Anthony Oakes is an American comedian, writer, actor, and producer who is taking comedy by storm. His clean, yet edgy, southern, intellectual, witty humour will have you reeling with laughter. He is a Washington, D.C. resident who has performed at The DC Improv, DC Drafthouse, The Bier Baron Comedy Loft, Busboys and Poets, and The Wonderland Ballroom. Anthony has also been at The Apollo, The John F. Kennedy Center, The DC Improv, The Broadway, The Westside, and The Greenwich Village Comedy Clubs in New York City, and The Laugh Factory, Comedy Store, Flappers, and The Ice House Comedy Club in Los Angeles. In 2021, he was the recipient of DC Mayor Muriel Bowser's prestigious Mayoral Arts Award for Excellence in the Performing Arts.

Mark Broomfield (PhD, MFA) is an award-winning American scholar and artist, and an Associate Professor of English and Founding Director of Performance as Social Change at SUNY Geneseo. He has written for numerous publications in the areas of race, gender, sexuality, dance performance, and ethnography, and lectured, choreographed, and directed across the United States. Broomfield's book, Black Queer Dance: Gay Men and the Politics of Passing for Almost Straight (2024), explores Black masculinity and sexual passing in American contemporary dance. As a dancer, he has performed with national and international repertory companies, such as Cleo Parker Robinson Dance in Denver, Colorado, and worked with some of the most diverse and recognised African American choreographers in the American modern dance tradition.

Anthony Green is the American playwright of the hit plays When Boys Exhale and Gay Love Jones. When Boys Exhale is based on the 1995 film, Waiting to Exhale, and has travelled to Nashville, Atlanta, and Houston. Anthony is also the founder of Cagedbirds Productions, a Washington, D.C.-based company that “has affirmed the black, LGBT lived experience on screen and on stage.” It also produces 'The Writers Forum', an annual panel of Black LGBTQ+ writers from across the U.S. who discuss the craft, life and business of writing.

Percy Mthombeni is a South African chef and the director at Vezabuhle Caters. Percy’s culinary skills are from his Zulu mother, and in an article on Obsidian Travel Club's site, he said, “…each dish becomes a sacred connection to roots, preserving flavours and rituals.”

American Rapper and Songwriter, LYRICALMAR, is a Washington, DC native whose love of luxury takes him beyond hip-hop to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with music style icons like Janet Jackson, Grace Jones, and Lil Nas X. His latest EP is called MARCHIVES, and features the songs God’s Gift (My Turn) and On A Roll. His 2020 debut album, Begin, had the single Black Money, which featured Wuhryn Duman. It earned him the PopSmashRadio Award for the socially conscious song. LYRICALMAR is part of the lineup for the 2025 World Pride Music Festival.

British Author and Poet Dean Atta has been described as “the Gil Scott-Heron of his generation”. In 2014, his debut collection, I Am Nobody’s Nigger, was shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. Dean’s other literary works include his 2024 memoir, Person Unlimited: An Ode to My Black Queer Body, the young adult novels The Black Flamingo and Only on the Weekends, and the children’s book, Confetti: A Colourful Celebration of Love and Life. His latest YA novel is I Can’t Even Think Straight. Dean’s 2025 animated short, Two Black Boys in Paradise, is based on a poem and had its UK premiere this past March 2025 at the BFI Flare London: LGBTQIA+ Film Festival.

Rashid Owoyele is the Berlin-based Nigerian-American Managing Partner and Transdisciplinary Designer at Transekt Agency in Berlin. They’re also an innovation and career coach whose practice centres around “…a questioning of what exists and how to evaluate that through social practice and envisioning collaborative ways to engage communities and groups in processes of innovation.”

Vernal Scott is a British author and consultant on EDI with over four decades of experience. Vernal was the Head of Equality & Diversity Unit at Oxford University and the Diversity and Inclusion Manager at Essex Police. In 1991, he organised the historic Reach Out and Touch HIV/AIDS Procession with Flowers—an event privately financed by George Michael and starring Whitney Houston. Vernal’s upcoming memoir, UK Black, will be published via Amazon on 16 April for the Kindle ebook and on 18 April for the paperback.

(Original Air Date: 20 June 2023) Our Black Gay Diaspora Podcast's creator, host, and producer Erick Taylor Woodby is interviewed by Gamal 'G' Turawa, an ED&I facilitator, transformational storyteller, and the protagonist in the 2022 BAFTA-wining documentary, The Black Cop. Erick shares about his pride in being a Black gay American writer, podcast producer, and digital nomad.

Rinaldo Walcott is a Canadian academic, writer, and a Professor and Chair of Africana and American Studies at the University of Buffalo in Buffalo, New York. He holds the Carl V. Granger Chair in Africana and American Studies. Thank you to Episode 98’s guest, Lyndon K. Gill, for connecting us. Rinaldo's published works include “The Long Emancipation: Moving toward Black Freedom and On Property (2021)”, “BlackLife: Post-BLM and the Struggle for Freedom with Idil Abdillahi (2019)”, “Queer Returns: Essays on Multiculturalism, Diaspora and Black Studies (2016)”, and “Black Like Who?: Writing Black Canada (1997 and 2003)”.