Essence McDowell is a writer, communications strategist and creative director. She is author of Lifting As They Climbed: Mapping A History of Trailblazing Black Women in Chicago, created in collaboration with Mariame Kaba and published by Haymarket books.

Essence is founder of Kemtiyu Arts & Media and cofounder of the Chicago Justice gallery. She has created over 80 public programs, community events, and symposia. She is also an arts leader and curator of numerous exhibitions including 2019 Black Chicago Resists, 2020 Belonging: Place, Power and Impossibilities, and the 2023 Climates of Inequality: Stories of Environmental Justice.

With a vision of centering the legacies and current contributions of Black women in Chicago, Essence has ventured into filmmaking with her debut documentary project, Invisible Giants.

Mariame Kaba is an organizer, educator, librarian/archivist, and prison industrial complex (PIC) abolitionist who is active in movements for racial, gender, and transformative justice. Kaba co-leads Interrupting Criminalization, an organization she cofounded with Andrea Ritchie in 2018.

She has cofounded multiple organizations and projects over the years including Project NIA, We Charge Genocide, the Chicago Freedom School, the Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Young Women, Chicago Alliance to Free Marissa Alexander (now Love & Protect), Just Practice Collaborative, Survived & Punished, Sojourners for Justice Press and For the People Leftist Library Project.

Kaba is the author of the New York Times bestseller We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice (Haymarket Books, 2021) and the national bestseller Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care with Kelly Hayes (Haymarket, 2023) among several other books that offer support and tools for repair, transformation, and moving toward a future without incarceration and policing.

Pilar Audain is the interim executive director for Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation – Greater Chicago (TRHT), housed at The Chicago Community Trust. Pilar’s paternal Trinidadian and maternal Creole roots significantly undergird her lifelong commitment to holistic healing – integrating her ancestral wisdom, the creative arts, and trauma-informed, multicultural practices into her work. Her dedication to addressing the impact of racialized trauma extends beyond institutional spaces; she actively facilitates meditation and spiritual coaching for communities across Chicago. Pilar is also the founder of the Chicago-based nonprofit Wrap Your beYOUty Movement (WYBM), which is dedicated to healing women so they can, in turn, heal their families. Rooted in ancestral practices and creative expression, WYBM provides trauma-informed healing spaces for women, particularly in Chicago’s South and West Side communities. Pilar’s work has been featured on ABC7, WTTW, HGTV, WGN and many other media outlets.

Zetta Elliott is the author of over forty books for young readers, starting with the award-winning picture book Dragons in a Bag, a middle grade fantasy novel, was named an American Library Association Notable Children’s Book and was selected for the 2021 Global Read Aloud.

Her poetry has been published in several anthologies for children and adults; her young adult poetry collection, Say Her Name, won the 2021 Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry. Her 2020 picture book, A Place Inside of Me, was named an ALA Notable Book and a Notable Poetry Book by the National Council of Teachers of English; the illustrator, Noa Denmon, won the Caldecott Honor Award. Her picture book A Song for Juneteenth, illustrated by Denmon, will be published by LBYR in 2026.