Black Summers: Growing Up in the Urban Outdoors

Desiree Cooper is a Pulitzer Prize–nominated journalist, 2015 Kresge Artist Fellow, and former attorney. She is the author of Nothing Special, which won the 2023 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, and Know the Mother, a Michigan Notable Book (both Wayne State University Press).

Stephen Henderson has worked as a public relations professional and journalist since graduating from Wheaton College in 1979, and Yale Divinity School in 1987. In a highly circuitous career, he's worked on everything from Avon Books' romance novels, Arrow men's dress shirts, and Maxwell House coffee, to the Radio City Rockettes, Union Theological Seminary, and The John Templeton Foundation. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Town and Country, Food and Wine, and elsewhere.

Bridgett M. Davis is professor of journalism and the writing professions at Baruch College, City University of New York, where she teaches creative, film, and narrative writing and is director of the Sidney Harman writer-in-residence program. A graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta and Columbia University’s graduate school of journalism, she is the director of the award-winning feature film Naked Acts, as well as the author of two novels, Into the Go-Slow and Shifting Through Neutral.

Patryce Williams is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York City and is a member of the Actors' Equity Association. She is the lead vocalist and executive producer for the band The Quiet Stars, formally known as SUM. Earning a BFA in theater at Central Connecticut State University, Patryce has lent her talents touring regional theater and singing on world-renowned stages such as the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. With a passion for reading since she first discovered novels via The Baby-Sitters Club, Patryce has since grown to love books of all kinds, including modern literature, rom com, and self-development. Her favorite job to date is serving as her son Jackson's exclusive narrator.

André Santana is a NYC-based audiobook narrator on a journey to tell great stories. He's a Black, Latine, and non-binary voice actor delivering intentional and human performances. Operating with a keen sense for realistic delivery, he inevitably becomes a fan of every book he narrates and shares that joy through his performances.

Janina Edwards, an Earphone Award–winning narrator, is a graduate of the acting program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

JD Jackson is a theater professor, aspiring stage director, and award-winning audiobook narrator. He is a classically trained actor, and his television and film credits include roles on House, ER, Law & Order, Hack, Sherrybaby, Diary of a City Priest, and Lucky Number Slevin. He is the recipient of more than a dozen Earphones Awards for narration and an Odyssey Honor for G. Neri’s Ghetto Cowboy, and he was also named one of AudioFile magazine’s Best Voices of the Year for 2012 and 2013. An adjunct professor at Los Angeles Southwest College, he has an MFA in theater from Temple University.

January LaVoy, winner of numerous awards for narration, was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine in 2019. She is an American actress best known for her character Noelle Ortiz on the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live. In addition to working extensively in narration and television, including roles on Law & Order and All My Children, she has worked on and off Broadway as well as in regional theater.

Robin Miles, named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, has twice won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, an Audie Award for directing, and many Earphones Awards. Her film and television acting credits include The Last Days of Disco, Primary Colors, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order, New York Undercover, National Geographic’s Tales from the Wild, All My Children, and One Life to Live. She regularly gives seminars to members of SAG and AFTRA actors’ unions, and in 2005 she started Narration Arts Workshop in New York City, offering audiobook recording classes and coaching. She holds a BA degree in theater studies from Yale University, an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama, and a certificate from the British American Drama Academy in England.

Dion Graham is an award-winning narrator named a “Golden Voice” by AudioFile magazine. He has been a recipient of the prestigious Audie Award numerous times, as well as Earphones Awards, the Publishers Weekly Listen Up Awards, IBPA Ben Franklin Awards, and the ALA Odyssey Award. He was nominated in 2015 for a Voice Arts Award for Outstanding Narration. He is also a critically acclaimed actor who has performed on Broadway, off Broadway, internationally, in films, and in several hit television series. He is a graduate of Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts, with an MFA degree in acting.