Jet Toomer

Jet Toomer is a writer, community organizer, and muse, who writes at the intersections of culture, belonging, and womanism. She is a LAMBDA Literary Fellow. Her newsletter; Tiny Violences, was selected by Roxane Gay, and is a featured publication on Substack. As an organizer, Jet co-founded The Josie Club, a roving social space dedicated to celebrating the lives of queer Black women and femmes. Her writing has been featured in Inverse Magazine, Victory Journal, Full Bleed, The Massachusetts Review, among others and is forthcoming in Southern Cultures. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University and is a native New Yorker.

Laverne Cox

With various ‘firsts’ in her already impressive career, Laverne Cox is a four-time Emmy-nominated actress, an Emmy-winning producer, and a prominent equal rights advocate and public speaker.  Laverne's groundbreaking role of “Sophia Burset” in the critically acclaimed Netflix original series Orange is The New Black brought her to the attention of diverse audiences all over the world. This role led to Laverne becoming the first openly transgender actress to be nominated for a Primetime acting Emmy and made her the first Trans woman of color to have a leading role on a mainstream scripted television series. Laverne is the red-carpet host of Live From E! and hosts The Laverne Cox Show podcast for Shondaland and iHeart. Next up, Laverne will star in Clean Slate for Amazon Freevee. She executive produced the series with Norman Lear’s Act III Productions and Sony Pictures Television.

Laverne is an inspiring advocate with an empowering message of moving beyond gender expectations to live more authentically. Laverne is the first openly transgender person to appear on the covers of TIME Magazine, British Vogue, Cosmopolitan magazine and Essence magazines, among others. She was named one of Glamour magazine’s 2014 Women of the Year.  Laverne also proudly holds two SAG Awards, winning them with her Orange Is the New Black cast mates for “Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.” Other accolades include a Critic’s Choice nomination for “Best Supporting Actress,” and consecutive NAACP Image Award nominations for “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.”