C. Liegh McInnis is a poet, short story writer, Prince scholar, retired instructor of
English at Jackson State University, the former publisher and editor of Black Magnolias
Literary Journal, and the author of eight books, including four collections of poetry, one
collection of short fiction (Scripts: Sketches and Tales of Urban Mississippi), one work
of literary criticism (The Lyrics of Prince: A Literary Look at a Creative, Musical Poet,
Philosopher, and Storyteller), and one co-authored work, Brother Hollis: The Sankofa of
a Movement Man, which discusses the life of a legendary Mississippi Civil Rights icon.
He is also a former First Runner-Up of the Amiri Baraka/Sonia Sanchez Poetry Award
sponsored by North Carolina State A&T and edited the Black Magnolias Special Prince
Issue. He has presented papers at national conferences, such as College Language
Association, the National Council of Black Studies, the Neo-Griot Conference, and the
Black Arts Movement Festival, and his work has appeared in numerous journals and
anthologies, including Obsidian, Tribes, The Southern Quarterly, Konch Magazine, Bum
Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Journal of Popular Music and Society, Down to the
Dark River: An Anthology of Poems on the Mississippi River, Black Hollywood
Unchained: Essays about Hollywood’s Portrayal of African Americans, Black Panther:
Paradigm Shift or Not? A Collection of Reviews and Essays on the Blockbuster Film,
Asymptote, The Pierian, Black Gold: An Anthology of Black Poetry, Sable, New Delta
Review, The Black World Today, In Motion Magazine, MultiCultural Review, A Deeper
Shade, New Laurel Review, ChickenBones, Oxford American, Journal of Ethnic
American Literature, B. K. Nation, Red Ochre Lit, and Brick Street Press Anthology. In
January of 2009, C. Liegh, along with eight other poets, was invited by the NAACP to
read poetry in Washington, DC, for their Inaugural Poetry Reading celebrating the
election of President Barack Obama. He has also been invited by colleges and libraries
all over the country to read his poetry and fiction and to lecture on various topics, such as
creative writing and various aspects of African American literature, music, and history.

McInnis can be contacted through:
Psychedelic Literature
203 Lynn Lane
Clinton, MS 39056
601 383 0024
psychedeliclit@bellsouth.net

Elliott H. Powell, Ph.D., is the Beverly and Richard Fink Professor in Liberal Arts and Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of Sounds from the Other Side: Afro-South Asian Collaborations in Black Popular Music, which received the Woody Guthrie Book Award from the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, as well as the Philip Brett Book Award from the American Musicological Society. He’s currently at work on a new book titled Prince, Porn, and Public Space, which examines the intertwined worlds of music and sex in Minneapolis during the 1980s.

KaNisa Williams is a lifelong computer enthusiast with a passion for humanizing technology. As an avid gamer and programmer from the age of 4 via her family’s Tandy 2000, she has grown up with a vested interest in technology, developing websites for local arts organizations from the age of 11, graduating from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and turning her love affair with digital solutions into a career in Human-Computer Interaction and Organizational Ergonomics.

KaNisa is currently a Senior Lead Technologist at Booz Allen Hamilton working in the capacity of an Agile Coach. In this role she works as a consultant in Agile software methodology transformations for large organizations, teaches classes in these topics, and coaches teams in optimizing their group dynamics, when she herself is not facilitating development teams as a Scrum Master. KaNisa also leads a cohort of Human Computer Interaction professionals for her market! She wears a lot of hats!

Outside of work life, KaNisa is known as “Darling Nisi” and she lends her talents to help be a purple signal boost, especially in regard to self-reflection through the study and appreciation of Prince. She is the host of the Muse 2 the Pharaoh podcast, where she explores purple topics from a female perspective. KaNisa also maintains a purple presence on Tumblr and Twitter to help spread the message of compassion toward others, but more importantly toward self, through the lessons found in the music of Prince.