Black Culture and History

Trevor Baldwin was born, raised and currently lives in New York City. His father Wilmer, brother of James Baldwin, taught guitar at Harlem School of the Arts and his mother Helen was a CUNY professor and the Executive Director of Minisink Townhouse and Camp. Surrounded by arts and infused with education as a cultural foundation, Trevor is an offspring of Harlem's rich heritage. A graduate of The Fieldston School, Morehouse College and New York Film Academy, Trevor works in public relations. He is also a screenwriter and producer with multiple projects in development. As a writer, he’s contributed to various online publications including Gawker, Blavity, VIBE, Global Grind, NewsOne and the Huffington Post.

"The beauty and promise of America lies in our ability to confront even the most painful parts of our history—not to shame ourselves, but to better understand who we are and who we still have the power to become."

Lee Hawkins is an American investigative journalist and author who was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2022. His most recent work, I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free, is an introspective journey into his family history, tracing its roots to pre-Revolutionary America.

Dr. Davarian L. Baldwin (he/him) is an internationally recognized scholar, historian, and public advocate. He is the Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies and Founding Director of the Smart Cities Research Lab at Trinity College. A foremost expert on Black social movements and African American history, he is often called upon to consult on everything from the politics of reparations to the global impact of the Harlem Renaissance. His academic and political commitments have focused on global cities and particularly the diverse and marginalized communities that struggle to maintain sustainable lives in urban locales. Baldwin is the award-winning author of several books.

Jasmine Brown began writing TWICE AS HARD when she was twenty-two. A 2018 recipient of the Rhodes Scholarship, she used her time at the University of Oxford to complete the in-depth research and oral histories synthesized in this book. She graduated from Oxford with Merit, earning an M.Phil. in History of Science, Medicine, and Technology. Brown leverages her connection to her topic to create a work that is both immensely well-researched and personal.

Anthony R. Keith, Jr., Ph.D. (Tony) is a Black, gay spoken word artist, poet, and Hip-Hop educator. His debut, How the Boogeyman Became a Poet, is a powerful YA memoir in verse, tracing his journey from being a closeted gay Black teen battling poverty, racism, and homophobia to becoming an openly gay first-generation college student who finds freedom in poetry.

An award-winning illustrator and scholar of black comics, John is a Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside; he is also the publisher of Megascope, an imprint of Abrams ComicArts dedicated to publishing works exploring the experiences of people of color. He speaks widely on the subjects of Afrofuturism and Black Comix.

Joel Christian Gill is the Inaugural Chair of Boston University’s Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Visual Narrative and Associate Professor in the CFA School of Visual Arts. He is also a cartoonist and historian who speaks nationally on the importance of sharing stories. He is the author of the acclaimed memoir Fights: One Boy's Triumph Over Violence, cited as one of the best graphic novels of 2020 by The New York Times and for which he was awarded the 2021 Cartoonist Studio Prize.

Amrita is an award-winning historian, journalist, activist and commentator whose work examines the intersections of race, gender, power, and freedom, specifically focusing on the lives of enslaved and free black women.

From VIBE editor-in-chief to Stanford Fellow to the New York Times —decode culture with America's most astute pop chronicler. Award-winning journalist Danyel Smith is author of the critically-acclaimed Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop (One World / Penguin Random House, April 2022). Danyel is also creator/host of the popular Black Girl Songbook, a podcast that centers the sounds and stories of black women (Spotify Original).

Kai Harris is the author of the acclaimed debut novel What the Fireflies Knew (Tiny Reparations, 2022), a Silicon Valley 2023 Read, A Marie Claire Book Club pick as well as being an NAACP Image Award nominee and longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. She is a writer and educator from Detroit, Michigan, who uses her voice to uplift the Black community through realistic fiction centered on the Black experience.

Hafizah Augustus Geter is a Nigerian-American poet, writer, and literary agent born in Zaria, Nigeria, and raised in Akron, Ohio, and Columbia, South Carolina. Her debut memoir, The Black Period: On Personhood, Race & Origin, won the 2023 PEN Open Book Award. Hafizah is also the author of the debut poetry collection Un-American, nominated for a 2021 NAACP Image Award, a finalist for the 2021 PEN Open Book Award, and longlisted for the 2021 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize.

Bridgett M. Davis is the award-winning author of the memoirs Love, Rita: An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss, and Legacy and The World According To Fannie Davis: My Mother’s Life In The Detroit Numbers. Davis is also the writer and director of the 1998 award-winning feature film Naked Acts, newly restored by Milestone Films and released in 2024 to critical acclaim, and screening in theaters across the US as well as international venues. She is is Professor Emerita in the Department of Journalism and the Writing Professions at Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center, where she taught creative, narrative and film writing.

“I build technologies that remember—so the world can’t forget. Each line of code holds a testimony, each archive a reckoning. My work gathers what injustice tried to erase, and reimagines what justice has yet to be.”

Dr. Allissa V. Richardson is an award-winning journalist, author, and associate professor at USC Annenberg. She founded the Charlotta Bass Journalism & Justice Lab, where she leads the Second Draft Project—an AI-powered oral history initiative preserving the voices of those impacted by police violence. The three-time Harvard Fellow is the author of Bearing Witness While Black and the forthcoming Canceled (MIT Press). Her work explores reparative journalism, Black witnessing, and the ethics of emerging technologies in media.

Nicholas Buccola is a writer, lecturer, and teacher who specializes in the area of American political thought. He is the author of The Fire Is upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America (Princeton University, 2019) and The Political Thought of Frederick Douglass: In Pursuit of American Liberty (New York University Press, 2012).

Jamilah Pitts is an author, educator, social entrepreneur, and wellness guide whose work centers the liberation, healing and holistic development of communities of the Global Majority. Jamilah has worked and served in various roles and spaces to promote racial justice and healing. Jamilah has served as a teacher, coach, dean, and as an Assistant Principal. She has worked in domestic and international educational spaces. Jamilah partners with schools, communities, universities and organizations to advance the work of racial, social and intersectional justice.

Brando Simeo Starkey is a writer and scholar. A graduate of Harvard Law School and a member of the New York Bar, he taught law at Villanova Law School and wrote for several years for ESPN’s The Undefeated (now Andscape). Born and raised in Cincinnati, he lives in Southern California with his wife and two sons. He has launched a newsletter, The Braveverse, about law, politics, and freedom from caste, at the TheBraveverse.com and a YouTube channel covering the same themes at https://www.youtube.com/@TheBraveverse.