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DR. KHALID EL-HAKIM is the founder and curator of the Black History 101 Mobile Museum, a collection of over 7,000 original artifacts of Black memorabilia dating from the trans-Atlantic slave trade era to hip-hop culture. Dr. el-Hakim has been called the "Schomburg of the Hip-Hop generation" because of his passionate commitment to carry on the rich tradition of the Black Museum Movement.

He has received national and international attention for his innovative work of exhibiting Black history outside of traditional museum spaces. Most recently Dr. el-Hakim was given the distinct honor of being named among the Change Makers for NBC Universal’s Erase the Hate campaign and was one of the 100 Men of Distinction for Black Enterprise magazine.

As the nation's premiere Black history traveling exhibit, the Black History 101 Mobile Museum has exhibited in 40 states, at over 500 institutions including colleges and universities, K-12 schools, corporations, libraries, conferences, and cultural events, making it the most sought-after exhibit of its kind in the country.

In 2013, he published The Center of the Movement: Collecting Hip Hop Memorabilia, a groundbreaking book on the material artifacts of hip-hop culture. Dr. El-Hakim has also worked for over twenty years in the hip-hop industry as a manager and/or booking agent for artists such as The Last Poets, Proof of D12, Jessica Care Moore, and Professor Griff of Public Enemy. He also currently represents a number of speakers and artists as part of SpeakOut.

Dr. el-Hakim taught middle school social studies in Detroit for 15 years and recently founded the Michigan Hip Hop Archive which opens on the campus of Western Michigan University this year. He received his Ph.D. from College of Education at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana.

TASLEEM JAMILA FIRDAUSEE is an internationally award-winning poet, playwright, spiritual life coach, cultural curator, multidisciplinary artist, interdisciplinary scholar, Thurgood Marshall Fellow, and IMAN Creative Cypher Artist Fellow. Through heart-centered storytelling, Tasleem explores the intersections of culture, spirituality, and indigenous holistic healing modalities. Firdausee serves as the CEO of the My Soul Speaks Institute, holds the role of Executive Director for the Art As Sacred Initiative, and hosts the Art As Sacred podcast. Tasleem has authored three books: "From Mississippi Clay to African Skies in Search of Sacred Presence," "Black Baptist Muslim Mystic: From the Cosmos," and "The Women's Guide to Holistic Healing." Her performances, lectures, and seminars have graced distinguished venues, including The Kennedy Center, Harvard University, Columbia University, University of Michigan and the University of Chicago. Her talents have been showcased across the United States and in countries like Ghana, Canada, Senegal, England, and Malaysia.

​Tasleem is an artist-activist known for commissioned poetry contributions to organizations like The Cancer Society of Chicago and the Peace in Streets Campaign. She has also globally hosted holistic artist retreats. Her achievements span radio hosting, media features ABCNews, Chicago Tribune, NPR, BBC, and multiple collaborative projects. Tasleem has a master's degree in Spirituality, Culture, and Health and numerous certifications, including yoga, energy healing therapist, meditation/breathwork, and sound healing. She's pursuing a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies with research focused on Black women and healing, Sufism, Black Muslims in the US, Decolonization and religion in the African Diaspora.

When you engage with Tasleem Jamila Firdausee's artistic work, you witness a practice that transcends conventional boundaries, challenging the distinctions often made between various fields, approaches, and schools of thought. Tasleem's artistry and scholarship have been brewing over her lifetime. It is profoundly shaped by her background as the daughter of a community organizer and spiritual mentor, a healer with intuitive abilities, her Chicago roots, and her role as a trailblazer for her family's heritage in Mississippi and Alabama. Her upbringing is intricately woven into her twenty-five years of experience as an arts educator, arts-integrated curriculum developer with Chicago Public Schools, Kalamazoo County Schools, public libraries, and numerous community organizations and universities nationwide, an advocate for change, a poet, singer, playwright/actor, and a fashion designer, all while being a community organizer. She naturally blurs these boundaries to create spaces for profound thought and imagination, encompassing emotional, physical, and spiritual dimensions. Her extensive practice opens up gateways and opportunities for constructing new worlds and envisioning the future while embodying holistic healing principles, Sufism, womanism, Afro-futurism, and the wisdom of her wise elders and ancestors.

VALARIE KAUR is a renowned civil rights leader, lawyer, award-winning filmmaker, educator, innovator, and best-selling author of SEE NO STRANGER. She is the founder of the Revolutionary Love Project, where she leads a movement to reclaim love as a force for justice. Valarie burst into global consciousness when her Watch Night Service address went viral with 40 million views worldwide. Her question — “Is this the darkness of the tomb — or the darkness of the womb?” is a beacon for people fighting for our future.

Valarie became an activist when a Sikh father and family friend Balbir Singh Sodhi was the first person murdered in hate violence in the aftermath of 9/11. Since then, she has led visionary campaigns to tell untold stories and change policy on issues ranging from hate crimes to solitary confinement to digital freedom. In 2021, she led the People’s Inauguration, inspiring millions of Americans to renew their role in building a healthy, multiracial democracy. Today, the Revolutionary Love Project equips communities with practical tools to transform the nation from inside out. In Fall 2022, Valarie was honored at the White House in the first-ever Uniters Ceremony, recognizing her as a prophetic leader whose work is healing America.

Valarie earned degrees at Stanford University, Harvard Divinity School, and Yale Law School, and holds several honorary doctorates. She has created groundbreaking initiatives at the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and social justice, including Groundswell Movement, Faithful Internet, and the Yale Visual Law Project. She speaks widely and has been a regular TV commentator on MSNBC and contributor to CNN, NPR, PBS, the Hill, and the Washington Post. Her debut book SEE NO STRANGER became a #1 LA Times bestseller and expands on her “blockbuster” TED talk.

Valarie’s vision is deeply inspired by her Sikh faith. A daughter of Punjabi farmers, Valarie grew up on the farmlands of California, where her family has lived for more than a century. Her grandfather gave her Sikh wisdom through stories and songs that showed the way of the sant-sipahi, sage-warrior. The sage loves; the warrior fights — it is a path of revolutionary love.

Valarie recently released two books in 2024: in August and in September.

SONNY SINGH is a social justice educator, activist, and musician based in Brooklyn, New York. He has over two decades of experience giving talks and facilitating trainings on anti-oppression, racial equity, and faith and justice issues. He regularly leads trainings for nonprofit organizations, schools, and colleges/universities and is sought after for his transformative approach to education and social change. His pedagogical approach centers reflection, honest dialogue, and critical systemic analysis, while often tying in music and creativity.

Sonny has been active in movements for social and economic justice since he was a teenager and worked as a labor and community organizer in his 20s. He received his Master's Degree in Social Justice Education at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he studied and practiced the art of using education as a tool for liberation. Sonny's writing on racial politics, Sikhs in America, Islamophobia, and more has been published in the Huffington Post, India Abroad, Colorlines, Left Turn, Asian American Literary Review, Race, Class, and Gender in the United States (9th Edition), and Open City Magazine. He was a 2014–2015 Open City Fellow for the Asian American Writers' Workshop, covering stories in Richmond Hill, Queens.

Sonny is currently a board member of TakeRoot Justice. He is a protagonist in the PBS/WORLD Channel award-winning documentary From Here, which tells his story along with that of three other children of immigrants challenging xenophobia and redefining belonging through their art and activism.

As a musician, Sonny is best known as an original member, trumpet player, and singer in the bhangra brass sensation Red Baraat. His first musical outlet as a child of immigrant parents in North Carolina was singing Sikh devotional music in gurdwaras (Sikh houses of worship). His energy shifted to other types of music as he became a more serious musician: ska, reggae, funk, punk rock, bhangra, and more. In 2003, Sonny co-founded the political rock band Outernational and recorded an album produced by Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. As a singer and trumpet player, he has been central to the sound and raw energy of Red Baraat since the band's inception in 2008, touring globally and recording five studio albums.

Sonny released his debut solo album, Chardi Kala, in May 2022. Chardi Kala is a return to Sonny's Punjabi and Sikh roots, but with the lens he's developed over the course of his life as a touring musician, educator, and activist. Gothamist calls his music "utterly irresistible." Jazz Times describes it as, "vibrant, ebullient, and energized ... a prayer for our ailing world." Live Mint says, "Singh has done that rarest of rare things as a musician—he has actually charted new ground, pushing the idea of South Asian fusion music down a new, previously unexplored side path."

Weaving in storytelling and uplifting political/spiritual education, Sonny has performed at venues like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, MASS MoCA, and the White House for its 2023 AAPI Heritage Month event.

Sonny's newest album, , was released in August, 2024.