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Acclaimed Author of The Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential, American Tabloid, and Perfidia
Oscar-Winning Director of BlacKkKlansman, Do the Right Thing, and When the Levees Broke
Spike Lee needs no introduction. In person, the provocateur and media icon is never at a loss for words. As one of the most outspoken African American voices, he talks candidly, and with authority, ab...
Punk Rock Legend and Author of Just Kids, winner of The National Book Award
Named one of the most influential people in the world in TIME Magazine’s TIME 100, Patti Smith is a poet, singer, songwriter, photographer, and fine artist. A seminal American artist, Smith has produc...
One of the Most Celebrated Writers of Our Time
Sir Salman Rushdie is one of the most celebrated authors of our time—of any time. A brilliant provocateur, he’s penned a handful of classic novels, influenced a generation of writers, and received a Q...
Author of The Rise, Guest-Editor of Aperture’s “Vision & Justice” Issue
Booker Prize-Winning Author of over Fifty Books, Including The Handmaid's Tale and Alias Grace
Margaret Atwood has long been a literary titan, but “current events have polished the oracular sheen of her reputation,” says The New Yorker. With her 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale back on the bestse...
Data Artist | Innovator-in-Residence at the Library of Congress | Former NYT Data Artist in Residence
Renowned Cultural Critic | Author of Ten Books, Including Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs
Pop culture, in all its distracting glitz, isn’t just entertainment. It is culture—American culture. And our most insightful guide is Chuck Klosterman. In his bestselling, culture-defining books, he’s...
Acclaimed Writer & Director of Rafiki | Co-Founder of AFROBUBBLEGUM
World-Renowned Photographer, Winner of the TED Prize
Founder and Executive Director of Mural Arts Philadelphia
Urban Space Artist Behind the "Before I Die" Walls
World-renowned artist and urban designer Candy Chang engages communities to share everything from their greatest hopes to their deepest anxieties in public. The Atlantic calls her artwork Before I Die
#1 New York Times Bestselling Author of On the Come Up and The Hate U Give
Angie Thomas’ On the Come Up is #1 on The New York Times bestseller list. The #2 spot? Her debut novel, The Hate U Give. It’s safe to say that this chart-topping author is no longer on the come up—s...
Director of Queen of Katwe, Salaam Bombay!, The Namesake, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Raised in India, schooled at Harvard, and living in New York City, Mira Nair uses her natural grasp of identity conflict to make films that explore race, gender, inter-generational strife, cultural ap...
Founder of Street Symphony | 2018 MacArthur Fellow | TED Senior Fellow
Vijay Gupta is a violinist and educator whose efforts to merge music with mental health are changing the world, note by note. Named a 2018 MacArthur Fellow for “providing musical enrichment and valuab...
2018 MacArthur Fellow | Award-Winning Painter and Sculptor
With more urgency than a headline, Titus Kaphar’s artworks capture the spirit of social justice and change in America today (exemplified in his TIME cover portrait of the Ferguson protests). Named a 2...
Author of the New Marvel Comic Series America and Juliet Takes a Breath
Gabby Rivera is an outgoing, outspoken creator invested in fostering better dialogue, inspiring radical creativity, and improving our most vulnerable communities. The author of Juliet Takes a Breath, ...
Photographer speaking on family, communities, and environmental racism
For LaToya Ruby Frazier, art is a weapon—a catalyst for social justice. Her photographs and videos document today’s America: post-industrial cities riven by poverty, racism, healthcare inequality, and...
Theoretical Physicist and Novelist
Both a theoretical physicist and a novelist, Alan Lightman bridges the gap between the worlds of art, the humanities, and science, and is an internationally recognized thinker on the meaning of scienc...
Author of The House of the Spirits and In the Midst of Winter
A literary legend, a social activist, and a feminist icon, Isabel Allende—now in the fourth decade of a career like no other—has sold over 70 million books in over 40 languages. The massive audiences ...
Professor of Creative Writing at Harvard | Author of Blind Spot | Photography Critic for NYT Magazine
A prodigious novelist, critic, and photographer, Teju Cole was born in the US and raised in Nigeria—a biographical fact that informs much of his work. His first novel, Open City, won the PEN/Hemingway...
Painter, Writer, and Author of Drawing Blood
Molly Crabapple is an artist and writer whose work has been described as “God’s own circus posters,” by Rolling Stone. Crabapple’s art engages injustice, subversiveness, and rebellion. The New York Ti...
TED Senior Fellow, Sound Artist, and Composer
Christine Sun Kim uses the medium of sound in performance and drawing to investigate her relationship with spoken languages and her aural environment. Born deaf, Kim felt that she had no “ownership” o...
One of the Best-selling Authors in the World Today
In January, 2010, The New York Times Magazine featured James Patterson on its cover and hailed him as having “transformed book publishing.” Time magazine named him “The Man Who Can't Miss,” and he is ...
New Media Artist | TED Senior Fellow
How is technology reshaping our relationship to time, memory—even death? Gabriel Barcia-Colombo’s interactive artworks ask bold questions about what it means to live, and die, in today’s frenetic worl...