Kerry James Marshall was born in 1955 in Birmingham, Ala. He grew up in LA and now lives in Chicago. He received his BFA from the Otis Art Institute in LA. Elizabeth Alexander is a poet, essayist, playwright, and teacher. Most recently, she composed and delivered "Praise Song for the Day" for the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Ian Alteveer is associate curator in the department of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. Helen Molesworth is the Chief Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles. Dieter Roelstraete is Manilow Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. From 2003-11 he was a curator at the Antwerp Museum of Contemporary Art (MuHKA). A former editor of Afterall and cofounder of the journal FR David, he has published extensively on contemporary art in numerous catalogues and journals including Artforum, e-flux journal, frieze, Metropolis M, Monopol, Mousse Magazine, and Texte zur Kunst. Abigail Winograd is a PhD candidate in art history at the University of Texas at Austin, and a Research Associate at the MCA, Chicago. Prior to the MCA, Winograd was a graduate curatorial fellow at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, and the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas.