Donney Rose is a poet, teaching artist, creative consultant, and community activist from Baton Rouge. He is also the Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Black Out Loud Conference,LLC, which held its inaugural conference in Baton Rouge in August 2018. In April 2018, Donney joined the ranks of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as a 2018-2019 Citizen Artist Fellow.
Donney is the author of The Crying Buck, an acclaimed chapbook of poetry that delves into Black masculinity and vulnerability through a critical lens, and Black Out Loud, a collection of prose-style poetic interpretations of Black History Month 2017. His work as a performance poet/writer has been featured in a variety of publications, including Atlanta Black Star, Blavity, Button Poetry, All Def Digital, Slam Find, [225], Drunk In A Midnight Choir, and Nicholls State University's Gris-Gris literary journal. Donney also contributed two articles to the St. James Encyclopedia of Hip Hop Culture, 1st Edition (St. James Press, February 2018)
While Donney has always used his voice to entertain, uplift, and inspire -- a true community activist emerged in the summer of 2016. Baton Rouge had become the familiar scene that so many American cities have experienced, with the shooting death of a black man by a Baton Rouge Police officer. Donney not only acted immediately, but he has remained a pivotal community voice through the turmoil, sharing his thoughts to bring light to his city on local, national, and international platforms, including BBC, HuffPost, The New York Times, PBS' Democracy Now, and The Advocate. In the week's following the widely publicized incident, protests and militarized policing took over Baton Rouge, followed by the killings of several Baton Rouge law enforcement officers, and finally by a thousand-year flood encompassing much of Louisiana. Donney gave his voice to these causes, most notably contributing to the Fight the Flood album, a project by various artists to benefit the Capital Area United Way's flood relief projects. And while all of this was occurring, Donney was experiencing a very personal loss with the passing of a beloved and promising student, for whom he has worked to honor through dedicated community work.
Donney gives of himself so completely that while he was going the process of being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, no one could get him to take time away from his work -- it is such a huge part of who he is as person -- and for that he has been rewarded in so many ways. He is a member of the 2017 Greater Baton Rouge Business Report Forty under 40 class, the recipient of the Ink Festival's inaugural Making a Mark award (2017, Tupelo, Miss.), and New Venture Theatre's 2016 Humanitarian of the Year award. He also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge. He lives in his hometown of Baton Rouge with his wife and fellow writer, Leslie, and their twin cats, Jalen and Derrick.
Donney is the author of The Crying Buck, an acclaimed chapbook of poetry that delves into Black masculinity and vulnerability through a critical lens, and Black Out Loud, a collection of prose-style poetic interpretations of Black History Month 2017. His work as a performance poet/writer has been featured in a variety of publications, including Atlanta Black Star, Blavity, Button Poetry, All Def Digital, Slam Find, [225], Drunk In A Midnight Choir, and Nicholls State University's Gris-Gris literary journal. Donney also contributed two articles to the St. James Encyclopedia of Hip Hop Culture, 1st Edition (St. James Press, February 2018)
While Donney has always used his voice to entertain, uplift, and inspire -- a true community activist emerged in the summer of 2016. Baton Rouge had become the familiar scene that so many American cities have experienced, with the shooting death of a black man by a Baton Rouge Police officer. Donney not only acted immediately, but he has remained a pivotal community voice through the turmoil, sharing his thoughts to bring light to his city on local, national, and international platforms, including BBC, HuffPost, The New York Times, PBS' Democracy Now, and The Advocate. In the week's following the widely publicized incident, protests and militarized policing took over Baton Rouge, followed by the killings of several Baton Rouge law enforcement officers, and finally by a thousand-year flood encompassing much of Louisiana. Donney gave his voice to these causes, most notably contributing to the Fight the Flood album, a project by various artists to benefit the Capital Area United Way's flood relief projects. And while all of this was occurring, Donney was experiencing a very personal loss with the passing of a beloved and promising student, for whom he has worked to honor through dedicated community work.
Donney gives of himself so completely that while he was going the process of being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, no one could get him to take time away from his work -- it is such a huge part of who he is as person -- and for that he has been rewarded in so many ways. He is a member of the 2017 Greater Baton Rouge Business Report Forty under 40 class, the recipient of the Ink Festival's inaugural Making a Mark award (2017, Tupelo, Miss.), and New Venture Theatre's 2016 Humanitarian of the Year award. He also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge. He lives in his hometown of Baton Rouge with his wife and fellow writer, Leslie, and their twin cats, Jalen and Derrick.
