Luke Stewart is a musician, performer, improviser-composer, organizer and writer-researcher whose work represents a deep reverence for the history and tradition of creative music: a tradition which encompasses the diverse styles of expression within the body of Black music in the United States, Africa and throughout the world. Stewart’s regular ensembles include Irreversible Entanglements, SILT Trio, Exposure Quintet, and the experimental rock duo Blacks’ Myths; he also performs regularly in numerous collaborations. Stewart has had residencies at Roulette Intermedium, Brooklyn, New York; The Hermitage Artist Retreat, Englewood, Florida; and Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, New York. He received a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant (2022) to support his work with KO Arts in New Orleans. In 2020, Stewart was noted in DownBeat as one of twenty-five performers to “shape jazz for decades.” He holds a B.A. from American University and an M.A. from The New School, where he is an adjunct professor in the College of Performing Arts.

More at thelukestewart.com.

Giovanni Russonello is a writer, educator and organizer who has covered jazz for the New York Times since 2017. He also hosts “Jazz Stories” every Thursday from 3 to 5 p.m. on WPFW 89.3 FM, and is an adjunct professor at New York University. Gio is currently at work on a biography of Gil Scott-Heron, under contract to Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt and Faber & Faber (UK). He has contributed to the Washington Post, The Fader, JazzTimes, NPR Music and others, and has delivered talks and papers at the New England Conservatory, Université Paul Valéry Montpellier, as critic-in-residence at the Ace Hotel New Orleans, and elsewhere. Gio graduated with a B.A. in history from Tufts University, where he edited the daily student newspaper and was involved in the successful movement to demand a degree program in Africana studies. He was a 2024 D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities fellow, a 2021 Logan Nonfiction Program fellow, and the recipient of a 2023 Community Culture and Heritage grant from HumanitiesDC.

More at giovannirussonello.tumblr.com.

Alex Hamburger is a flutist, vocalist, and composer hailing from the vibrant music scene of the D.C. area. She brings over a decade of experience to her work as both a performer and creator, with her two albums as a leader earning praise from outlets including All About Jazz, Bandcamp, and Jazzthing, as well as her many years of experience presenting concerts and festivals. She was a member of the 2018-2019 Focusyear band at the Jazzcampus in Basel, Switzerland; Hamburger’s career has since taken her to stages across Europe, South America and the U.S. While captivating audiences around the U.S. and abroad, she remains deeply connected to the D.C. music community. She was an Artist in Residence at the Music Center at Strathmore in 2022, and helped produce the Mid Atlantic Jazz Festival from 2022-2024. She is the founder and producer of My Body, My Festival, a benefit fundraiser for the DC Abortion Fund.

More at alexhamburger.com.

Julia Marks is an arts administrator, playwright and director originally from Clemson, South Carolina. She has collaborated with esteemed performing arts organizations internationally, including Fishamble, the Scene and Heard Festival, Rorschach Theatre, Rhizome DC and Avant Bard, to create joyful, experimental and form-twisting theatrical works. Her short play, For How Janelle Monáe Once Made Me Feel, was recently published in Fishamble’s Tiny Plays. Marks has assistant directed productions with Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington Revels, Montgomery College, and the College of Charleston. In addition to her work as operations coordinator at CapitalBop, she is a production assistant in programming at the Kennedy Center as a freelance hospitality coordinator, working with artists at prestigious events including the Kennedy Center Honors, the Mark Twain Prize, and YouTube’s Brandcast. She has held multiple administrative roles at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Marks holds a B.A. in theatre from the College of Charleston and trained at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland.

More at juliamarks.co.

Jamie Sandel is a musician and creative producer based in Northwest D.C. As a filmmaker, photographer, and graphic designer, Sandel has worked closely with Brandon Woody, Maimouna Youssef (aka Mumu Fresh), and José Luiz Martins, among many others. He co-produced five Capital Emmy-winning pieces for Maryland Public Television alongside longtime collaborator T.L. Benton (MECCA Filmworks), and his photos have been featured by Blue Note Records, Stereogum, Washington Post, DC JazzFest, and JazzTimes. Sandel was drawn to filmmaking by his desire to communicate the power of live music, and he thinks as a musician even when he’s behind a lens. He is active as a local and touring violinist and bassist; current and past collaborations include MALINDA, Bartees Strange, the Abe Mamet Septet, October ’71, Flowers for Palestine, Sarah Hughes’ Zara, Eli Waltz, and Dono Dono.

More at jamiesandel.com and at @allpowermedia on Instagram.

Abram Mamet is a musician and writer living in Mt. Rainier, Maryland. His written work focuses on people, cities, and community. Mamet covers a number of topics under this umbrella, including music, low-income housing, and incarceration. As a musician, he is one of the few French horn players working professionally in the jazz world. You can hear him on French horn leading a trio every Saturday evening at Lost Generation Brewery in Northeast D.C.

Hear his recorded work at abemamet.bandcamp.com.

Jackson Sinnenberg has led CapitalBop’s coverage of all things going on in the D.C. jazz scene for the last ten years. He has reported on D.C. Council legislation, interviewed scores of artists from Herbie Hancock to the Messthetics and written long-form features. During the day, he is the Morning Edition Producer and Editor for WAMU 88.5 FM Washington, the NPR News affiliate for D.C. As an arts and culture reporter, his work has appeared in the Washington Post, JazzTimes, Downbeat, NPR Music, and the Washington City Paper.

Joshua M. Myers is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies in the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University. The author of numerous books, his most recent publication Holy Ghost Key is the winner of the 2023 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Prize (Broadside Lotus Press, 2024). His research interests include Africana intellectual histories and traditions, Africana philosophy, musics, and foodways as well as critical university studies, and disciplinarity. A central thread that guides all of this work is an approach to knowledge that takes seriously that peoples of African descent possess a deep sense of reality, a thought tradition that more than merely interprets what is around us, but can transform and renew these spaces we inhabit—a world we would like to fundamentally change.
More at joshmmyers.com.

Keith Butler Jr. is a Washington, D.C. based multidisciplinary artist. He completed his M.F.A. in Music Composition at Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2022 with a focus in lyrical piano music and modern art song. As a drummer he works regularly with the area’s top musicians and bands such as Grant Langford. Stephen Arnold & Sea Change, FIASCO, Abe Mamet, Colin Chambers, Bēheld, Brian Settles, Alex Hamburger, Elijah Jamal Balbed, Zoë Jorgenson, and Amy K Bormet. He leads his own group, seysew, and is a Little City Concerts 2024-25 commissioned artist.

More at keithbutlermusic.com.

Lyla Maisto is a multidisciplinary artist in Takoma, D.C. who has contributed to CapitalBop’s editorial coverage since 2019. In 2022, she co-founded The Turnaround, a dedicated platform for women, non-binary, and gender-expansive a​rtists in the D.C. area. The project has been featured in DCist, the Washington City Paper and the Washington Informer. She received a 2025 grant from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities to continue the project, handling all editorial, design and publication responsibilities. She has lectured at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, and her other design projects include work for Strange Woman Records, Donkeysaddle Projects, Just Vision, +972Magazine and The Nation. She covered local news for the Daily Cardinal at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she studied linguistics and history. From 2015-2023, she hosted weekly jazz programming on WSUM 91.7 FM in Madison, Wisconsin. Occasionally, she plays music.

More at lylamaisto.com.