Essex Hemphill (1957–1995) was born in Chicago and raised in Washington, D.C. He was a member of the poetry collective Cinque, a frequent collaborator with the Emmy award-winning filmmaker Marlon Riggs, and the editor of the Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men (1991). His collection Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry (1992) won the National Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual New Author Award. His selected poems, Love Is a Dangerous Word, edited by John Keene and Robert F. Reid-Pharr, was published by New Directions in 2025.

Jeffrey Gibson (American, b. 1972) is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and convener celebrated for his work in painting, installation, video, and performance. For over two decades, he has examined how language, pattern, and music construct meaning, synthesizing Indigenous and Western traditions through vibrant color, complex patterning, and layered sound. A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, Gibson represented the U.S. at the 2024 Venice Biennale with his acclaimed exhibition the space in which to place me, which made its U.S. debut at The Broad in Los Angeles in May 2025. In June 2025 he unveiled a site-specific installation at Kunsthaus Zurich. Gibson was selected for the Metropolitan Museum’s 2025 Genesis Facade Commission and will present new work for the historic exterior this September. His work is held in major collections including MoMA, the Whitney, and the National Gallery of Art. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley and is artist-in-residence at Bard College.