She has managed youth programs rooted in advocacy, media literacy, production, exhibition design, and curation. She has worked alongside community-based nonprofits and arts and culture organizations throughout New York City including Harlem Children’s Zone, The Learning About Multimedia Project (LAMP), The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Apollo Theater, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She received her B.A. in Sociology, English, and Pan-African Studies from Drew University.