Naomi Jackson is the author of The Star Side of Bird Hill, published by Penguin Press in June 2015. She studied fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Jackson traveled to South Africa on a Fulbright scholarship, where she received an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. A graduate of Williams College, her work has appeared in literary journals and magazines in the United States and abroad. She is the recipient of residencies from the University of Pennsylvania’s Kelly Writers House, Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, and the Camargo Foundation. (Photo credit: Lola Flash)

Lisa Harewood is a Barbadian filmmaker and writer/director of Auntie, a short developed by the Commonwealth Foundation in 2013 and acquired by National Black Programming Consortium for its AfroPop series. The film has inspired an oral history project, Barrel Stories, which will document and share the experiences of Caribbean parents and children separated by migration. She previously produced a feature film which was nominated for Best First Feature at Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles. She holds an M.A. from Warwick University and trained in Independent Producing at MetFilm School, both in the UK. 

Kyla Searle is an artist, producer and activist. Kyla seeks out inquiry and intersection, inspired by the creativity of the community that raised her in Berkeley and Oakland, California. Her work and practice have been developed through the Institute for Theatre in the Jazz Aesthetic, the Hemispheric EmergeNYC Program, the Institute for Arts and Civic Dialogue, and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. She lives in New York City.

Tourmaline (f.k.a. Reina Gossett) is an activist, writer, and artist and the 2014-2016 Activist-In-Residence at Barnard College’s Center for Research on Women. As the membership director at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project from 2010 to 2014, Tourmaline worked to lift the voice and power of trans and gender non-conforming people. Prior to joining the Sylvia Rivera Law Project Tourmaline worked at Queers for Economic Justice where she directed the Welfare Organizing Projected and produced A Fabulous Attitude, which documents low-income LGBT New Yorkers surviving inequality and thriving despite enormous obstacles.

Sasha Wortzel is a filmmaker, media artist, and educator working in video, installation, sound, and performance. Her work explores marginalized collective and personal histories in relation to space, gender, and desire. Her debut feature documentary, WE CAME TO SWEAT premiered at Newfest at the Lincoln Center in July 2014. She has presented work at the Berlin International Film Festival, Outfest LA, Newfest, Tribeca Interactive, Leslie Lohman Museum, A.I.R. Gallery, and the Guggenheim Lab. Her work has been supported by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and she was a 2012-2013 fellow of filmmaker Ira Sach’s Queer/Art/Mentorship. She received her MFA from Hunter College. With Reina Gossett, she is currently directing Happy Birthday, Marsha! – a narrative short film about best friends and pioneering transgender rights activists, Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, in the hours before the 1969 Stonewall Riots.