Donna Denizé is an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

and award-winning teacher at St. Albans School, located in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Ms. Denize is currently Chairwoman of the English Department. She has contributed widely to journals and magazines with essays and poetry, written books of collections of poetry, participated in development of professional training programs for teachers as well as programs for students of multiple public schools. Some of her work has appeared in anthologies and magazines and she has contributed to some

Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...

print and video media.

Background

Denizé is an American of Haitian descent,Donna Denize's Bio
and a native of

Cape Cod, Massachusetts Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

. Denizé has lived in the Washington D.C. area since 1978. Denizé holds an undergraduate degree from Stonehill College, where she was a student of

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

Robert Hayden Robert Hayden (August 4, 1913February 25, 1980) was an American poet, essayist, and educator. He served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1976 to 1978, a role today known as US Poet Laureate. He was the first African-Ameri ...

, and an M.A. from

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

in Renaissance Drama. She has received grants from the

Bread Loaf School of English Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all 5 ...

(using the accommodation of Lincoln College at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

), Johns Hopkins Summer Writing Program, the Humanities Council of Washington, DC, and the

Folger Shakespeare Library The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare materi ...

. In 1981 she participated in the World Order Magazine Commemorative Issue to

Appointments, honors, invited contributions

In 1980 she served through appointment by Governor Charles Robb to The Virginia State Advisory Board on Vocational Education. In 2003, she was awarded by

Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kill ...

the ''George Olmsted, Jr., Class of 1924 Prize for Excellence in Secondary School Teaching'', and in 2004, she was appointed to the Board of Trustees of

American Shakespeare Center The American Shakespeare Center (ASC) is a regional theatre company located in Staunton, Virginia, that focuses on the plays of William Shakespeare; his contemporaries Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Christopher Marlowe; and works related ...

, a national destination and resource for audiences, actors, students, scholars, and educators, based at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, Virginia. She currently teaches literature at St. Albans School, where she teaches Shakespeare, American literature, and freshman English, serves as chair of the Faculty Diversity Committee and faculty advisor of the school's literary magazine and during the summer teaches in the

Washington National Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral, is an American cathedral of the Episcopal Church. The cathedral is located in Washington, D.C., the ca ...

's summer program called Cathedral Scholars, an outreach program of academic enrichment which serves students from 15 different D.C. public schools. She is a recipient of the Distinguished Teacher Award from the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

Presidential Scholars Program The United States Presidential Scholars Program is a program of the United States Department of Education. It is described as "one of the Nation's highest honors for students" in the United States of America and the globe. The program was estab ...

.Donna Denizé and Lesson Plan for Great Expectations
for the Ninth grade. Denizé has been invited/appointed to numerous workshops, panel discussions, readings and other responsibilities at: *

* Corcoran Museum of Art *

The Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

* WPFW ''The Poet and The Poem'', hosted by Grace Cavalieri * Martin Luther King, Jr. Library *One of eight invited teacher's for Annenberg/CPB Channel's eight part mini-series, In Search of the Novel doing a

lesson plan A lesson plan is a teacher's detailed description of the course of instruction or "learning trajectory" for a lesson. A daily lesson plan is developed by a teacher to guide class learning. Details will vary depending on the preference of the tea ...

on Great Expectations. *Denizé is also the Baháʼí Chaplain for American University, a position she has held since at least 2008.

Poetry and publications

Denizé's poetry has appeared in the book ''Hungry As We Are''. Denizé published a selection of poems titled ''The Lover's Voice'' in 1997 (Hickory House Press) and ''Broken Like Job'' in 2005 (The Word Works). She has also been a contributor to scholarly books and journals, including Shakespeare Set Free ()
Innisfree Journal of Poetry
Gargoyle Magazine's ''Gargoyle 49'' CD,The Montserrat Review - Gargoyle #49
Produced by Richard Peabody, postproduction/sound by Zenon Slawinsky and '' Orison''. She has published essays like 'Use of Color in Selected Shakespearean Works' in

and 'A Scholar's Journey: Reflections on W.E.B. DuBois and the Power of Education' in ''Teacher's Digest'', an educational magazine from The Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Denizé has also contributed to programs of

National Council of Teachers of English The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is a United States professional organization dedicated to "improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education. Since 1911, NCTE has provided a forum ...

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

, Mobil

Masterpiece Theatre ''Masterpiece'' (formerly known as ''Masterpiece Theatre'') is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH Boston. It premiered on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) on January 10, 1971. The series has presented numerous acclaimed Briti ...

, the Annenberg Foundation, and the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

References

External links

Official Website
Education should be a provocative, engaging, experience.
St. Alban's School Official WebsiteBread Loaf School of EnglishInnisfree Journal of Poetry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Denize, Donna American Bahá'ís American University staff Howard University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Bahá'í poets American people of Haitian descent 20th-century Bahá'ís 21st-century Bahá'ís