KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Poet, Educator, Publisher, Emmy Award Winning Producer & New York Times Bestselling Author Known for "The Crossover"

Award-Winning Author, Known for "The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore"

Author & Managing Director of The Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University

Contributing Editor at Catapult & Author of "This Will Be My Undoing"

Artist, Poet & Author

Co-Founder of Very Smart Brothas & Author of "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker"

Poet Laureate of Philadelphia

Award-Winning Poet & Multimedia Artist

Author of "Heads of the Colored People"

Co-Founder & COO of Blavity

New York Times Best-Selling Author of "The Tourists" & "The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace"

Award-Winning Author of "Halsey Street" & "What’s Mine and Yours"

Award-Winning Children's Book Author & Illustrator

Spoken Word Artist, Slam Poet & Social Justice Activist

Former Editor-In-Chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine; New York Times Best-Selling Author

Award-Winning Poet' Displacement & Belonging Advocate; Author of "Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth"

Pulitzer Prize & National Book Award-Winning Author; Best Known for "The Color Purple"

Actress, Author, and Philanthropist

"Shark Tank" Investor; Founder & CEO of FUBU; Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship

Founder & Executive Director of the Freedom Writers Foundation; Education Reform Advocate