Erik S. McDuffie is Professor in the Departments of African American Studies and History and the Director of the Center for African Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). His research and teaching interests include Black feminism, Black movements, Black internationalism, Black queer theory, urban history, the Midwest, and Global Africa. He is the author of The Second Battle for Africa: Garveyism, the U.S. Heartland, and Global Black Freedom (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2024). The book won the 2024 Jon Gjerde Prize, presented by the Midwestern History Association. His first book Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011) won the 2012 Wesley-Logan Prize from the American Historical Association and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, as well as the 2011 Letitia Woods Brown Award from the Association of Black Women Historians. He is also the author of several scholarly articles and essays published in African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal; African Identities; American Communist History; Biography; Journal of African American History; Journal of West African History; Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International Women of Color; Radical History Review; Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society; and Women, Families, and Children of Color, among other journals and edited volumes. Originally from Detroit, McDuffie is a sixth-generation midwesterner, whose family hails from the United States, Canada, and St. Kitts.

Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs is a 2x New York Times bestselling author and multidisciplinary expert on current and historical understandings of race, gender, and equity. With a Ph.D. in Sociology and a Masters in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies from the University of Cambridge in addition to a Bachelors in Medical Anthropology from Stanford University, Anna translates her academic knowledge into stories that are clear and engaging.

Her articles have been published by TIME Magazine, New York Magazine, CNN, The Guardian, Newsweek and others. Her first book The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of MLK Jr, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation came out in 2021. In addition to becoming a NYT Bestseller,The Three Mothers was a NYT Editors' Choice and an Amazon Editor's Pick, among other accolades. Her second book Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden From Us came out in May of this year and was an instant NYT Bestseller and an instant USA Today Bestseller, it is also an Amazon Editor's Pick and an Amazon Best Book of the Year So Far. Additionally, Anna’s storytelling takes form in her talks, including her TED Talk that has been viewed 2 million times, as well as the scripted and unscripted screen projects she has in development. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their three kids.

Patrick Parr is the author of three books, most recently “Malcolm Before X,” which Kirkus Reviews praised as being “the definitive story of Malcolm’s youth and early adulthood.” He is also the author of One Week in America: The 1968 Notre Dame Literary Festival and a Changing Nation and The Seminarian: Martin Luther King Jr. Comes of Age. Parr’s work has appeared in The American Prospect, Japan Today and The Atlantic, among others. He lives with his wife near Tokyo and teaches writing at Lakeland University Japan.

Najha Zigbi-Johnson is an independent writer, educator and cultural curator. Her work explores the intersections of the built environment, contemporary art, and social-movement history. She currently teaches at The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York, and was formerly the Director of Institutional Advancement at The Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. Her work has been published by The Cut, New York Magazine, ARTnews, Artforum, Volume Gallery and more. Najha holds a BS and MTS in African and African American comparative religious histories from Guilford College and Harvard Divinity School. She was also a 2021–2022 Community Fellow at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University. Najha was raised in and currently resides in Harlem.