Reelaviolette botts-ward, PhD, is a homegirl, an artist, and a nontraditional community curator from Philadelphia, PA. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow with the REPAIR Project at the University of California, San Francisco, and will begin a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship there in the fall. At UCSF, ree brings radical Black feminist healing arts to healthcare and medical science spaces. She is also the founder of blackwomxnhealing, where she curates courses, exhibits, publications, and performances for and by Black womxn.‍ Her first book, mourning my inner[blackgirl]child, was published with Nomadic Press in 2021, and she has published articles, book chapters, and creative works with the Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, Routledge Press, and Medical Anthropology Quarterly, among others. She also serves as a Contributor in Residence for Columbia University’s Synapsis: a Journal for Health Humanities, where she writes about art, spirituality, and healing for practitioners and community audiences.‍ Ree received her PhD in African Diaspora Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, her MA in African American studies from UCLA, and her BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Spelman College. 

Reggie Edmonds-Vasquez (They/Them) is a poet, educator, and cultural curator from Richmond, CA. Their work, which examines the intersection of Black, Queer, and Gender diverse identities intersect, has been selected for fellowships and awards from Nomadic Press, the Afro Urban Society, Shuffle Collective and others. Their poem, Aerodynamics of the American Negro, was a finalist for the 2022 Red Wheel Barrow Poetry Prize. They currently can be found as the Program Director of Rich Oak Events and the 2024 Co-Champion of the Berkeley Poetry Slam.Their poetry can be found in Rigorous Magazine, Stentorian Bitch, Foglifter Journal, and 2 self published chapbooks I’m Too Black for the Shxt (2017), and Sad Boi (2019).

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