Yolanda Wisher was named inaugural Poet Laureate of Montgomery County and third Philadelphia Poet Laureate. The author of Monk Eats an Afro, she is a Pew Fellow, Leeway Foundation Transformation Award recipient, and a Philadelphia Cultural Treasures Artist Fellow. She is the founder of the School of Guerrilla Poetics, a training ground for mobilizing communities through poetry. She is Senior Curator at Monument Lab. Her collaborator Pia Deas is a Professor of English at Lincoln University with a speciality in contemporary African American literature. She previously served as Dean of Upperclassmen and Associate Dean of Faculty. Deas is the creator and host of the podcast, Contemporary Black Canvas (2016-2020) that celebrates the depth and breadth of the Black artistic tradition through interviews with Black artists across all artistic disciplines. Her poetry chapbook is Cargo. In February 2024, Deas and Wisher collaborated on “ratoon,” a multidisciplinary performance with students at Lincoln University.