Vanity Fair’s September 2020 Issue: Guest-Edited by Ta-Nehisi Coates (original) (raw)

• 
  Marjon
  Carlos
  The journalist and public speaker spoke with CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner Christopher John Rogers about what it means to be a Black designer.
• 
  Ta-Nehisi
  Coates
  Coates is the award-winning author of the nonfiction best sellers The Beautiful Struggle, We Were Eight Years in Power, and Between the World and Me, as well as a novel, The Water Dancer.
• 
  Kimberly
  Drew
  Drew, an art curator and writer, coedited the collection Black Futures, to be published in December.
• 
  Josie
  Duffy Rice
  A journalist and lawyer whose work often explores the intersection of policy and justice, Duffy Rice is president of the news and commentary site The Appeal.
• 
  Ava
  DuVernay
  The filmmaker’s work includes the Oscar-nominated Selma and acclaimed Netflix limited series When They See Us.
• 
  Diana
  Ejaita
  Ejaita is an illustrator and textile designer based in Berlin. Her designs draw from West African and European influences.
• 
  Eve L.
  Ewing
  A poet and sociologist whose 2019 collection, 1919, inspired this issue’s title, Ewing explores the entrenched—and outsized—power police unions hold over American life.
• 
  LaToya Ruby
  Frazier
  Frazier, who has previously documented the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, broke her own quarantine to photograph Breonna Taylor’s family in Louisville, Kentucky.
• 
  Bomani
  Jones
  An ESPN journalist and commentator, he hosts the podcast The Right Time With Bomani Jones.
• 
  Deana
  Lawson
  The Los Angeles–based photographer’s work explores themes of Black intimacy, sexuality, and family.
• 
  Kiese Makeba
  Laymon
  The Jackson, Mississippi, native’s 2018 memoir, Heavy, received the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.
• 
  Quil
  Lemons
  The 23-year-old photographer, who has shot covers for GQ Middle East and Out Magazine, creates portraits that often challenge traditional ideas of masculinity.
• 
  Franklin
  Leonard
  As founder of annual Hollywood institution the Black List, Leonard brings unproduced screenplays to light and pushes studios to tell new and needed stories.
• 
  Shawn
  Martinbrough
  Martinbrough, a veteran comic book artist, has worked on titles including Batman, Captain America, and Black Panther, and he is the author of How to Draw Noir Comics.
• 
  Ruth
  Ossai
  The Nigeria-raised, U.K.-based photographer is known for her use of nontraditional backdrops, an homage to her home country’s portrait studio traditions.
• 
  Calida
  Rawles
  Rawles’s photo-realist paintings often focus on Black men and women submerged in water. Her work served as the cover of Coates’s 2019 novel, The Water Dancer.
• 
  Amy
  Sherald
  Sherald won the 2016 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, which led to her painting Michelle Obama for the National Portrait Gallery, one of many institutions to feature her art.
• 
  Danez
  Smith
  The poet, a St. Paul native and 2017 National Book Award finalist, reflects on street art in Minneapolis after the killing of George Floyd.
• 
  Jesmyn
  Ward
  Ward is a two-time National Book Award winner for Fiction. In 2016, she edited the anthology The Fire This Time.
• 
  Hank
  Willis Thomas
  The photographer’s work focuses on identity, commodity, and perspective, among other themes.
• 
  Jacqueline
  Woodson
  A recipient of the National Book Award and Hans Christian Andersen Award, Woodson is an internationally renowned author of children’s and young adult fiction.