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BIOGRAPHY

CHAPTER SUMMARY

LINKS & RESOURCES

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BIOGRAPHY

Daniel Banks is a theatre director, choreographer, educator, and dialogue facilitator.  He has worked extensively in the U.S. and abroad, having directed at such notable venues as the National Theatre of Uganda (Kampala), the Belarusian National Drama Theatre (Minsk), The Market Theatre (Johannesburg, South Africa), the Hip Hop Theatre Festival (New York and Washington, D.C.), and the Oval House (London). Banks has served on the faculties of the Department of Undergraduate Drama, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and the MFA in Contemporary Performance at Naropa University.
 
He is the founder and director of the Hip Hop Theatre Initiative that uses Hip Hop Theatre as a tool for youth empowerment and leadership training.  HHTI has worked on campuses and in communities across the U.S. and in Ghana, South Africa, Hungary, Mexico, and Israel.  Banks is also Co-Director of DNAWORKS, an arts and service organization dedicated to using the arts as the catalyst for community dialogue and healing.

Banks is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Career Development Program for Directors. He sits on the steering committee of Theatre Without Borders, on the Editorial Board of No Passport Press, and on the Advisory Boards of the Hip Hop Association and the Downtown Urban Arts Festival.  He has guest lectured extensively, at such institutions as: SUNY Stony Brook, University of California-Riverside, Stanford University, Brandeis University, University of Western Michigan, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Central Florida, and University of Florida-Gainesville; and has been a Guest Artist at Williams College, City College of New York, Marymount Manhattan College, and the National Theatre Conservatory, Denver.  He holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from NYU.
 
His publications include "Unperforming 'Race': Strategies for Re-imagining Identity" in A Boal Companion: Dialogues on Theatre and Cultural Politics and "How Hiplife Theatre Was Born in Ghana," American Theatre magazine. He is editor of the forthcoming critical anthology of Hip Hop Theatre plays Say Word! Voices from Hip Hop Theatre, for the University of Michigan Press (Spring 2010).

During the past year, Daniel Banks published the first critical anthology of Hip Hop Theatre plays, “Say Word! Voices from Hip Hop Theater” (University of Michigan Press) and “The Question of Cultural Diplomacy: Acting Ethically” (Theatre Topics, Sept. 2011). Banks has also toured his production of “HaMapah/The Map” with co-creator Adam McKinney to the Passing the Flame Festival, marking Dah Teatar’s 20th anniversary in Belgrade, Serbia; the Spoleto Open Festival, Italy, where an excerpt was also performed at Ellen Stewart’s memorial celebration as part of the Spoleto Festival; Rhodes College, Memphis; and the Saratoga Arts Festival, NY). He was also invited to assume the role of co-director of Theatre Without Borders and planned a leadership retreat in his new home city of Santa Fe, NM. Banks continues to teach in the M.A. in Applied Theatre at CUNY and advise in the Gallatin Program at NYU.

ACTING TOGETHER CHAPTER SUMMARY

Anthology Vol. 2: Chapter 2 Summary

YOUTH LEADING YOUTH: Hip Hop and Hiplife Theatre in Ghana and South Africa

by Daniel Banks

Context
Daniel Banks' chapter begins with a moving description of “the delirium of sound” that is the Hip Hop Cipher. Banks references Wole Soyinka and Victor Turner in analyzing how the Cipher’s supportive circle of singing and dancing actualizes both individualistic expression and community-building. In expressing his belief that Hip Hop Theatre is a means of youth leadership training and empowerment, Banks says the Cipher is, “a place for people to demonstrate and practice their skills, a place to enact self-definition and theorize one’s own existence in the presence of community.”

Banks goes on to discuss the complex development of Hip Hop, from the 1970s in the Bronx in New York City with Universal Zulu Nation founder Afrika Bambaataa, to its international status of today as evidenced in news articles, books and films based on Hip Hop experiences. He presents the origins of Hip Hop as a generative and creative alternative activity to street violence, noting, for example, Nelson George's description of Zulu Nation as “a collective of DJ’s, breakers, graffiti artists, and homeboys that filled the fraternal role gangs play in urban culture while de-emphasizing crime and fighting.” The founding ethics of Hip Hop are inclusion, cooperation, collaboration, and community.

Banks sets up a clear distinction between the commercialized rap recording industry based on consumerism and exploitation, and the worldwide politically conscious form supporting non-violent self-expression, justice, and healing. He addresses Hip Hop's multiethnic constituency and origins, as well as its African aesthetics and cultural retentions.

Hip Hop Theatre
Hip Hop Theatre fuses the key elements of Hip Hop—DJ’ing/Turntablism, Emcee’ing/Rapping, Dancing, Writing/Aerosol Art, and Human Beat-boxing—with the conventions of theatre, keeping at its core the original ethics supporting the voice of individuals and the specific needs of the community (youth empowerment and social change). Banks lists varied examples of successful Hip Hop Theater productions, and explains their influences such as the Black Arts Movement and the legacy of the West African storyteller.

International Teaching and Practice: Ghana
Banks begins his descriptions of his work in Ghana by including an interview he did with