Donney Rose is a poet, teaching artist, essayist, and community activist from Baton Rouge. He is the creator of The American Audit, a multimedia spoken word project detailing 400 years of Black American life using the extended metaphor of America as a business being audited. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from Southern University and A & M College in Baton Rouge. He is a 2018-2019 Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow. Donney's work as a performance poet/writer has been featured in a variety of publications. His work as a community activist has been highlighted on the BBC, Democracy Now! and The New York Times. Donney also works as a contributing writer for The North Star.