Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Arlene is a community psychologist who recently retired from the CDC. While there she worked as a behavioral scientist focusing on capacity building as it relates to HIV prevention. She received her BA in Psychology from the University of Tampa, MA in Counseling and Human Development from Clark Atlanta University and PhD in Community Psychology from Georgia State University. After beginning her public health work, she realized a need to augment her education and completed an MPH from Emory University. Arlene is also a veteran and retired from the US Army Reserve with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. As a Black lesbian her work and adult life has included finding ways to show up in an authentic manner and make space for others to do the same. Currently she works as a consultant on an HIV prevention project focused on encouraging Black women to view PrEP usage as an act of self-care, she is also growing a garden and a forest.

Kaila Adia Story, PhD is an associate professor in the Departments of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Pan-African Studies, as well as the Audre Lorde Endowed Chair at the University of Louisville. She is the author of The Rainbow Ain't Never Been Enuf: On The Myth of LGBTQ+ Solidarity, which comes out this May. She is also the co-creator, co-producer, and cohost of Louisville Public Media’s Strange Fruit: Musings on Politics, Pop Culture, and Black Gay Life, a popular award-winning podcast. Her research examines the intersections of race and sexuality, with special attention to Black feminism, Black lesbians, and Black queer identity.

IG: @doctressstory

Facebook: Kaila Adia Story

Threads: @doctressstory

BlueSky: @doctressstory.bsky.social

Website: www.doctressstory.com

Alexis Pauline Gumbs’

Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde

Book Reading Information:

https://www.charisbooksandmore.com/event/survival-promise-eternal-life-audre-lorde-homecoming-celebration-alexis-pauline-gumbs-and

Book Reading Registration:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/survival-is-a-promise-the-eternal-life-of-audre-lorde-tickets-938622193247?aff=oddtdtcreator

A queer black troublemaker, a black feminist love evangelist and a prayer poet priestess,

Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs was the first scholar to research the Audre Lorde Papers at Spelman College, the June Jordan Papers at Harvard University, and the Lucille Clifton Papers at Emory University during her dissertation research. We are eagerly awaiting her forthcoming biography, Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde on August 20, 2024.

https://www.alexispauline.com/

Alexis’s work as a media maker and her curricula for participatory digital education have been activated in 143 countries. Her digital distribution initiative BrokenBeautiful Press, her work as co-founder of Quirky Black Girls and her loving participation in the Women of Color Bloggers Network in the early 2000’s established her as one of the forerunners of the social media life of feminist critical and creative practice. Alexis has been honored with many awards from her communities of practice including being lifted up on lists such as UTNE Readers 50 Visionaries Transforming the World, The Advocate’s 40 under 40, Go Magazines 100 Women We Love, the Bitch 50 List, ColorLines 10 LGBTQ Leaders Transforming the South, Reproductive Justice Reality Check’s Sheroes and more. She is a proud recipient of the Too Sexy for 501C-3 trophy, a Black Women’s Blueprint Visionary Award and the Barnard College Outstanding Young Alumna Award.

From 2017-2019, Alexis served as visiting Winton Chair at University of Minnesota where she collaborated with Black feminist artists in the legacy of Laurie Carlos to create collaborative performances based on her books Spill and M Archive. During that time she served as dramaturg for the award winning world premiere of Sharon Bridgforth’s Dat Black Mermaid Man Lady directed by Ebony Noelle Golden.

Alexis is a 2023 Windham-Campbell Prize Winner in Poetry. Alexis’s most recent book Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals won the 2022 Whiting Award in Nonfiction.

Alexis was a 2020-2021 National Humanities Center Fellow, funded by the Founders Award, and is a 2022 National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellow.

Original Photography of Alexis Pauline Gumbs by:

Sufia Ikbal-Doucet

Graphic Design of cover art image by:

Angela Denise Davis