Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams is a poet, playwright & performer, graphic artist & designer and founder of: The Midnight Run (an arts-filled, night-time, urban walking experience.), The Rhythm and Poetry Party (The R.A.P Party) which celebrates poetry & hip hop, and Poetry + Film / Hack (P+F/H) which celebrates Poetry and Film. Identity, Displacement & Destiny are reoccurring themes in his work, where he tries to mix the old with the new: traditional African oral storytelling with contemporary poetics, paint with pixel, texture with vector. His books are published by Flipped Eye, Akashic, Nine Arches, Penned In The Margins, Oberon & Methuen.

Anaiis Cisco is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Film and Media Studies and the Phyllis Cohen Rappaport '68 New Century Term Professor of Film and Media Studies at Smith College. Her debut feature film, Drip Like Coffee, is a drama centering on Black women and queer desire. The film made its world premiere at the American Black Film Festival in June 2024 and is currently on the festival circuit. Cisco's previous film work has screened at numerous festivals and has won an array of awards including a 2021-22 Mellon Faculty of Color Working Group fellowship, a 2018 Princess Grace Award, a 2021 Finalist in Film for the Mass Cultural Council and a 2021 Drama League Award nominee.