Michael Datcher

Michael Datcher did his undergraduate work at UC Berkeley and his graduate work at UCLA and the University of California Riverside where he received his Ph.D. in English Literature. He is the author Animating Black and Brown Liberation: A Theory of American Literatures (State University of New York Press) the historical novel AMERICUS (Third World PRESS), the critically-acclaimed New York Times Bestseller RAISING FENCES (Penguin Putnam/Riverhead)—a TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB Book of the Month pick The film rights were originally optioned by actor Will Smith’s Overbrook Productions, who hired Datcher to write the screenplay. He is co-editor of TOUGH LOVE: The Life and Death of Tupac Shakur. Datcher’s play SILENCE was commissioned by and premiered at the Getty Museum. He is co-host of the weekly public affairs news magazine BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE on 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles. His writing is widely anthologized, including appearances in the volumes What Makes A Man (Penguin), Brown Sugar (Simon Schuster), Soulfires (Penguin), Testimony (Beacon Press), Another City (City Lights), and Body and Soul (Crown), among others. 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. Datcher is the Board President of The World Stage, a literary and jazz education and performance nonprofit in Los Angeles’ Crenshaw District.