A poet, musician, educator, and curator, Yolanda Wisher is the author of Monk Eats an Afro. She served as inaugural Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and as the third Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. A Pew and Cave Canem Fellow, she received the Leeway Foundation’s Transformation Award for her commitment to art for social change and was named a Philadelphia Cultural Treasures Artist Fellow. Wisher performs a blend of poetry and song with her band, Yolanda Wisher & The Afroeaters, and works as Senior Curator at Monument Lab.

V. Shayne Frederick executes sound design and composition for short film, commercial, and podcasts. As a pianist, vocalist and bandleader with public and critical acclaim, he performs internationally.