June Jordan (1936−2002) was a poet, an activist, a journalist, an essayist, a teacher, and the author of more than twenty-five works of poetry, fiction, essays, and children's books. Active in the civil rights, feminist, antiwar, and gay and lesbian rights movements, she was a professor of African American studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where she founded the influential poetry program Poetry for the People. Among her honors were a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a National Book Award nomination, and a congressional citation for her outstanding contributions to literature, the progressive movement, and the civil rights movement.

Doreen St. Félix (introduction) is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a winner of the National Magazine Award for Columns and Commentary. A daughter of Caribbean immigrants and a Brooklyn native, she was named to Brooklyn Magazine's 2016 list of the "100 Most Influential People in Brooklyn Culture." She lives in Brooklyn.