“Anything worth studying and aligning yourself with is going to be complicated and, hopefully, evolving all the time as culture and language evolve.” – Amanda Montell Amanda Montell is a writer, linguist, and author of the critically acclaimed book Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language, published by HarperCollins in 2019 and

“At the heart of any story about Black liberation is a story about Black joy, is about being able to move freely without fear of violence or prejudice.” – Leah Johnson Leah Johnson is a writer, editor and eternal Midwesterner, currently moonlighting as a New Yorker. She is a graduate of the fiction writing MFA

“Equality is not exclusive to a group. Neither is it one particular group’s responsibility to carry the torch for everyone else.” – Catherine Adel West Catherine Adel West is an editor living and working in Chicago. She graduated with both her Bachelors and Masters of Science in Journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana. Her

“There were a lot of people in the Civil Rights movement who did things that were so important to move the country forward who were not in the South.” – Lisa Braxton Lisa Braxton is an Emmy-nominated former television journalist, a former newspaper reporter, an essayist, short story writer and author of THE TALKING DRUM.

“Hope is not this delicate wishy-washy thing. Hope is ferocious. Hope can eclipse the darkest things that we experience.” – Rocky Callen Rocky Callen, the daughter of an Ecuadorian immigrant, has long lived a life of service ever since she was a 13-year-old when she started to advocate for social rights at congress. She continued

“Just because a state has an abortion restriction law that isn’t as strict as another state doesn’t mean that it’s not as damaging.” – Nicole Maggi Nicole Maggi began writing poems about unicorns and rainbows at a very early age. She detoured into acting, earned a BFA from Emerson College, and moved to NYC where

“The novel will be imbued with a new sense of thought after people watch the show and then they’ll come to the book with a new perspective.” – Abbe Wright Abbe Wright is the host of The Adaptables and the Read It Forward podcasts, and is Senior Editor of Read it Forward, an online book