ROCHELLE RILEY

Rochelle Riley is the City of Detroit’s director of arts and culture. An award-winning journalist, she was a columnist for the Detroit Free Press for nearly twenty years. She is the author of That They Lived: African Americans Who Changed the World (Wayne State University Press, 2021) and The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery. Her many honors include the Ida B. Wells Award from the National Association of Black Journalists and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. An essayist, keynote speaker, and artist, she remains a writer by trade, warrior by necessity.