Raél Jero Salley is an artist, cultural theorist and art historian. He holds degrees from The Rhode Island School of Design (BFA), The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA), and The University of Chicago (PhD). His research interests include modern and contemporary art and visual culture, with a focus on Blackness and African Diaspora. Dr. Mel Michelle Lewis (MS, MA, PhD) is Associate Professor of Gender/Sexuality & Black/Ethnic Studies and chair of Studio and Humanistic Studies at Maryland Institute College of Art, cultivating Black feminist intersectional queer critical race social justice pedagogies for liberatory art and design education and creative practice. Their personal, professional, and political commitments are to overlapping and interlocking queer, trans, nonbinary, intersex, and feminist communities of color. Originally from Bayou la Batre, Alabama, their creative work explores queer of color themes in rural coastal settings. Organized by Whitney Sherman, Director, Illustration Practice MFA.