Poet, Teaching Artist, & Community Activist, Donney Rose, discusses the merger of hip-hop and gospel music, sensory detail in music, the responsibility of an artist to reflect the times, and so much more.

Donney Rose is a poet, teaching artist, essayist, and community activist from Baton Rouge but currently living in Bowie, MD, with his wife, Leslie D. Rose.

Donney has worked extensively in the realm of the creative arts. In 2019 he produced The American Audit, a multimedia spoken word poetry production chronicling 400 years of Black American life. He's hosted many events and conferences, one of them being, the Black Out Loud Conference that was centered around Black visibility in the arts, media, and activism.

He has many honors and awards. In 2019 he was honored as a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow, recognized as someone who uses his art for positive impact on his communities and "lives up to the ideals of service, justice, freedom, courage, and gratitude that are inspired by President (John F.) Kennedy’s legacy.