Daniel Banks

Daniel Banks, Ph.D.,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 Belarussian National Drama Theatre (Minsk), The Market Theatre (Johannesburg, South Africa), the Hip Hop Theatre Festival (New York and Washington, D.C.), the Oval House (London), and served as choreographer/movement director for productions at New York Shakespeare Festival/Shakespeare in the Park, Singapore Repertory Theatre, La Monnaie/De Munt (Brussels), Landestheater (Saltzburg), Aaron Davis Hall (Harlem), and for Maurice Sendak/The Night Kitchen. Daniel 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 and 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, and Mexico. Currently, he is a Visiting Scholar in the Africana Studies Program/Department of Social and Critical Analysis at and is a long-time advisor in the Gallatin School for Individualized Studies, both at NYU. He is also a thesis advisor for the MA Program in Applied Theatre at CUNY.

Daniel 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. Publications include "Unperforming 'Race': Strategies for Re-imagining Identity" in A Boal Companion: Dialogues on Theatre and Cultural Politics (edited by Mady Schutzman and Jan Cohen-Cruz, Routledge, 2006) and "Youth Leading Youth: Hip Hop and Hiplife Theatre in Ghana and South Africa" in Acting on the World Stage: An Anthology for Artists, Peace Builders, and Policy Makers, a project of Brandeis University and Theatre Without Borders. He is editor of the forthcoming anthology SAY WORD!: VOICES FROM HIP HOP THEATRE (University of Michigan Press).