Sir the Baptist is the stage name of William James Stokes. He is a “preacher’s kid” from the South Side of Chicago and bills himself as the “Hip Hop Chaplain.” His first album, “Saint or Sinner,” was released in May 2017. Jay Cohen at the Tympa Agency is his manager.

Jesse Is Heavyweight is the stage name of Dallas-based rap/hip-hop artist Jesse McDaniel. He is a Southern Baptist and has taken Anthony Pinn and Bun B’s hip-hop and religion course at Rice University.

Monica R. Miller is an associate professor of Africana studies and religious studies at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., and the author of Religion and Hip Hop.

David Perkins is the director of the Religion in the Arts and Contemporary Culture program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. He is a guitarist and songwriter who plays for the Nashville chapter of Beer and Hymns. He teaches courses on religion and the arts, including the theology of song.

Geoff Little is the leader of Beer and Hymns in Nashville, Tenn., which meets at the Mercy Lounge, a 500-seat venue.

Martha Mukaiwa is an art, entertainment, travel, and features writer and weekly columnist based in Windhoek, Namibia. Her personal essays on black identity, black travel and black womanhood have been published by Quartz, Matador Network, Africa is a Country, The Namibian, This is Africa, and the Mail & Guardian and have been shared by the Atlantic and BBC […]

Bridget M. Heal is a professor of history at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. She is an expert on the Protestant Reformation and art and is the author of A Magnificent Faith: Art and Identity in Lutheran Germany. She is also an expert on witchcraft and witch trials and on the Virgin Mary in early […]

Jo Walton is a science fiction writer of more than a dozen novels and has won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, the highest accolades in sci-fi. She is working on a novel called Lent that has religious elements in it. She can discuss religion in science fiction and what it tries to achieve.