Award season begins in the entertainment world and with it conversations of diversity, equity and inclusion. We wanted to equip you with sources who can talk about the multifaceted dimensions of inclusive performance.

Please brace for an extended email of some amazing talent. We have not one, but three sources who have been furthering the presence of diversity on screens, stages and behind the camera.

Malakai is a director that describes her mission “to be a disruptor by telling world-building and fantastical narratives that turn archetypes of the Black diaspora on its head”. She is the founder and CEO of the nonprofit Made in Her Image, which provides opportunities to women and nonbinary youth of color to create their own films, scripts, content and more.
 
An Arizona-born Afropunk with a deep love of technology and Afro-futurism, Malakai's short films have premiered at Sundance, the Pan African Film Festival, the Black American Film Festival, the Phoenix Art Museum, Reel Sisters and Cannes. In 2019, as part of the AT&T Hello Lab directing fellowship, she directed Postmarked. Her short film Souls was released that same year; she most recently directed all the episodes of the podcast Ghost Tape.

Ayanna Thompson is a professor of English at Arizona State University and the director of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. She is a Shakespeare scholar, a consultant, and an expert on race in performance, especially in Renaissance drama.
 
She is the author of several books, including Blackface (2021). As a theater practitioner, she has served as a consultant and dramaturg for several Broadway, Off Broadway and radio productions. Thompson created the conference series RaceB4Race to build a community for scholars and academics of color addressing race in medieval history, literature and culture.

Michelle K. Sugihara is the executive director of CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment), a nonprofit professional organization that supports emerging and established Asian and Pacific Islander creatives in Hollywood through fellowships, consulting and partnerships with production companies. She is an entertainment attorney, film producer and adjunct professor for the Claremont Colleges’ department of Asian American studies.

She advocates for entertainment representation as the co-lead of #GoldOpen, a campaign that pushes for the opening weekend success of multicultural films. Sugihara is on the leadership team of Time's Up Women of Color and is a founding member of the Asian Pacific American Friends of the Theater. She is also an associate member of Cold Tofu, an Asian American comedy improv and sketch group.

Other sources of interest this week.

The Supreme Court has been deliberating on a Mississippi law that has the potential to roll back abortion access in opposition to Roe v. Wade. How exactly did we arrive at this political moment on the debate over women’s reproductive rights? 
 
Fatima Goss Graves is an expert on the law and women’s rights who has contributed to The New York Times and CNN. Graves is the president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, where she works on issues central to women’s lives, including income security, health and reproductive rights, education access, and workplace fairness. 

Sources of the Week on the news

Read:

• Stephon Alexander was interviewed by The Undefeated about his newest book, Fear of a Black Universe. 
• The New York Times interviewed Nora Volkow about overdose deaths numbered at record highs over the pandemic. 
• Shaun Harper was featured in Inside Higher Ed talking about confronting racism in higher education institutions. 
• Congratulations to Tiya Miles, who won a National Book Award for her book All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake. 

Watch:

• On Al Jazeera, Marc Lamont Hill spoke to Tigray People’s Liberation. 

Listen:

• Veena Dubal spoke to Latino USA about the precarity of gig work in the context of drivers organizing against tech giants. 
• WBUR’s On Point interviewed Anthea Butler on white evangelical movement in the U.S. as a political force. 
• On Morning Edition, Michelle Singletary about the rush around holiday shopping and whether to buy on credit.
• Kavita Patel spoke to All Things Considered about the confusion around booster shots.