Judges

Steph Burt is Professor of English at Harvard and the author of several books of poetry and literary criticism, most recently The Poem Is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems And How To Read Them (Harvard UP, 2016).

Kurt Crowley is currently the music director/conductor of Hamilton on Broadway. Previous work in theater includes Hamilton (Public Theater), Bring It On (Broadway), Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (Off-Broadway), In The Heights (National Tour...

Franklin Leonard is the founder of the Black List, the yearly publication highlighting Hollywood’s most popular unproduced screenplays and the company birthed to continue its mission. Over 300 Black List scripts have been produced as feature films earning...

Marcyliena Morgan is a Professor in the Department of African and African American Studies and Founding Director of The Hiphop Archive and Research Institute (HARI) at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. She earned both her B.A...

Carol J. Oja is William Powell Mason Professor of Music at Harvard University and on the faculty of Harvard’s graduate program in American Studies. She is currently at work on a book about Marian Anderson and the racial desegregation of classical music...