Thulani Davis (born 1949
) is an American playwright, journalist, librettist, novelist, poet, and screenwriter. She is a graduate of
Barnard College
Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...
and attended graduate school at both the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
and
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.
In 1992, Davis received a
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
for her album notes on ''Aretha Franklin's Queen Of Soul – The Atlantic Recordings'', becoming the first female recipient of this award.
She has collaborated with her cousin, composer
Anthony Davis
Anthony Marshon Davis Jr. (born March 11, 1993) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He plays the power forward and center positions. Davis is an eight-time NB ...
, writing the librettos to two operas.
Davis wrote for the ''
Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...
'' for more than a decade,
including the obituary for fellow poet and Barnard alumna
June Jordan
June Millicent Jordan (July 9, 1936 – June 14, 2002) was an American poet, essayist, teacher, and activist. In her writing she explored issues of gender, race, immigration, and representation.
Jordan was passionate about using Black English i ...
. She was a mentor to a young
Greg Tate
Gregory Stephen Tate (October 14, 1957December 7, 2021) was an American writer, musician, and producer. A long-time critic for ''The Village Voice'', Tate focused particularly on African-American music and culture, helping to establish hip-h ...
, before he emerged as an influential journalist and cultural critic.
Thulani Davis is a contemporary of and collaborator with
Ntozake Shange
Ntozake Shange ( ;
FilmReference.com. Retrieved October 27, 2018. October 18, 1948 – October 27, 2018) ...
.
Biography
Thulani Davis was born to two African-American educators from Virginia,
Willie ("Billie") Louise (née Barbour) Davis and Collis Huntington Davis, Sr.
The Davises are prominent in Virginia and the subject of her 2006 book, ''My Confederate Kinfolk.''
Davis graduated from the
Putney School
The Putney School is an independent high school in Putney, Vermont. The school was founded in 1935 by Carmelita Hinton on the principles of the Progressive Education movement and the teachings of its principal exponent, John Dewey. It is a co-ed ...
in 1966 and continued her education at Barnard College, from which she graduated in 1970.
Davis also attended graduate school at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
and
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.
After graduating from Barnard, Davis moved to San Francisco, where she worked as a reporter for the ''San Francisco Sun-Reporter'', reporting on news stories such as the
Soledad Brothers
The Soledad Brothers were three inmates charged with the murder of a prison guard, John Vincent Mills, at California's Soledad Prison on January 16, 1970. George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo, and John Clutchette were alleged to have murdered Mills in ...
trial and the
Angela Davis
Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, and author. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A feminist and a Marxist, Davis was a longtime member of ...
case.
Davis became a performing poet and worked with a number of musicians and poets in San Francisco.
She also joined the Third World Artists Collective, collaborating with
Ntozake Shange
Ntozake Shange ( ;
FilmReference.com. Retrieved October 27, 2018. October 18, 1948 – October 27, 2018) ...
and others.
Davis returned to New York City in the 1970s. There, she wrote for the ''
Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...
'' for 13 years, eventually working her way up to serve as Senior Editor.
In 1981, she introduced family friend and protégé Greg Tate to ''The Village Voice'' music editor
Robert Christgau
Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
, who asked Tate to contribute to the ''Voice,'' where he quickly established himself as one of the influential cultural critics of his generation.
In the mid-1980s Davis collaborated with her cousin, composer
Anthony Davis
Anthony Marshon Davis Jr. (born March 11, 1993) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He plays the power forward and center positions. Davis is an eight-time NB ...
, on creating their first opera. She wrote the libretto to ''
X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X
''X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X'' is an opera with music by Anthony Davis and libretto by Thulani Davis, to a story by Christopher Davis. It is based on the life of the civil rights leader Malcolm X.
Performance history
The opera premiered i ...
''.
The two collaborated again in the 1990s when Davis wrote the libretto to ''
Amistad'' (1997), first produced by the
Chicago Lyric Opera
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1954, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicola Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria ...
.
Tim Page of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' thought the work had missed some chances. It was based on a case of an apparent slave mutiny on a Spanish ship, which reached the United States Supreme Court. Page wrote,
"the incident is a welcome historical example of the United States behaving with wisdom and compassion toward the helpless and downtrodden. This is grudgingly and elusively acknowledged in the opera, but nowhere near so forcefully stated as it should have been, particularly with all the distasteful examples of white racism that were paraded throughout the evening. To paraphrase Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...
, the abolitionist movement had been simmering, simmering, simmering, until the Amistad Rebellion brought it to a boil."
''Amistad'' received a major revision in libretto and music in 2008 for a new production at the
Spoleto USA festival. ''Opera Today'' said that it was
"much leaner, more focused and dramatically far more effective than the original. And in so doing they {the Davises] created not only a masterpiece of American opera, but further a work that — against a contemporary horizon darkened by undercurrents of racism — resonates today far beyond Memminger and Spoleto USA."
After her return to New York City, Davis also became involved in the creation of documentaries and dramatic films. Her filmmaker brother, Collis Huntington Davis, Jr., introduced her to other black filmmakers. The first documentary she was associated with aired on PBS.
She continues to work on creative projects including operas, films, novels, and plays.
Davis is an ordained Buddhist priest in the Jodo Shinshu sect.
She founded the Brooklyn Buddhist Association with her husband
Joseph Jarman
Joseph Jarman (September 14, 1937 – January 9, 2019) was an American jazz musician, composer, poet, and Shinshu Buddhist priest. He was one of the first members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and a member of the ...
.
Works
Books
* ''The Emancipation Circuit: Black Activism Forging a Culture of Freedom'' (2022)
* ''My Confederate Kinfolk'' (2006)
* ''Maker of Saints'' (1996)
* ''Malcolm X: The Great Photographs'' (1993)
* ''1959'', a novel (1992)
* ''Playing the Changes'' (1985)
* ''All the Renegade Ghosts Rise'' (1978)
Plays
* ''The Souls of Black Folk'' (2003)
* ''Everybody's Ruby: Story of a Murder in Florida'' (1999)
* ''Ava & Cat in Mexico'' (1994)
* Adaptation, Brecht's ''The Caucasian Chalk Circle'' (1990)
* ''Paint'' (1982)
* ''Shadow & Veil'', with Ntozake Shange, Jessica Hagedorn, Laurie Carlos, et al. (1982)
* ''Sweet Talk and Stray Desires'' (1979)
* ''Where the Mississippi Meets the Amazon'', with Shange and Hagedorn (1977)
Musical works
* ''Dark Passages'' (1998)
* ''Amistad'', an opera, libretto (1997/revised 2008)
* ''A Woman Unadorned'' (1994)
* ''Baobab Four'' (1994)
* ''The E. & O. Line'', an electronic opera, libretto (1989)
* ''X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X'', an opera, libretto (1986)
* ''X-cerpts'' (1987)
* ''Steppin' Other Shores'' (1983)
* ''See Tee's New Blues'' (1982)
Filmography
Films
* ''Paid in Full'', screenwriter (2002)
* ''Maker of Saints'', co-producer (2010)
Documentaries and recordings
* ''I'll Make Me a World: Black Creative Minds in the 20th Century''
* ''W. E. B. Du Bois: A Biography in Four Voices'' (1996)
* ''Thulani Davis Asks, 'Why Howard Beach? (1988)
* ''Thulani'' (1984–86)
* ''Reflections'' (2002)
* ''The Musical Railism of Anne LeBaron'' (1998)
* ''Songposts, Vol. 1'' (1991)
* ''Without Borders'' (1989)
* ''Fanfare for the Warriors'' (1985)
Awards and recognition
* Inaugural fellow, The Leon Levy Center for Biography, City University of New York Graduate Center, 2008–09
* Fellow, The
Newington-Cropsey Foundation
The Newington-Cropsey Foundation (NCF) is a nonprofit private organization based in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. The foundation's aim is to maintain and preserve the works of Jasper Cropsey and the art movement he was a part of, the Hudson River ...
Academy of Art, 2007–08
* Fellow, The Charles H. Revson Fellows Program on the Future of the City of New York at Columbia University, 2003–04
* Declared an Admiral of The Great Navy of the State of Nebraska by the Governor of Nebraska, 2004
* The New York Coalition of One Hundred Black Women, First Annual Legacies Award, for Achieving Unparallelled Excellence in the Arts, 2003
* Induction in the Black Writers Hall of Fame, 1998
* The Ralph Metcalfe Chair, Marquette University, Milwaukee, 1998
* The Paul Robeson Cultural Democracy Award, The Chicago Center for Arts Policy, 1998
* David Randolph Distinguished Artist-in-Residence, The New School, NY, 1998
* Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Artist-in-residence, 1996
* Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers Award, 1996–99
* PEW National Theatre Artist Residency Grant, 1993–95
* Grammy Award, Best Album Notes, Aretha Franklin, "The Atlantic Recordings", 1993, First woman to win in category
* Grammy Nomination, Best New Work, Classical, "X, The Life & Times...," 1993
* Chicago Humanities Festival Award, 1992
* New York Foundation for the Arts, The Gregory Millard Fellowship Award, Fiction, 1988
* Manhattan Borough President's Awards, Excellence in the Arts & Literature, 1987
* New York State Council on the Arts, Writer in Residency Award, 1987
* The Fannie Lou Hamer Award, Medgar Evers College, Women's Center, 1987
References
Sources
Thulani Davis Collectionat Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Thulani
1948 births
Living people
American women dramatists and playwrights
American women poets
African-American dramatists and playwrights
African-American poets
Barnard College alumni
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American women novelists
African-American novelists
American opera librettists
21st-century American women writers
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American poets
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
21st-century American poets
Women opera librettists
The Putney School alumni
American Book Award winners
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American writers
21st-century African-American women
21st-century African-American writers
African-American women writers