Unconventional Stories from a Firebrand

Arts, No Chaser

By DWIGHT HOBBES

Quintessential firebrand David Daniels is that rarity, a performance artist who, instead of self-righteously blowing hot air, actually utilizes spoken word to send messages of consequence.

An auspicious debut was his play Malcolm X Meet Peter Tosh, premiering at South Minneapolis”™ Cedar Cultural Center (1993), moving to a 2-year stint in Denver (Mercury Cafe), its popularity there and at other venues starting his career off with considerable traction. He made his home here and recalls, “I feel fortunate to have been part of a rich counter-cultural history…in Minneapolis. My time living on the West Bank and working at the New Riverside Cafe brought me into it. The West Bank was Haight-Asbury long after the Haight was just a memory for the counter-culture.  Its blend of artists activists and musicians was instrumental in the development of my work.” A partial listing of that work includes the Talkin”™ Roots and 4:20 Report CDs, I, Edgar Hoover; Black Hippie Chronicles and Kolorada”¦A Western Tale, and a week-long hit at the 1997 New York International Fringe Festival. Daniels has performed in Holland, Germany, and France, recalling “German immigrants from Ghana, Senegal and South Africa felt I [presented] an authentic Rasta message while never denying I”™m an American. Previously, they felt American reggae artists were primarily imitating Jamaicans.” Most… Read the rest “Unconventional Stories from a Firebrand”