Baton Rouge native Donney Rose is a New Orleans-based performance poet, advocacy journalist, and teaching artist. He is the creator of The American Audit, a multimedia spoken word project that examines the Black American experience by infusing history, creative verse, and qualitative research into the performance text. His work spans two decades on stages and in classrooms, guides others in their creative journeys, and brings nuanced and colorful perspectives through spoken word and other creative outlets. Donney is a past Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow and a recipient of the 2022 Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artist Award for Literary Arts, among countless other noteworthy accomplishments in arts and community organizing.