Community Building and Belonging
Omkari Williams is the author of Micro Activism: How You Can Make a Difference in the World (Without a Bullhorn). Though she has an affinity for supporting activists who identify as introverted or highly sensitive, as she does, she welcomes all people into the world of micro activism, a sustainable path to changemaking.
“More often than not conversations about autism are led by people who parent autistic children or care for an autistic person in their life. While these are important pathways to collective understanding, autistic people themselves can no longer afford to be left out of the discourse.”
Jezz Chung is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores personal and collective change through the lens of race, gender, trauma, disability, and neurodivergence.
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. In 2014, for his uncle’s 90th anniversary, Trevor coordinated the street naming of "James Baldwin Place" on the Harlem block where Uncle Jimmy and all his siblings attended elementary school. He later began working with his Godmother’s Dr. Maya Angelou estate on media-related properties such as the PBS documentary "Maya Angelou and Still I Rise." Working with the estates of two literary icons has made him a natural purveyor of legacy as their inspirational lives and contributions have become increasingly more relevant in today's society. In honor of his uncle's centennial and in conjunction with Penguin Random House, he executive produced the Baldwin 100 Podcast, a series examining the author’s work and personal life in discussion with luminary guests such as Eddie Glaude, Jr., Roxanne Gay and Billy Dee Williams. Current projects include guiding the Baldwin 101 initiative, a call to return to James Baldwin’s core works and share their continued resonance with the world, which soft launched in 2025. Trevor recently founded Baldwin United, a family-operated non-profit family Collective Action Fund created to promote their uncle's legacy through art, literacy and social justice. He enjoys cultivating community leadership, advocating for the literary arts, and instilling the tenants of cultural stewardship in others.
Dr. Wendy Pearlman is a scholar of Middle East politics and author of the critically-acclaimed We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria, a breath-taking mosaic of first-hand Syrian testimonials that chronicles the Syrian uprising, war and refugee crisis. Drawn from hundreds of interviews with displaced Syrians, the book was longlisted for the American Library Association’s Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. We Crossed a Bridge concludes with the flight of millions of refugees. Wendy’s follow-up book, The Home I Worked to Make: Voices from the New Syrian Diaspora (2024), takes this exodus as its point of departure. Featuring a completely new cast of subjects now on five continents, it presents gripping testimonials about losing home, searching for home, and forging new understandings of home itself. Recasting “refugee crises” as diaspora-making, The Home I Worked to Make challenges readers to grapple with the hard-won wisdom of those who survive war and to see, with fresh eyes, what home means in their own lives. Wendy earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University, an MA from Georgetown University, and a BA from Brown University and is currently a Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University. Frequently invited to give guest lectures on the Middle East, Wendy is a compelling speaker who has delivered hundreds of talks on four continents, making the most complex topics accessible to any audience.
Gloria is a Colombian American writer, translator, and advocate for multilingual literacy. She is the author of This is the Year, Your Biome Has Found You, and Danzirly, which won the Ambroggio Prize and the Gold Medal Florida Book Award. Her other honors include an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate Fellowship, Hedgebrook Fellowship, being a Macondista, Highlights Foundation’s Diverse Verse Fellowship, Lumina’s Multilingual Writing Award, and a part of Las Musas. She is proud to be St. Pete's first Latina poet laureate.
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.
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.
Myisha Cherry is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. She is also the Director of the Emotion and Society Lab. She speaks widely on the topics of emotions and race. Cherry’s books include UnMuted: Conversations on Prejudice, Oppression, and Social Justice, The Case for Rage: Why Anger is Essential to Anti-racist Struggle, and Failures of Forgiveness: What We Get Wrong and How to Do Better (released on September 19, 2023).
Tiffany Jewell is a Black biracial writer, twin sister, first generation American, cisgender mama, anti-bias antiracist (ABAR) educator, and consultant. She is the author of the #1 New York Times and #1 Indie Bestseller, This Book Is Anti-Racist, a book for young folks and everyone to wake up, take action, and do the work of becoming antiracist.
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. In 2022, Baldwin was named a Freedom Scholar by the Marguerite Casey Foundation for his work in racial and economic justice.
Born in Harlem to Dominican parents, Raquel Cepeda is an award-winning journalist, cultural activist, podcaster, documentary filmmaker, and author. She travels widely to speak to audiences about identity, inequality, and rethinking the “American Dream.”
"My job isn’t to dwell in the past—it’s to present the truth of it, connect it to today, and offer people a path forward that is honest, healing, and full of promise."
Lee Hawkins is an American investigative journalist and author who was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2022. He is the author of I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free (HarperCollins, January 2025), a critically acclaimed memoir that traces 400 years of his Black American family’s history through slavery, Jim Crow apartheid, and the intergenerational trauma that followed. Raised in Maplewood, Minnesota and the historic Rondo community of St. Paul, Hawkins has long been a committed advocate for nonviolent social change inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He organized annual MLK birthday marches and received the Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award from Minnesota’s King Holiday Commission. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Through fearless storytelling and deep historical research, Lee Hawkins offers a powerful and original voice—one committed to inspire truth and healing in communities across the country and around the world.
John Jennings is a professor, author, graphic novelist, curator, Harvard Fellow, New York Times Bestseller, 2018 Eisner Winner, and winner of the Hugo Award for his co-adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s dystopian novel The Parable of the Sower. As Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside (UCR), Jennings examines the visual culture of race in various media forms including film, illustrated fiction, and comics and graphic novels. He is also the director of Abrams ComicArts imprint Megascope, which publishes graphic novels focused on the experiences of people of color. He speaks widely on representation, cultural activism, and community narratives.
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. Her latest book, The Vice President’s Black Wife: The Untold Life of Julia Chinn (Ferris & Ferris, 2023) confronts historical erasure and provides a framework for healing. Dr. Myers regularly provides talks and professional development workshops to community organizers and other groups.
Britt Hawthorne (they/she) is the author of the highly-anticipated, New York Times Bestseller, Raising Antiracist Children: A Practical Parenting Guide (Simon Element, 2022). Britt is also an antiracist educator, teacher, speaker, visionary, and advocate committed to raising a generation of antiracist children by centering families of the global majority and fostering equitable learning environments for students and children of all ages and backgrounds.
“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.
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.