Brian Copeland (oral presentation) - Brian Copeland is an award-winning actor, comedian, author, playwright, television and radio talk show host based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2004, Copeland debuted his first one-man play, Not a Genuine Black Man at the Marsh in San Francisco. The play explored his childhood experiences as a member of one of the only African American families living in the then 94% white suburb of San Leandro, California. To date, he has written and performed three subsequent critically acclaimed solo plays including The Waiting Period.

Kia Corthron (written and oral presentation) is a playwright and novelist. She is the author of The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter which was released in 2016 and awarded The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. As with her first novel, her recent release, The Moon and the Mars Corthron's use of dialogue brings her characters to life in a way that only an award-winning playwright and scriptwriter can do. She is the author of numerous plays, which have been produced in New York, across the U.S., and internationally. 

Buy the book: The Moon and the Mars

Anita Gail Jones (oral presentation) Anita Gail Jones is a visual artist and writer, born and raised in Albany, Georgia.  In the early 90s, writing and illustrating children's stories led Anita to oral tradition storytelling and working in San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA) schools as an artist-in-residence, in addition to freelance writing, and tailoring storytelling programs for libraries. Her upcoming debut novel, The Peach Seed, will be released in 2023 by Henry Holt & Co.

Aya De Leon (written & oral presentation) is an acclaimed writer of prose and poetry. She directs the Poetry for the People program, teaching creative writing at UC Berkeley. She is known for award-winning feminist heist/romance series, Justice Hustlers, and her latest book, A Spy in the Struggle, was released earlier this year with great anticipation. She first came to national attention as a spoken-word artist in the underground poetry scene.

Buy the book: A Spy in the Struggle

Jarvis R. Givens (written presentation) is an assistant professor of education and African & African American Studies at Harvard University. He specializes in the history of African American Education and his first book, Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching was released this year. Professor Givens earned his Ph.D. in African American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Buy the book: Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching

Robert Jones, Jr. (oral presentation)  is author of The New York Times Instant Bestselling novel, The Prophets, which was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction and was a Book Passage’s First Edition Club selection January 2021. He has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times, Essence, and The Paris Review. He is the creator and curator of the social-justice, social-media community Son of Baldwin, which has over 288,000 followers across platforms.

Julie Lythcott-Haims (written and oral presentation) - believes in humans and is deeply interested in what gets in our way. She is the New York Times bestselling author of the anti-helicopter parenting manifesto How to Raise an Adult which gave rise to a TED Talk that has more than 5 million views. Her second book is the award-winning prose poetry memoir Real American, which illustrates her experience as a Black and biracial person in white spaces. Her most recent book, Your Turn: How to Be an Adult, helps humans lead a more authentic adulthood. Julie is a former corporate lawyer and Stanford dean.

Buy the books: How to Raise an Adult, Real American, Your Turn: How to Be an Adult

Rhonda V. Magee (written and oral presentation) is a Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco and an internationally-recognized thought and practice leader focused on integrating mindfulness into higher education, law and social change work. A prolific author, she draws on law and legal history to weave storytelling, poetry, analysis and practices into inspiration for changing how we think, act and live better together in a rapidly changing world. Rhonda is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on mindfulness in legal education, and on teaching about race using mindfulness.Her first book, The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness, was featured at a Book Passage event in 2020.

Buy the book: The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness

Anna Malaika-Tubbs (written & oral presentation)  is an author, advocate, educator, and scholar who is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at the University of Cambridge. Anna has published articles on topics ranging from celebrating motherhood to addressing the forced sterilization of Black women as well as the importance of feminism, intersectionality, and inclusivity. Her work has been featured in TIME Magazine, the Huffington Post, and more. Her first book, titled The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr, Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation, is a New York Times’ Editors Pick, and has achieved widespread acclaim

Buy the book: The Three Mothers

Jason Mott  (written presentation) - New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Jason Mott lives in southeastern North Carolina. He has a BFA in Fiction and an MFA in Poetry. He is the author of three novels: The Returned, The Wonder of All Things, and The Crossing. The Returned, Jason’s debut novel, was adapted for television for ABC under the title “Resurrection.” Jason’s fourth novel is Hell Of A Book, which won the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction.

Buy the book: Hell Of a Book

Zach Norris (written presentation) is the Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and co-founder of Restore Oakland, a community advocacy and training center that will empower Bay Area community members to transform local economic and justice systems and make a safe and secure future possible for themselves and for their families. In addition to being a Harvard graduate and NYU-educated attorney, Zach is also a graduate of the Labor Community Strategy Center’s National School for Strategic Organizing in Los Angeles, California. His book, Defund Fear is a blueprint of how to hold people accountable while still holding them in community. The result reinstates full humanity and agency for everyone who has been dehumanized and traumatized so they can participate fully in life, in society, and in the fabric of our democracy.

Buy the book: Defund Fear

Danté Stewart (oral presenter) is a minister, essayist, and cultural critic. He is author of Shoutin’ In The Fire: An American Epistle. Named by Religion News Service as one of “Ten Up-And-Coming Faith Influencers”, his work has appeared on CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, ESPN’s The Undefeated, Sojourners, and more.

Buy the book: Shoutin’ in the Fire: An American Epistle

Larry Ward (written presentation) - Shot at by the police as an 11-year-old child for playing baseball in the wrong spot, as an adult, Larry Ward experienced the trauma of having his home firebombed by racists. At Plum Village Monastery in France, the home in exile of his teacher, Vietnamese peace activist and Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, Dr. Ward found a way to heal. His book, America’s Racial Karma, are short reflective essays, he offers his insights on the effects of racial constructs and answers the question: how do we free ourselves from our repeated cycles of anger, denial, bitterness, pain, fear, violence?

Buy the book: America’s Racial Karma

September Williams (oral presentation) September Williams, MD is an American physician-writer, bioethicist, and filmmaker. Her work promotes narrative inquiry in bioethics through stories which are diverse, humanitarian, and scientifically imbued. September Williams is also a breastfeeding advocate and the author of The Elephant in the Room: Bioethical Concerns in Human Milk Banking. The book evolved from a collaboration built through a clinical ethics consultation. Dr. Williams’ concern about environmental degradation, related to the health of those most vulnerable to illness  and premature death, resulted in her authoring Chasing Mercury.

Buy the book: The Elephant in the Room
Buy the book:  Chasing Mercury

Paula Farmer (moderator) - In addition to curating and moderating the special Book Passage events for social discourse and change, Paula is a features writer, and hosts “Speaking Of,” an interview series on Instagram in which she regularly talks with BIPOC authors, artists, and activists on topical issues. She is the Chairperson of the Diversity and Inclusion subcommittee of CALIBA and was recently selected for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for the American Booksellers Association. For information on Paula’s Instagram series or to contact her, go to http://www.paulafarmer.com/silent-water-prod.html