Donté Clark

Donté Clark is a spoken-word poet, actor, and writer based in California’s Bay Area. He co-founded an artist collective called RAW Talent (Richmond Artist With Talent) in 2008, which encouraged young people in his community to get involved with writing and performing workshops. In 2013, RAW Talent—led by Donté Clark and his co-director Molly Raynor—published a play, Té’s Harmony, which documents the shared experiences of Richmond youth while making parallels to the narrative of Romeo and Juliet. The writing process for Té’s Harmony was shown in the 2017 documentary Romeo Is Bleeding, executively produced by Russell Simmons. Donté has traveled across the US speaking at high schools, universities, and community forums about Romeo Is Bleeding and his experiences working with young people and the arts. Donté is featured in the 2016 film titled Kicks and co-starred in two seasons of The North Pole, a political comedy and docu-series about gentrification and its effects on communities of color in North Oakland. In 2018, Donté published his first collection of poetry, KNOWFREEDOM. He is the Poetry Series Program Lead Workshop Artist at Juvenile Hall in Martinez, California.

Donté Clark is a Youth Arts Connection Workshop Artist. The workshops are led by a community-based and grassroots team of professional poets, spoken word artists, and educators from Contra Costa County. The program serves youth ages 12–18 at the Contra Costa County libraries of Antioch, Brentwood, and Pittsburg.