Uncrowned Community Builders

Alexis DeVeaux is a poet, short fiction writer, essayist, educator, and biographer whose work is nationally and internationally known. Born and raised in Harlem, New York, Ms. DeVeaux has published in five languages: English, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, and Serbo-Croatian.

Among her works are a fictionalized memoir, Spirits: In The Street (Doubleday, 1973); an award-winning children's book, Na-Ni (Harper and Row, 1973); Don't Explain, a Biography of Jazz Great, Billie Holiday (Harper and Row, 1980); two independently published poetry works, Blue Beat: A Portfolio of Poems and Drawings (1985) and Spirit Talk (1997); and a second children's book, An Enchanted Hair Tale (Harper and Row, 1987), which was a recipient of the 1988 Coretta Scott King Award presented by the American Library Association and the 1991 Lorraine Hansberry Award for Excellence in Children's Literature.

In 1997, one of her poems was selected for the prestigious Christmas Broadside Series published under the auspices of the Friends of the University Libraries, the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her plays have been produced on television, off-Broadway, and in regional theaters and include Circles (1972); The Tapestry (1976); A Season to Unravel (1979); NO (1981); and Elbow Rooms (1987).

A diversified writer, her poems, short stories, and articles have appeared in numerous anthologies and publications, including Essence Magazine; The New York Village Voice; The Iowa Review; Home Girls, A Black Feminist Anthology; Emerge Magazine; The Utne Reader; Confirmation, An Anthology of African American Women; Midnight Birds, Stories by Contemporary Black Women Writers; Sage, A Scholarly Journal on Black Women; Children of the Night, The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1967 to the Present; Street Lights, Illuminating Tales of the Urban Black Experience; Afrekete, An Anthology of Black Lesbian Writing; Memory of Kin, Stories About Family by Black Writers; Circles, Buffalo Women's Journal of Law and Social Policy; Does Your Mama Know?, An Anthology of Black Lesbian Coming Out Stories; The Wild Good, Lesbian Photographs and Writing on Love; Liberating Memory, Our Work and Working-class Consciousness; and Callaloo: A Journal of Afro-American and African Arts and Letters. In other media, Ms. DeVeaux's work appears on several records including the highly acclaimed album, Sisterfire for Olivia Records. In 1986 she produced the independent video documentary, MOTHERLANDS: From Manhattan to Manague to Africa, Hand in Hand. This was done in association with the MADRE Video Project.

As an artist and lecturer, she has traveled extensively throughout the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, Japan, and Europe; and is recognized for her contributions to such organizations as MADRE, an international women's self-help organization; SISA (Sisterhood in Support of Sisters in South Africa); the Brooklyn-based performance collective, Flamboyant Ladies Theater Company (co-founded with actress Gwendolen Hardwick; 1979-1986); the Organization of Women Writers of Africa (OWWA); the Buffalo Quarters Historical Society; Just Buffalo Literary Center; the Arts Council of Buffalo and Erie County; and the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars (ACWWS). Over the years, Ms. DeVeaux has combined her interests in creativity, social change, and education; and has taught in community-based organizations, libraries and public schools as well as at several institutions, including Sarah Lawrence College (Bronxville, New York), Vermont College (Vermont), Wabash College (Indiana), and Erie Community College (Buffalo, New York). At present, she is a member of the faculty of the State University of New York at Buffalo where, as an Associate Professor, she teaches in the Department of Women's Studies. Ms. DeVeaux has a Ph.D. in American Studies and recently completed a biography of the late poet Audre Lorde.