Thulani Davis facts for kids

Thulani Davis (born July 19, 1949) is an American writer. She has written plays, books, poems, and movie scripts. She is also a journalist and has written for operas.

Thulani Davis went to Barnard College. She also studied at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. In 1992, she won a Grammy Award. This was for her notes on an album by Aretha Franklin. She was the first woman to win this award.

Davis has worked with her cousin, Anthony Davis. He is a composer. Together, they have created two operas. She also wrote for the Village Voice newspaper for over ten years.

About Thulani Davis

Thulani Davis was born in 1949. Her parents were Willie Louise Davis and Collis Huntington Davis Sr. They were both teachers from Virginia. The Davis family has a long history in Virginia. Thulani wrote a book about her family in 2006. It is called My Confederate Kinfolk.

Davis finished high school at the Putney School in 1966. She then went to Barnard College and graduated in 1970. After college, she moved to San Francisco. There, she worked as a reporter for the San Francisco Sun-Reporter. She covered important news stories. These included the Soledad Brothers trial and the Angela Davis case.

In San Francisco, Davis became a performing poet. She worked with many musicians and poets. She also joined a group called the Third World Artists Collective. Here, she worked with other artists like Ntozake Shange.

Davis moved back to New York City in the 1970s. She wrote for the Village Voice newspaper for 13 years. She eventually became a Senior Editor there. She also helped her friend Greg Tate start his career as a journalist.

In the mid-1980s, Davis started working with her cousin, Anthony Davis. They created their first opera together. She wrote the story, called the libretto, for X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X.

They worked together again in the 1990s. Davis wrote the libretto for the opera Amistad. This opera was first performed in 1997. It tells the story of a slave ship mutiny. The opera was changed and improved in 2008. Many people thought the new version was much better. It became a very important American opera.

After returning to New York, Davis also started working on films. Her brother, Collis Huntington Davis Jr., was a filmmaker. He introduced her to other Black filmmakers. Her first documentary was shown on PBS. She continues to create new operas, films, books, and plays.

Thulani Davis is also a Buddhist priest. She founded the Brooklyn Buddhist Association. She started it with her husband, Joseph Jarman.

Her Works

Thulani Davis has written many different types of works.

Books she has written

• 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 she has written

• 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, and others (1982)
• Sweet Talk and Stray Desires (1979)
• Where the Mississippi Meets the Amazon, with Shange and Hagedorn (1977)

Musical works she has written

• 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)

Films and Documentaries

Thulani Davis has also worked on movies and documentaries.

Films she has worked on

• Paid in Full, screenwriter (2002)
• Maker of Saints, co-producer (2010)

Documentaries and recordings she has worked on

• 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 Honors

Thulani Davis has received many awards for her work.

• She won a Grammy Award in 1993. This was for her album notes for Aretha Franklin. She was the first woman to win in that category.
• She was nominated for a Grammy for her opera X, The Life & Times... in 1993.
• She received the Paul Robeson Cultural Democracy Award in 1998.
• She was inducted into the Black Writers Hall of Fame in 1998.
• She received the New York Coalition of One Hundred Black Women's Legacies Award in 2003. This was for her excellent work in the arts.
• The Governor of Nebraska named her an Admiral of The Great Navy of the State of Nebraska in 2004.
• She has also received many fellowships and grants for her writing and art.