David A. Wilson is an African-American media entrepreneur who recently moved to Brazil to focus on developing film, television, and digital content for the nation’s underserved Black population of 110 million. David is the co-founder of theGrio.com, one of the largest digital news platform focused on stories and perspectives that affects and reflects Blacks in the United States. He launched theGrio in June of 2009 and sold it to NBCUniversal in August 2010. However, in 2014 they reacquired the site from the media giant and in less than one year doubled its traffic to reach over 5 million unique visitors monthly. He sold the company yet again in 2016 to one of Hollywood’s black media giants, Byron Allen. 

Wilson also co-directed and wrote MSNBC's 2008 critically acclaimed and award-winning documentary, "Meeting David Wilson." The film chronicled his journey to find answers to today's racial disparities in America and his encounter with a descendant of his family's former slaveowners, also named David Wilson. 

Wilson has an extensive background in video and news productions. He served as lead producer and overlooked newsroom operations for NNS (Network News Service) a national news gathering service and an ABC, CBS, and Fox News conglomerate.  Prior to working at NNS, David worked at King World Productions, where he helped launch a new talk show that was syndicated in over 85% of America's television markets. 

He began his career in national broadcast television at the CBS News magazine show "48 Hours" where he researched and developed content for the program. David broke into the news business at WABC-TV in New York and later WAFF-TV an NBC affiliate in Huntsville, AL, where he produced and occasionally reported on the field. In 1998 David produced the documentary "Hidden Heroes: African-American Women in World War II," which has been inducted in Arlington's National Memorial.

David A. Wilson is a 1999 graduate of Rowan University with a B.A. in communication radio/TV/film. He was born and raised in Newark, N.J., but spent 17 years in Brooklyn, N.Y. He currently resides in Salvador, Bahia. 

Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Producer, Artist

Relentless, powerful, and provocative is how many describe Grammy nominated songwriter & singer Gene Noble’s vocal ability. With his unique vibrato and jaw dropping falsettos, Noble is a crowd pleaser who continues to amaze audiences throughout the US and Europe.

Gene Noble is an accomplished, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter who has written for some of music’s top artists, including Chris Brown, Jason Derulo and Faith Evans. His 2016 single "Only Love" (feat. Pitbull and Shaggy) reached Top 40 status and was played on radio stations all over the world. Noble has toured with Usher, Chris Brown, Jay Z, Alicia Keys and Lauryn Hill. His highly anticipated debut EP – Rebirth of Gene, was rated a “Top 20 R&B Album” by Rhapsody and charted Top 20 on the iTunes R&B chart. Gene’s album, ELEVATION is slated for release 3rd quarter of 2018. 

Noble’s life began in Manhattan, Kansas as an Army brat. After the death of his father, music became his sanctuary. Noble’s music is influenced by his love of jazz, gospel, rock, pop, and country. After witnessing R&B artist D’Angelo perform on his Voodoo tour, he knew he wanted to become a celebrated performing artist. A native of New York, Noble currently resides in Los Angeles.

Ingrid LaFleur is an artist, activist, and Afrofuturist. Her mission is to ensure equal distribution of the future, exploring the frontiers of social justice through new technologies, economies and modes of government.

As a 2017 Detroit Mayoral candidate and founder and director of AFROTOPIA, LaFleur implements Afrofuturist strategies to empower Black bodies and oppressed communities through frameworks such as blockchain, cryptocurrency, and universal basic income.  Most recently LaFleur accepted the role of Director of Community Cultivation for the block producer candidate EOS Detroit.

As a thought leader, future justice activist, public speaker, teacher and cultural advisor she has led conversations and workshops at Centre Pompidou (Paris), TEDxBrooklyn, TEDxDetroit, Ideas City, New Museum (New York), AfroTech Conference, Harvard University and Oxford University, among others. She serves as board chair of Powerhouse Productions, a founding member of the Detroit Culture Council, board member of the Cooley Reuse Project and ONE Mile, and advisory board member of Culture Lab Detroit. 

LaFleur is based in Detroit, Michigan. 

Ayana V Jackson’s work examines the complexities of photographic representation and the role of the camera in constructing identity. Using performance and studio-based portraiture, her practice can be seen as a map of the ethical considerations and relationships involved between the photographer, subject and viewer. 

With a particular interest in the 19th and early 20th century representation of black bodies, Jackson steps into the world of her reference materials as a way to question the role the history of photography and fine art played in the construction of race and gender stereotype.

Through her portraits and photo montages,

“Jackson [gives] us an imperfect, unfulfilled, virtual journey. She is in search of the grail of being while bound to the rack of non-being … It is this sense of constantly losing the ground beneath one’s feet, this unerring sense of dancing in a void, which gives Jackson’s art its profound melancholy… “Ashraf Jamal

Born in the US, based between Johannesburg, New York and Paris, Jackson was a 2014 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow for Photography, and the recipient of the 2018 National Black Arts Festival’s Fine Art and Fashion Award and has received grants from the Marguerite Casey Foundation, Inter America Foundation, US State Department as well as the French Institute, the latter supporting her participation in the 2009 Bamako African Photography Biennial.

She has exhibited her work in association with The Blachere Foundation, The University of South Africa (UNISA), The Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Newark Museum, Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Art (MoCADA), the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (Marrakech) , and the Philadelphia African American Museum.

Public art exhibitions include, “The Space Between Us”, in association with the Ifa Gallery (Berlin/ Stuttgart) and Round 32 of Project Rowhouses in Houston’s 3rd ward (USA).

Her photography has been featured in publications including the exhibition catalogue for “Poverty Pornography & Archival Impulse” produced as a collaborative effort between her Paris and Johannesburg galleries (2013) as well as the exhibition catalogue for her series “African by Legacy, Mexican by Birth” (produced in collaboration with writer/filmmaker Marco Villalobos in 2006).

Academic journals include “Transition Magazine" (Hutchins Center, Harvard University),  "n.paradoxa", “Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society” (Columbia University) and the Massachusetts Review.  Jackson  has also been featured in art reviews such as Art South Africa, Art + Auction, Camera Austria, Afrique in Visu, Proximo Futuro/Next Future (Gulbenkian Foundation), Dutch based ZAM magazine, and the New York Times Lens Blog.

Paulo Rogério Nunes is the co-founder of the Instituto Midia Étnica (www.midiaetnica.com.br), the largest Black media NGO in Brazil that operates since 2005. He also cofunded the news portal Correio Nagô (www.correionago.com.br), focused in diversity, human rights and inclusion. Mr. Nunes was also a Fulbright Humphrey Fellow (2011-2012)  at the University of Maryland, where he studied Journalism and Digital

Media and also is an Ashoka fellow since 2008. In 2016, he created the first Black Startup accelerator in Brazil, Vale do Dendê (www.valedodende.org) based in Salvador, Bahia, the most African city in Brazil.  Paulo was one of the 11 young leaders invited by the ex-president Barack Obama to a privite meet in his last visit to Brazil and also spoke on the opening of the first Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago. He is also affiliate to the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University.