Michael Datcher

516 ARTS, the UNM M.F.A. in Creative Writing program and the Outpost Performance Space are excited to present a reading with Michael Datcher in conjunction with the upcoming exhibition WEST SOUTHWEST: ABQ-LA Exchange at 516 ARTS. The reading will also feature local African American poets and spoken word artists will open up for Mr. Datcher, including including Maisha Baton, Hakim Bellamy, Idris Goodwin. Virginia Hampton and Stephanie Willis (formerly of Out ch’Yonda) will perform a spoken word duet about Charles Mingus.

Michael Datcher is a poet and critically acclaimed journalist from Los Angeles and the author of the New York Times Bestseller Raising Fences, his memoir about a black man’s right to security, family and love. He offers a view of young black men seldom seen in the media—men who long for loving, stable marriages, fatherhood and homes in safe neighborhoods. In this emotionally raw and intimate narrative, Datcher reflects on his fatherless childhood in inner-city Los Angeles, his attraction to local gangs, his
promiscuity, and, at times, his lack of faith. But he also writes of his deep desire—and the desires of other black men he knows—to escape a cycle that deprives children of what they need most and creates empty shells of grown men. The film rights were optioned by actor Will Smith’s Overbrook Productions, who hired Datcher to write the screenplay. Datcher is co-editor of Tough Love: The Life and Death of Tupac Shakur. His latest play Silence was commissioned by and premiered at the Getty Museum. He has appeared on both news programs’ Nightline and Dateline as an analyst and is a frequent commentator on BBC Radio. He is co-host of the weekly public affairs news magazine Beautiful Struggle on 90.7 FM KPFK. Datcher’s writing has appeared in the Washington Post, LA Times, Baltimore Sun, The Source, Ladies Home Journal, Vibe among many other publications. He has curated and/or presented his work at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, The Hammer Museum and other art institutions.