Donney Rose
NEW ORLEANS 2025 - 2026
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.
COMMUNITY PROJECT
I Deserve It! / Ashé Cultural Arts Center
Kinfolk Conversations is an intergenerational dialogue series placing youth art, wellness advocacy, and elder wisdom in conversation with one another in coordination with the Ashé Cultural Arts Center and their I Deserve It! initiative. Beginning Spring 2026, Kindred Conversations is designed to take place in historically disenfranchised/underinvested majority Black communities in the Greater New Orleans area with a specific purpose of highlighting health disparities in select neighborhoods. There will be an open call for youth artists to participate by showcasing visual, literary, or musical works of art that speaks to an aspect of the community/neighborhood where each dialogue will take place.
With each community visited, Kinfolk Conversations will unpack some of the primary health issues impacting the residents of each neighborhood and advocate for resources to aid residents in accessing services and providers in their community. The elder component of this project will consist of guided discussions whose participants will be either lifelong or long-time residents of the selected communities who will be able to offer insight on communal challenges, progress made, and advice on the work that still needs to be done to increase equity and enhance the overall quality of life for future generations.