Dr. Christy Garrison-Harrison’s primary research foci are transdisciplinary explorations of the American South (with a concentration on Black women’s political leadership and influence upon economically developing Black communities within the region,) Black Womanist Geographies, and the cultural dynamics of White American matriarchy. Secondary research interests include Afro-Latinx community advocacy and Black Women in colonial Europe and America. 

Dr. Garrison-Harrison is currently completing a monograph on Black women’s community activism in Georgia and Louisiana during the modern Civil Rights’ Movement era, a chapter on southern Black femininities for a musicology study, developing a manuscript on antebellum matriarchal culture, and working on producing a documentary short about three southern Black women activists. She is planning to launch a production company that spotlights films centering women of color and their activism.

Recent publications include co-authoring Remembering Jacqueline Anne Rouse, 1950–2020: Scholarship, Educational Advocacy, and Mentoring as Audacious Leadership. Articles awaiting publication include an institutional biographical essay on the history of Southern University and Agricultural & Mechanical College for an Emory University Historically Black College and Universities (HBCU) project and a study examining the necessity of interjecting a Black Womanist Geographies’ framework into social science research paradigms. 
 

Bakari Kitwana is an internationally known cultural critic, journalist, activist, and thought leader in the areas of hip-hop and Black youth political engagement. The Executive Director of Rap Sessions: Community Dialogues on Hip-Hop, which for the last seventeen years has conducted over 150 townhall meetings around the nation on difficult dialogues facing the millennial generation, Kitwana has been the Editor-in-Chief of The Source magazine, the Editorial Director of Third World Press, and co-founder of the 2004 National Hip-Hop Political Convention. In 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was co-founder of the Hip-Hop Political Education Summit, which convened two major virtual gatherings.

The author of the groundbreaking books The Hip-Hop Generation (2002) and Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop (2005), Kitwana is co-editor of Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government For the People (The New Press, 2020) and the collaborating writer for pioneering hip-hop artist Rakim’s memoir Sweat The Technique: Revelations on Creativity From The Lyrical Genius (Amistad/HarperCollins, 2019).

Currently a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Buffalo, Bakari has been the 2019-2020 Nasir Jones HipHop Fellow at Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, Artist-in-Residence at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago, and a visiting scholar at both Kent State University and Columbia College of Chicago. A former Columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Kitwana has contributed writing to numerous publications and anthologies, including the 2021 New York Times best-selling anthology 400 Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 (Edited by Ibram Kendi and Keisha Blain, One World/Random House, 2021).

M. Nicole Horsley is an Associate Professor of African Diaspora Studies and affiliated faculty member in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Screen Cultures. A visual and sonic culture scholar, she specializes in discourses about power, race, gender, affect, ontologies, sensory culture, excessiveness, and indulgence. Her research focuses on African diaspora and African American art aesthetics and material culture, Hip Hop feminism, cinema, and eroticism. With a critical eye toward power dynamics and cultural mythologies, she challenges conventional narratives and reframes the past through scholarship, activism, and experimental art practices. Producing collages, digital art, and sound pieces, pushing boundaries, and exploring new possibilities for exploring the meaning of erotic sovereignty and humanity. She enjoys indulging in nostalgic 90s R&B music videos and crafting liberatory projects with collaborators in the Pleasure Lab. Currently, she is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University at Buffalo and heralds from South Central Los Angeles.

Nicole has a PhD in African American and African Diaspora Studies and Film and Media from Indiana University, Bloomington. 

Schondra Aytch is a writer, blogger, and curator covering all things music and culture in Buffalo, NY, and beyond. Most known for creating the burgeoning hip-hop and R&B media platform Sneakvibing, Schondra has written for multiple publications within Western New York, including Cornelia Magazine, Buffalo Magazine, Beau Fleuve Music + Arts, Buffalo Spree, and The Public. Schondra is a current contributing writer for The Challenger News. You can learn more about her at sneakvibing.com.