Keynote Griot
Danez Smith
Danez Smith is the author of four collections including Don’t Call Us Dead, Homie, and most recently Bluff, a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. They are also the curator of Blues In Stereo: The Early Works of Langston Hughes. For their work, Danez won the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry (twice), the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, a Pushcart Prize and was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award (twice), the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award. Danez is proud Black, Queer, HIV-Positive poet who writes from those intersections about love, community, pleasure, politics, mental health, our responsibility to the future, and all the shimmering, complex things that make us human.Danez has received fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, United States Artist, The National Endowment for The Arts, Princeton University, Cave Canem, and more. Danez lives in the Twin Cities with their people and teaches at the Randolph College MFA program and the Black Youth Healing Arts Center in St. Paul, MN. Their fifth collection of poems, Love Time, will be published in September 2027.
Highlighted Griots
Derrick Barnes
Derrick Barnes is a National Book Award Finalist for his 2022 graphic novel Victory. Stand!-Raising My Fist For Justice, which also won the 2023 YALSA Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Award, and a Coretta Scott King Award Author Honor. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed, multi-award-winning picture book Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut which received a Newbery Honor, a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer…
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Ericka Hart
Ericka Hart (pronouns: she/they) is a Black queer non-binary femme activist, writer and award-winning sexuality educator with a Master’s of Education in Human Sexuality from Widener University. Ericka’s work broke ground when she went topless showing her double mastectomy scars in public in 2016. Since then, she has been in demand at colleges and universities across the country, featured in countless digital and print publications like Vogue, Washington Post, Allure, Harper’s Bazaar, VICE, PAPER Mag,…
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Roni Nicole
Roni Nicole (they/them) is a Black, Afro-Latinx, Southern multidisciplinary artist, writer, playwright, cultural worker, organizer, and storyteller whose work explores memory, identity, grief, liberation, rest, and the ways our bodies carry ancestral and communal histories. Born in Houston and raised in the Carolinas, their creative practice is deeply rooted in Black Southern and Afro-Latinx storytelling traditions and in the belief that art can serve as both witness and pathway toward collective transformation. Roni is the…
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Samara B. Davis
Queen of Cups by day; High Priestess at night. Samara B. Davis is a writer, intuitive practitioner, and Sacred Companion. Nearly a decade ago, she fell in love with journaling and automatic writing, developing a daily practice that became a source of healing, self-discovery, and eventually, a doorway into her intuitive gifts. What began as thoughts on a page grew into a deeper practice of listening—to herself, to others, and to the Divine—and ultimately transformed…
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Meet the Griots
Aaliyah Wright
Aallyah Wright is an award-winning rural issues reporter at Capital B, where she tells community-centered stories about Black life in the South. Her impactful reporting helped bring the Hollywood production of Ryan Coogler's Sinners to Mississippi last year. Beyond her…
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Abriana Johnson
Abriana Johnson is a brand strategist, author, and coach with a passion for horses and an eye for design. She uses her love of technology and strategy to help horse industry professionals build impactful brands and digital experiences that build…
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Ariel Seay
Dr. Ariel E. Seay is a rhetoric scholar who investigates how the public remembers slavery and racial violence through memory spaces and material objects. Her research agenda is motivated by the desire to understand how racial violence has and continues…
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Asiah Mae
AsiahMae, stylized A$iahMae, (they/she) is a spirit of curiosity first and immediately after a Black, Southern, Non-binary writer, cultural worker and student of the land. A trans-disciplinary artist, their background spans across film, curation, production, performance and language arts. Their…
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B. Sharise Moore
B. Sharise Moore is a multi-genre author, teaching artist, lecturer, workshop facilitator, and Poetry Editor for FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction. In 2021, MV Media released her YA Afrofuturist novel, Dr. Marvellus Djinn’s Odd Scholars and in 2022, she…
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Britny Cordera
Britny Cordera is a published poet, nonfiction writer and emerging journalist who investigates the intersections of environment, climate change and (pop) culture. Currently, she is an intern at St. Louis Public Radio. Cordera's work can be found in Grist Fix,…
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Cynthia Harbor
Cynthia Harbor is a writer, cultural advocate, and founder of KnowledgeMaven Media, a woman-owned creative media studio working at the intersection of culture, care, advocacy, and legacy. She is also the founder of the South Island Gullah Geechee Project, an…
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Danielle P. Williams
Danielle P. Williams is a queer, Black and CHamoru poet, essayist, translator, and spoken-word artist from Columbia, SC, based in Los Angeles. Her work interweaves personal and historical narratives, exploring identity, culture, and the human experience, revealing contemporary forms that…
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Dasan Ahanu
Dasan Ahanu is an award-winning poet, playwright, cultural organizer, performing artist, and scholar. He is a Southern storyteller who uses stories to deepen our understanding and awareness of what's happening around us. Dasan has been a visiting lecturer at various…
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Donovan Livingston
Donovan Livingston, PhD is an educator and emcee whose research broadly explores the impact of hip-hop lyricism and poetics on student success in K-12 and higher education. Donovan currently serves as a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Music…
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Dr. angela gay-audre
Dr. angela gay-audre (she/they) is a Black feminist and womanist qualitative researcher, storyteller, and truth seeker. She is a 16+ year higher education professional. As a racial equity practitioner she is a multi-hyphenate thinker, creator, and interdisciplinary scholar. They currently…
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Dr. Ebony Toussaint
EBONY TOUSSAINT, born in Beaufort, South Carolina is a multidisciplinary writer and research scientist whose work blends graphic storytelling, speculative imagination, and cultural inquiry. She is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Nursing at Bowie…
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Dr. Joanna Davis-McElligatt
Dr. Joanna Davis-McElligatt is an Associate Professor of Black Literary and Cultural Studies and Associate Director of the School of Creative Writing and Performing Arts at the University of North Texas. She is the author of Black Aliens: Kinship in…
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Dr. Neal A. Lester
Neal A. Lester, PhD, is Foundation Professor of English and Founding Director of the multiple award-winning Project Humanities initiative at Arizona State University. With expertise in African American literature and culture, Dr. Lester has authored or edited nine books and…
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Dr. Regina N. Bradley
Professor of English and African Diaspora Studies Dr. Regina N. Bradley is an award-winning writer and researcher of the Black American South. She is an alumna Nasir Jones HipHop Fellow (Hutchins Center, Harvard University, Spring 2016), Associate Professor of English…
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Dr. Shaquinta Richardson
Dr. Shaquinta Richardson is a radical nerd with hood roots, a Southern Black woman and lifelong fantasy novel reader who believes storytelling is one of our oldest tools for liberation. She is a Professor and Director of Clinical Training in…
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Dr. Thomishia "Mishi" Booker
Thomishia Booker is CEO/ Owner of Hey Carter! Incorporated. She began writing her first series in 2016 called “Hey Carter! Children’s Book Series. She is passionate about diversity and inclusion in children’s entertainment. Her book “Brown Boy Joy” has been…
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D’Angelo Dia
de’Angelo Dia is a theopoet and mystic whose work explores sacred imagination and prophetic witness through poetry and sound installation. Rooted in Black liberation theology and Southern Gothic literature, his practice draws from contemplative spirituality, embodied poetics, and Gullah mythology.…
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Halle Hill
Halle Hill is the author of Good Women (Hub City Press, 2023), a powerful short story collection exploring the interior lives, humor, and resilience of Southern women. Her fiction has been translated into French and published in journals including Joyland,…
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Kim B. Miller
Kim B Miller is an award-winning, internationally featured poet, author, keynote speaker and Poet Laureate Emerita who uses the power of words to spark reflection, accountability, and bold action. She made history as the first and only Black Poet Laureate…
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Kwame Mbalia
Kwame Mbalia is a husband, father, writer, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author, former pharmaceutical metrologist and the publisher of Freedom Fire — an imprint from Disney-Hyperion featuring stories of Black resilience and joy. His debut middle grade novel,…
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LeJuane Bowens
LeJuane “El’Ja” Bowens is an award-winning spoken word poet, author, host, arts educator, cultural programmer, and community advocate whose work bridges storytelling, culture, and community empowerment. Born in Detroit and raised in Lima, Ohio, he served six years in the…
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Mareisha N. Winters Reese
Mareisha N. Winters Reese is an author, speaker, and organizational change practitioner whose work explores race, workplace culture, Black fatigue, and Black healing and wellness. She is president and chief operating officer of The Winters Group, a global organizational development…
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Michael Carter Jr.
Michael Carter Jr. is an 11th generation farmer in the United States and is the 5th generation to farm on Carter Farms, his family’s century farm in Orange County, Virginia where he conducts workshops, events and culturally enriching experiences intersecting…
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Nadia Alexis
Nadia Alexis is a poet, writer, and photographer born in Harlem to Haitian immigrants. She is the author of the hybrid debut poetry collection, Beyond the Watershed (CavanKerry Press), which was a finalist for the 2026 Nossrat Yassini Poetry Prize…
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Regina Carter Garcia
Regina Yvette Carter Garcia is an award-winning poet, language artist, and English professor based in Greenville, North Carolina.Professional BackgroundCurrent Role: She works as an English professor at Pitt Community College in Greenville, North Carolina. Author of poetry collections The Firetalker's…
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Robert Green
Robert Greene II is an Associate Professor of History at Claflin University. He is co-editor, along with Tyler D. Parry, of Invisible No More: The African American Experience at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Greene II is also the…
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Sonia McCallum
Sonia K McCallum is a poet, memorist, a 500 hr registered yoga teacher, a healing facilitator, and Matriarch of Ilayata's House: A nonprofit cultural collective, library, and studio retreat space in Huntersville, NC. She is the writing program coordinator for…
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Tamela J. Gordon
Tamela Julia Gordon is a New York based writer, editor, and literacy activist. She is currently the Literary Ambassador for Alice Fields Community Center in the Bronx, while working on her second book.Her first book, Hood Wellness: Tales of Communal…
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Tara Pringle Jefferson
Tara Pringle Jefferson is author of Bloom How You Must: A Black Woman’s Guide to Self-Care and Generational Healing (Amistad/HarperCollins), a multigenerational communal memoir exploring the historical and cultural legacy of holistic wellness among Black women and the women who…
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Tayler Simon
Tayler Simon is a writer, artist, book lover turned bookseller, social worker, and seeker of liberation for all. She comes from southern roots, raised by three generations of love warriors. She is the owner of Liberation is Lit, a bookseller…
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Thomas Kneeland
Thomas Kneeland is a Black poet-scholar who writes at the intersection of ancestry, intergenerational healing, and ecological memory. A recent recipient of the Edward Stanley Award for poems published in Prairie Schooner, his publication credits include Obsidian: Literature & Arts…
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Tonya Abari
Tonya Abari is a Nashville-based independent journalist, author, and collaborator. With a wide range of reporting interests including Black maternal health, food, climate/environment, and culture, her words have been featured in the The Nashville Banner, Prism Reports, The Economic Hardship…
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Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts
As a writer, editor, educator and entrepreneur, Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts (also writing under T.M. Giggetts) offers those who hear her speak and read her work an authentic experience; an opportunity to explore the intersection of identity (race, class, and culture),…
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Yalonda J.D. Green
Yalonda JD Green, PhD (she/her) is a Delaware-based transdisciplinary performer, educator, and librarian whose experiments often encircle the lives and afterlives of Black women and their girlhoods. As vocalist and conceptual artist, she explores the nexus of song, communal memory,…
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Eric Thompson
Biography coming soon.
