Fatima Shaik was born in the historic Seventh Ward of New Orleans and bred on the oral histories told her by her Creole family and neighbors. A former assistant professor at Saint Peter’s University (NJ), she worked for more than a decade as a reporter and editor for daily news outlets. Her articles have appeared in the New York Times, The Root, and In These Times. Shaik is a trustee of PEN America and former board member of The Writers Room in New York City. She is the twenty-second recipient of the Louisiana Writer Award from the state library’s Center for the Book.

Bakari Sellers is a CNN political analyst and was the youngest-ever member of the South Carolina state legislature. Recently named to TIME’s “40 Under 40” List, he is also a practicing attorney fighting to give a voice for the voiceless.

Rupert Scofield is a social entrepreneur, author, podcast presenter and speaker. He began his career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala where he served as a credit officer to an agricultural cooperative where he provided $50 loans to 800 subsistence farmers. He worked as an advisor to agrarian unions in Latin America and after that as a consultant to numerous international organizations including the UN Capital Development Fund. In 1984, he co-founded FINCA, serving as its President and CEO, a position he holds to this day. He holds a B.A.

Julian Sancton is a Senior Features Editor at the Hollywood Reporter. His writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, The New Yorker, Departures, and Playboy, among other publications. He has reported from every continent, including Antarctica, which he first visited while researching this book. He lives in Larchmont, New York, with his partner, Jessica, and their two daughters.

Mona Lisa Saloy, Ph.D., the new Louisiana Poet Laureate is an award-winning author & folklorist, educator, and scholar of Creole culture in articles, documentaries, and poems about Black New Orleans before and after Katrina. Currently, Conrad N. Hilton Endowed Professor and of English at Dillard University, Dr. Saloy documents Creole culture in sidewalk songs, jump-rope rhymes, and clap-hand games to discuss the importance of play.

Kalamu ya Salaam is the founder of NOMMO Literary Society. NOMMO is a New Orleans-based creative writing workshop whose members are published in national anthologies such as Dark Eros, Kente Cloth, Catch the Fire, and 360° A Revolution of Black Poets. He is also a founder of Runagate Press, which focuses on New Orleans and African-heritage cultures worldwide. Salaam is the leader of the WordBand, a poetry performance ensemble that combines poetry with blues, jazz and other forms of music.

Matt Sakakeeny is an Assistant Professor of Music at Tulane University, and an ethnomusicologist, journalist, and musician in New Orleans, where he has lived since 1997. His book, Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans, is a firsthand account of the precarious lives of brass band musicians in New Orleans. Matt has published in journals such as Ethnomusicology, Black Music Research Journal, Contemporary Political Theory, and Current Musicology, and filed reports for public radio's All Things Considered, Marketplace, and WWOZ's Street Talk.

Maurice Carlos Ruffin  is the author of the forthcoming historical novel, The American Daughters as well as The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You, a One Book One New Orleans selection, a New York Times Editor’s Choice and was longlisted for the Story Prize. His debut, We Cast a Shadow, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the PEN America Open Book Prize. Ruffin is the winner of the Iowa Review Award in fiction and the Louisiana Writer Award.

Joshua D. Rothman is professor of history and chair of the department of History at the University of Alabama. He is the author of three books on the history of American slavery, and has published essays and articles in The Atlantic, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Smithsonian, and other popular venues.

After the near-destruction of New Orleans in 2005 while most were satisfied with the official narrative of "natural disaster", Sandy Rosenthal believed there was more to the story. It turned out there was.