Guests

Lauren DeJulio Bell
Educator
Co-editor of Growing Up Chicago

Tara Betts
Poet
Contributor in The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry

Todd Brewster
Journalist and Historian
Co-author of Seen and Unseen

J. Nicole Brooks
Actor, Author, and Director
Author of HeLa

Deborah Caldwell-Stone
Library Officer
Program presented by the American Library Association
Representative for the American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom

Soyica Diggs Colbert
Professor, Writer, and Director
Author of Radical Vision: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry

Carlos Cumpián
Poet, Writer, and Editor
Program presented by the Chicago Public Library

Andrew Davis
Journalist and Editor
Executive Editor of Windy City Times

Peter Gwinn
Comedy Writer and Playwright
Emmy Award-winning writer for The Colbert Report

Brooks E. Hefner
Director of Graduate Studies & Professor at James Madison University
Author of Black Pulp: Genre Fiction in the Shadow of Jim Crow

Angela Jackson
Illinois Poet Laureate
Program presented by the Chicago Public Library
Contributor in Where I’m At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry

Mallessa James
Writer
Contributor in The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry

Maxine Hong Kingston
Poet, Memoirist, and Writer
Author of Maxine Hong Kingston: The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, Other Writings

Kelly Lytle Hernández
Thomas E. Lifka Chair of History at the University of California, Los Angeles
Program presented by Chicago Humanities Festival
Author of Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands

Daiva Markelis
Author and Professor
Author of White Field, Black Sheep: A Lithuanian-American Life

Leonard Moore
George Littlefield Professor of American History at the University of Texas at Austin
Program presented by The Newberry Library
Author of Teaching Black History to White People

Natalie Y. Moore
Journalist
Author of The Billboard

Elie Mystal
Correspondent, Editor, and Writer
Author of Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution

Arionne Nettles
Lecturer and Journalist
Host of Is That True? A Kids Podcast About Facts

Elizabeth Nunez
Novelist and Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College
Author of Now Lila Knows

Kristin Pekoll
Program presented by the American Library Association
Author of Beyond Banned Books: Defending Intellectual Freedom throughout Your Library

Imani Perry
Interdisciplinary Scholar
Author of South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

Peter Sagal
Playwright, Author, Journalist, and Radio Host
Host of Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!

Aaron Sorkin
Screenwriter and Playwright
Writer of The West Wing

Craig Stevens
Artist/Academic
Contributor in The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry

Dawn Turner
Author and Journalist
Author of Three Girls from Bronzeville: A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood

Luis Alberto Urrea
Author and Poet
Contributor in Small Odysseys: Selected Shorts Presents 35 New Stories

Johanny Vázquez Paz
Poet
Program presented by the Chicago Public Library
Contributor in Where I’m At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry

Ivy Wilson
Associate Professor
Author of Specters of Democracy: Blackness and the Aesthetics of Nationalism in the Antebellum U.S.