Dale Davis (poet)

Dale T. Davis is an American writer, educator, publisher, producer, scholar, dramaturge, and advocate for young people. She was one of the founding poets of New York State Poets In The Schools. In 1979, she co-founded The New York State Literary Center with poet, translator, and editor A. Poulin, Jr. where she continues to serve as Executive Director.

As a publisher she established The Sigma Foundation, a limited edition, private press with Dr. James Sibley Watson, Jr., avant garde filmmaker and publisher and editor of The Dial magazine, the leading modernist journal of arts and letters. The Sigma Foundation published the writing of Mina Loy, Djuna Barnes, and Margaret Anderson. The books are in many permanent collections, including The Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Library, Yale University and The Collection of American Women, Smith College.

Between 1979 and 1995, Dale Davis edited and published over six hundred books and anthologies of the writing of young people with whom she worked in New York State Literary Center programs. The plays she wrote with young people have been performed throughout New York State, and her installations, combining the writing of young people and her own photographs, have been exhibited in many prominent venues.

In 1990, The New York State Literary Center began to concentrate on education programs with young people at highest risk for educational failure, in residential placement and day treatment facilities, juvenile detention centers, juvenile justice facilities, and jails. Davis pioneered teaching literacy and communication skills using hip-hop culture as an education tool. She has written and directed two hip-hop theater pieces, adapted from the writing of the young people with whom she works. She also edited and published a series of children’s books written by incarcerated adolescents. She has produced thirty CDs that feature the poetry, spoken word, and rap of young people.

As an advocate for Teaching Artists, Dale Davis was one of the founders of the Association of Teaching Artists in 1998. In 2006 she was named as the Association of Teaching Artists’ first Executive Director. She develops and maintains the organization’s listserv and website, is in communication with Teaching Artists throughout the country, and consults on training and professional development for Teaching Artists. In 2007 she presented The Association of Teaching Artists at Americans for The Arts national conference. Davis also serves as Administrator for the New York State’s Arts In Correctional Education Network which she founded.

Dale Davis’ career as a writer, educator, publisher, scholar, producer, dramaturge, and advocate for young people began as one of the founding poets of New York State Poets In The Schools. As a publisher she established The Sigma Foundation, a limited edition, private press with Dr. James Sibley Watson, Jr., avant-garde filmmaker and publisher and editor of The Dial magazine, the leading modernist journal of arts and letters. The Sigma Foundation’s books are in many permanent collections, including The Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Library, Yale University and The Collection of American Women at Smith College.

In 1979, she founded The New York State Literary Center (NYSLC) http://www.nyslc.org/ where she continues to serve Executive Director. Writers, editors, and artists who have worked with Dale Davis as integral contributors to NYSLC’s programs included Homero Aridjis, William Bronk, Kenneth Burke, Robert Creeley, Malcolm Cowley, Robert Fitzgerald, Kamilah Forbes, Jonathan Galassi, Hugh Kenner, Ted Kooser, James Laughlin, Ruth Maleczech, Emir Rodriguez Monegal, Octavio Paz, William Stafford, Carrie Mae Weems, and Eliot Weinberger. Davis’ belief in all young people expanded NYSLC’s programs to reach students at the highest risk for educational failure. Today NYSLC serves the incarcerated through interdisciplinary, strength based arts programs.

NYSLC has published over 600 books of writing by young people, 30 children’s books by incarcerated youth, and has produced thirty CDs. A NYSLC program was featured at the William Carlos Williams Centennial at the Harvard Club in New York for a Modern Language Association Convention. NYSLC’s programs have been the subject of articles in New York Magazine and The New York Times, honored by The President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities, The Center for Disease Control National AIDS Clearinghouse, the American Council on The Arts, The National Alternative Education Association, The National Dropout Prevention Association, the Annenberg School of Communication, Arts In Criminal Justice, and a documentary by Columbia University’s EdLab. In 2014, she received the Andrew P. Meloni Award from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office for dedication and commitment to improve the education of those incarcerated through NYSLC's arts, education, and rehabilitation programs.

Dale Davis has lectured and conducted teacher education programs in Juneau, Alaska, Honolulu, Hawaii, the Mississippi Delta, and throughout the country. As a recognized expert on Youth Culture, she served as a consultant to ABC Network. She has presented papers on her work with young people at state and national conferences. She chaired a panel for College Board on employing arts learning with underserved populations to foster cultural understanding and unleash students’ creativity to prepare students to tackle today’s pressing issues at the College Board’s National Forum, Education and The American Future. She served as a panelist for Massachusetts Council’s first Creative Teaching Fellowships Program. She served as both an Education Panelist and Literature Panelist for The New York State Council on The Arts.

As an advocate for Teaching Artists, Davis was one of the founders of the Association of Teaching Artists (ATA) http://www.teachingartists.com/ in 1998. In 2006 she became the Association of Teaching Artists’ first Executive Director where she continues to serve. She is in communication with Teaching Artists nationwide and consults on training and professional development for Teaching Artists. ATA now reaches over 5,000 artists and arts professionals weekly. In 2011, ATA became a national advocacy organization for Teaching Artists and convened the first national gathering of Teaching Artists, the Teaching Artists Forum, at the Center for Arts Education in New York City.

Dale Davis’ installations, combining the writing of young people and her own photographs, have been exhibited in several prominent venues. She has written 10 hip-hop theater pieces, adapted from the writing of the young people with whom she works that have been performed in juvenile justice facilities, prisons, and jails. Her writing has appeared in publications from The Iowa Review to Op-Ed in The New York Times. Recent publications include chapters in Unseen Cinema, Classics In The Classroom and columns in the online publication, The Bakery.

External links

• http://www.nyslc.org/
• http://www.teachingartists.com/