Dr. doris davenport: Poet Activist Who Taught Us

Doris Davenport, aka doris davenport, was born in Gainesville, Georgia, in January 1949, and she died in December, 2024. Artist, dancer, essayist, PhD scholar, and thinker, she abundantly focused her energy on poetry and education. Dr. doris davenport identified first as African American, Appalachian, Feminist, and LGBTQ. All of these innately influenced her life’s work, and her work has also been grounded in the South.

We all grieve her deeply, all of us who knew this extraordinary woman—and make no mistake, she was extraordinary by any measure—whether we only got to meet her in person once, whether we are surviving family members, or whether we are close friends. There are so many people who admire her, knowing her through her writings, her performances, her community work, and her classes. If doris ever smiled at you, she left you radiantly immersed in the glow of that magic smile. Somehow, that smile, doris davenport’s smile, encompassed everything she was and could be, and everything that you were and could be, flooding us with love. She broadcast with her smile. She was a rock star to us.

Doris described herself authentically in one of her latest of her thirteen (13) published books of poetry, testimony: poems proclamations potions, like this:
“Pronouns: person/per – a visionary working class / philosophical anarchist, 75-year-old sapiosexual Lesbian-Feminist / LGBTQ+ Nation & Alternate ROOTS member (20+ years); writer, performance poet, educator and independent scholar; born and raised in traditional Cherokee Homelands (euro-colonized northeast Georgia). I have published 13 books of poetry (several available on Amazon & Kindle). I constantly, continually, adamantly work to end every form of oppression, towards truth & honesty – based egalitarian, inclusive and *magical* realities. I have done more than 120 poetry performances, collaborations, and workshops. And I’m a dancer and a photographer.”

Calling herself an Affrilachian from her life growing up in the Appalachian foothills, Dr. doris davenport was inspired to her core by Appalachia. After skipping grades in elementary school and high school for being so smart, she started Paine College in Augusta, Georgia, at age sixteen. She earned her bachelor of arts with honors in English from Paine College. She earned a master of arts in English from the State University of New York (SUNY) Buffalo, and she earned her doctorate degree in literature at the University of Southern California (USC). At the end, she returned to her beloved northeast Georgia to retire.

In recent years, Dr. doris davenport had been working, writing, and teaching in Georgia and Alabama. After her death, her family wrote, “As per her wishes, her remains will be scattered in the traditional Cherokee Homelands, euro-colonized Northeast Georgia, on Tower (Chenocetah) Mountain and Mt. Yonah.”

She had a no-nonsense way of dealing with us white women, and she came by it through the school of hard knocks. She was brilliant and educated. She was also massively engaging, generous, kind, and fun.

But we must be reminded that women of color are much too frequently underestimated by the white establishment. What is perhaps even more egregious was that twentieth-century feminists were at first outright dismissive of her solely on the basis of race. She famously wrote about this many times in her essays, including this famous and insightful one: “The Pathology of Racism: A Conversation with Third World Wimmin,” appearing in the groundbreaking book, This Bridge Called My Back, which recently issued a fortieth anniversary edition.

She wrote: “From coast to coast, the feminist movement is racist. That news is old and stale by now. It is increasingly apparent that the problem is white wimmin. We, third-world wimmin, always discuss this fact. (Frankly, I’m a little tired of it.) However, we usually discuss the varied yet similar manifestations of racism, without going into why white wimmin are racist.”

During COVID-19, 2020 to 2023, thanks to Zoom and social media, I was invited to a literary salon and open mic based in Brooklyn, New York, curated by brilliant JP Howard, award-winning author, poet, educator, activist, and curator of the Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon (http://womenwritersinbloompoetrysalon.blogspot.com/). JP Howard was awarded a Brooklyn Arts Council 2024 Brooklyn Arts Fund Grant on behalf of her Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon (WWBPS) & Open Mic Series that doris davenport attended, too.

I was one of the few palefaces in the Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon, yet everyone was welcoming. JP Howard occasionally put the larger salon in small groups, called “Zoom rooms,” where we could get to know each other better and to discuss important issues. Once, I landed in a “Zoom room” with doris as the leader. No amount of bullshit or bombardment deterred doris from her teaching moments. When it was my turn, I introduced myself, adding that I knew doris, which was presumptuous and ill-mannered of me.

“You don’t know me. We don’t all look the same, you know,” she exclaimed firmly.

Note that I did not reply, “I’m sorry,” a phrase that carries a subliminal meaning, making it a non-apology. I’d rather hand the power to forgive (or not) to the injured person. Thus, red-faced and chastened, I apologized respectfully and correctly to her and to the others in the “Zoom room” with: “Please, forgive me.”

Doris did not remember me. And why would she? She is famous. No matter that I had long admired her. I’m among a sea of white lesbians that she had met and taught in her life. It’s we white women who are similar and homogenous, not only in our institutionalized, white privilege that we (unwittingly or not) take for granted. On top of that, it had been at least twenty years since I had seen her or attended one of her workshops. It was arrogant of me to expect her to remember me.

That day, the other women of color in that “Zoom room” got a lesson from doris davenport in speaking up in a determined, safe way to set boundaries with white people. (White people do not generally respect the boundaries of other people.) They were treated to seeing a white woman be openly deferential as opposed to being defensive or worse, trying to white-splain. It was my honor to be that white woman. I learned a lesson, too. I admire her even more now. It was a perfect moment in harmony and education for us, thanks to doris davenport.

Here is doris davenport in her own words from a couple of years ago: “Music is a part of everything I do. . . . I can be surrounded by all kinds of music at all times. . . I grew up in a household and community that was immersed in music; in a community still wonderfully maintaining African oral expressiveness aspects.”

Alexis Pauline Gumbs, who capitalized and called Doris Mama Diosa Davenport, published their conversation on September 26, 2013: “It’s Like This: An Interview with Doris Davenport.” Here is a sample from Alexis Pauline Gumbs’s insightful questions and the ‘Mother Goddess,’ Dr. Doris Mama Diosa Davenport’s magical answers. Alexis asks, ‘What would you say about the relationship between poetry and other artistic and intellectual pursuits and publishing?”

Dr. Doris Mama Diosa Davenport answered, “Well, that’s just it, isn’t it? (smile) All these elements have an intricate and inextricable relationship, all influencing each other. My earliest art from, for instance, was visual art. i sketched and painted nature scenes, the woods, even houses (not so much people). i still keep art supplies around, just in case. Many of my poems, especially the Haiku, are word drawings and paintings. i am a poet and i ‘intellectually pursue’ (and spiritually, and joyfully) the works of other poets, particularly wimmin poets, as i did in my Ph.D. dissertation (Sherley Anne Williams, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, and Lucille Clifton), and as i do in scholarly papers and presentations at the College Language Association (CLA) each year.”

Her family memorial said, “Dr. Doris Davenport shared freely of her vast expertise, artistry, knowledge and skills. In addition to her family, she leaves a vast network of ‘spirit dawtahs,’ sister-friends and colleagues who will always cherish her time on this Earth.”

I’ll add that doris davenport is a national treasure. The world is a much better place for her having lived genuinely in it, and for leaving her large legacy to us. Love, music, and magic are you, doris.

~Jeanine DrJazz Normand

Dr. doris davenport published these thirteen books of poetry:
Madness Like Morning Glories: Poems
Eat Thunder & Drink Rain: Poem
65 poems
Voodoo Chile – Slight Return: Poems
dancing in time: poetry monologues stories lies
ascent: poems
Sometimes I Wonder: poems
performance pieces
a hunger for moonlight: poems
testimony: poems proclamations potions
Soque Street Poems
rectify my soul & other writings
request

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