Gilberto Gil is a Brazilian multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and political activist. Over the course of his 50-year career, Gil released at least one record nearly every year, experimenting with many different styles. He produced some of the most expressive examples of Brazilian pop music and won multiple Grammys for his work.

Gil rose to international stardom during his exile in London where he and Anani first met. In the program, he offers his rendition of "Upa, Neguinho (Up, Little Black Child)." The references to "estrada" (highway) are about travel and the traveler, de la e para ca (moving all over the place). Another line states that you can teach capoeira, get rid of ziquizira (bad luck), you can borrow bravery, but "liberdade, so posso esperar" (freedom, I will have to wait for).

In addition to his music career, Gil was a dedicated activist. He worked as a counselor in Salvador for the Partido Verde and with Onda Azul to protect Brazil’s waters. During his tenure as Minister of Culture under Pres. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, he promoted access to musical technology.

João Jorge Santos Rodrigues has been a life-long resident of Salvador, Bahia, the capital of Afro-Brazilian culture. He is the President of Olodum, a musical collective born from Carnival that leverages the power of music to combat social discrimination, boost the self-esteem and pride of African-Brazilians, and defend and fight to secure civil and human rights for marginalized people in Bahia and Brazil. Currently, it has a social project called Escola Olodum that provides free drumming classes, leadership education, and more for the youth of Pelourinho.

Through this work, he has learned how to strengthen neighborhood cultural organizations economically, legally, and by helping them provide new social and political leadership. He now hopes to spread his approach nationally.

Dara Kwayera Imani Bayer is a social justice organizer, educator, and visual artist, who is passionate about building interconnected and self-determined communities through Transformative and Restorative Justice philosophy and practices. She has worked as a humanities teacher at a visual and performing arts high school, a Restorative Justice Implementation Coach in several Boston Public Schools, and is currently the Transformative Justice Program Coordinator at Brown University. As a painter, she is interested in exploring history, contradiction, and possibility, particularly as these themes relate to Black liberation.

Over the seven decades of her career, Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo has published award-winning novels, plays, short stories, children’s books, and poetry, and influenced generations of African women writers.

In 1982, she was appointed minister of education in Ghana, making her the first woman to hold that position. In her role, she helped to earn greater respect for female teachers, but she was forced to put writing on a backburner while she was assumed to participate in more important matters. She has served as a visiting professor and distinguished visiting professor to the English, African, and American Studies departments of several universities and colleges in the United States, including, most recently, Brown University.

In 2000, recognizing the needs of women writers, Aidoo established Mbaasem (which means “Women’s Words”), a foundation dedicated to promoting the work of Ghanaian and African women writers. She currently serves as executive director.