Chinaka Hodge (born 1984)
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 (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
,
educator
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...
,
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just
Readin ...
and
screenwriter
A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...
. She has received national recognition for her publications, especially her artistic work on
gentrification
Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...
.
Biography
Chinaka Hodge was born in
Oakland, California
Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...
and lived in various neighborhoods of the city throughout the course of her childhood. In May 2006, Hodge graduated from
NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, and was honored to be the student speaker at the 174th Commencement exercise. Four years later, Chinaka received USC's Annenberg Fellowship to continue her studies at its
School of Cinematic Arts. She received her
MFA in Writing for Film and TV in 2012. In the fall of that year, she was awarded the SF Foundation's Phelan Literary Award for emerging Bay Area talent.
Hodge was also a 2012 Artist in Residence at The Headlands Center for the Arts in
Marin, CA. In January 2013, Hodge was a
Sundance Feature Film lab Fellow for her script, "700th&Int'l."
In June 2013 she began as a first-year fellow at
Cave Canem’s summer retreat.
Hodge is in a longterm partnership with
McLeod Bethel-Thompson, a
quarterback most notably with the
Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team based in Toronto, Ontario. The Argonauts compete in the East Division (CFL), East Division of t ...
of the
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...
.
Work and publications
Since 2005, Hodge has worked in various capacities at Youth Speaks/The Living Word Project, a
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
-based literary arts non-profit. During her tenure there, she served as Program Director, Associate Artistic Director, and worked directly with Youth Speaks’ core population as a teaching artist and poet mentor.
She has acted in comparable capacities in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
and
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
at Urban Word NYC and Get Lit: Words Ignite. Her poems,
editorials
An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK), is an article or any other written document, often unsigned, written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper or magazine, that expresses the publication's opinion about ...
,
interviews
An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" re ...
and
prose
Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...
have been featured in
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
,
San Francisco Magazine,
Believer Magazine,
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
,
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
,
CNN
Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
,
C-Span
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...
, and in two seasons of
''HBO’s Def Poetry''. In 2013 and 2014, she was featured in two of
Watsky's music videos as a guest rapper and writer.
She is also the author of the book ''Dated Emcees'' (City Lights, 2016), a collection of poetry about urban hip-hop.
In April 2021, Hodge had been hired as the
head writer
A head writer is a person who oversees the team of writers on a television or radio series. The title is common in the soap opera
A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio ...
on the upcoming
Marvel Studios
Marvel Studios, LLC, formerly known as Marvel Films, is an American film and television production company. Marvel Studios is the creator of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), a media franchise and shared universe of films and television ser ...
streaming series ''
Ironheart'' for
Disney+
The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
.
Music
Hodge is a founding member, along with
Daveed Diggs and
Rafael Casal, of a collaborative
hip hop
Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...
ensemble, The Getback.
Plays
* ''Mirrors In Every Corner'' (2010)
* ''Chasing Mehserle'' (2014)''
''
Poetry collections
* ''For Girls with Hips: Collected Poems and Writings'' (2006)
* ''Dated Emcees'' (2016)
Filmography
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodge, Chinaka
American women writers
Writers from Oakland, California
USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study alumni
21st-century American women