Black History Month (U)

A futurist poet, artist, and astronaut-explorer, Dr. Sian Leo Proctor shares her extraordinary story of breaking barriers and reaching for the stars.

Dr. Sian Leo Proctor is a visionary artist, futurist, and explorer who made history as the first artist officially selected to go to space with the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission—also becoming the first African-American woman to pilot a spaceship. 

<p>A renowned cultural critic who coined the term “Know-Your-Place Aggression,” Koritha Mitchell created the C19 Podcast episode, <em>The N-Word in the Classroom: Just Say No!</em> </p><p>In 2013, Koritha published <em>Love in Action: Noting Similarities Between Lynching Then and Anti-LGBT Violence Now</em>. She found that what lynching and anti-LGBT violence most have in common is the targeted group’s success.

<p>Jessamyn Stanley is an award winning yoga instructor, founder of The Underbelly, and author of <em>Every Body Yoga</em> and <em>Yoke</em>. She empowers her audience of 500k+ to break down barriers: both those that society has set and that they have set for themselves. </p><p>Jessamyn&#39;s work in the wellness space centers around being in community and creating space for students to restore and honor their authentic selves.

<p>Tyler James Williams is the 2023 Golden Globe Winner for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical, Comedy or Drama for his role of ‘Gregory Eddie’ in the hit award-winning series <em>Abbott Elementary.</em></p><p>After hitting it off with Quinta Brunson on <em>A Black Lady Sketch Show</em>, she specifically wrote the Abbott Elementary substitute teacher character with Williams in mind.

<p>Autumn Rose *Miskweminanocsqua (Raspberry Star Woman)* Williams was born and raised on the Shinnecock Reservation in Southampton, New York. She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communications and a Minor in Business.

<p>Dr. Bernice Albertine King is the youngest daughter to the late civil rights leaders Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. She was five years old when her father was assassinated in 1968. </p><p>King answered the call to ministry at the age of seventeen when she gave an address advocating against the South African apartheid to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. In 1985 and again in 1986, she was arrested with her siblings while protesting against apartheid.

<p>An award-winning actor, <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author, and philanthropist, Hill Harper is a celebrity role model with empowering messages of achievement, defining success, effective communication and how to take control of one’s future.</p><p>With seven NAACP Image awards for his work, Harper has appeared in a variety of television and film roles, including Universal Pictures’ 2015 release, <i>The Boy Next Door</i>, on USA Network’s <i>Covert Affairs</i>, and previously, from 2004 to 2013, on the CBS TV drama <i>CSI:

<p>Cliff Albright is a 2020 Soros Equality Fellow and co-founder of Black Voters Matter Fund (and BVM Capacity Building Institute) which builds community and organizational capacity related to Black voting power. </p><p>BVM received national attention in 2017 when they helped mobilize Black voters during the U.S. Senate race between Doug Jones and Roy Moore.

<p>Justin Hansford is a Howard University School of Law Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center. </p><p>Professor Hansford was previously a Democracy Project Fellow at Harvard University, a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, and an Associate Professor of Law at Saint Louis University. He has a B.A. from Howard University and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a founder of the Georgetown Journal of Law and Modern Critical Race Perspectives.

<p>A’Lelia Bundles is an award-winning author and great-great-granddaughter of the entrepreneurial activist and philanthropist, Madam C.J. Walker. A Netflix Original series inspired by Bundles’ book (<i>On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker</i>) stars Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer and Tiffany Haddish, and is produced by LeBron James (March 2020). </p><p>A former network television news executive and producer at ABC News and NBC News, Bundles is also well-versed in American journalism as well as social justice and civil rights issues.