Kevin Gates is the stage name of hip-hop artist Kevin Jerome Gilyard. He is a convert to Islam who is originally from Baton Rouge, La. Contact via Atlantic Records’ publicity office.

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.

Graham Reside is the executive director of the Cal Turner Program for Moral Leadership for the Professions at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee. He researches ethical leadership, religion and globalization and race, religion and poverty. He is also an expert on prison reform.

Phillis Sheppard is an associate professor of religion, psychology and culture at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tenn. She is an expert on the role religion plays in self-understanding, womanist theology and psycholanalysis.

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.

Thomas Albert Howard is a professor of humanities and history at Valparaiso University where he is an expert on the Protestant Reformation. He is the author of Remembering the Reformation: An Inquiry into the Meaning of Protestantism (2016).

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