Conscious Wordplay and Wizardry: Meet Richmond’s Spoken Word Master Donte Clark 

by JR Valrey, the People’s Minister of Information and the Editor in Chief of the SF Bay View

Donte Clark is a poet that I met about 10 years ago, at a Saul Williams performance in Oakland. Donte and I were seated at the same table at the dinner performance, and ended up striking up a very interesting conversation that I still remember bits and pieces of a decade later because of the insight that he offered with his ideas and thoughts. 

A poet, a thinker, a writer, a rapper and an actor, are all titles that have been used in the past, to describe this Richmond based artistic freedom fighter. 

I wanted to catch up with this locally based spoken word master, so that the Bay Area and beyond can be exposed to the very Black revolutionary wordplay of Donte Clark’s wizardry. Check this brother out in his own words.   

JR Valrey: Can you tell us about the poetry book that you just recently published? What kind of subject matter does it deal with?

Donte Clark: My recent collection of poetry is titled “Psalms,” published by F&M publishing, and it’s one of my favorite pieces thus far. I started working on this project back in August 2021, after I released my book “Close Caskets” that February. 

Over that summer I wanted to stay creative, so I revisited this writing prompt I did back in 2015. The prompt asks the writer to take a stack of books off the shelf and put them in front of you, in no particular order. The activity asks that the writer make a story or poem by only using the book titles. 

I did that easily. And from there I saw how writing could be an exploration of poetry that exists all around us, and our job as observers is to recognize the details we see – the art of life all around us – and make it visible for others. 

It’s been an idea I thought about doing for a while now for a collection of poems. So I took song titles that stood out to me from various Black artists, ranging from negro spirituals, trap, soul, gospel, R&B, Rap and Blues, and strung them together cohesively to tell a story. Each line in each poem is a song title. Some are obvious and some are very well written that you can’t tell. 

Some are even based on my real life thoughts and experiences. Others take you into the mind of the characters I imagine speaking, and in that process I discovered the art of storytelling. 

As far as subject matter, it’s about us from the diaspora as spiritual people, misusing our songs or psalms for ceremony, love and healing for our destruction and exploitation. Everything we do is a form of worship and instead of worship towards our creator, or in honor of our ancestral struggle and glory, we kill ourselves. 

But I feel like what better way to illustrate that than by using the song titles themselves. Our pain and our struggle is vividly displayed in our music. But also to show that we always will rise!

JR Valrey: How long have you been publishing your own books? What is it like being a one man publishing house?

Donte Clark: I feel like self publishing has always been a goal of mine. With the poetry group I worked with, we used to publish all of our works, each year for eight years, and sold them ourselves. So I felt more comfortable going that route; that way I have more artistic control and I do not have to wait on anyone to move for me. 

Honestly I felt more honest and vulnerable in my poetry, than in the music. 

These last three poetry books are all unique in ideation and release. “KNOWFREEDOM,”  was published through Amazon’s online publishing 2018, “Close Caskets” published through Pacific Raven Press, and “Psalms” through F&M publishing. It feels good to have an idea, and connect with others who have tools and insight on seeing the vision through. 

I’m definitely not doing this work alone, though I wish to have a larger support team, as the future projects roll out. This is my growing stage to study what I like and how I move organically, so when more members join my creative process, I can be precise on my creative process and executions. 

JR Valrey: Why is poetry one of the main platforms that you choose to express yourself through?

Donte Clark: I started off rapping when I was 11 in 2001, with the help of my older brother Derrick. I started taking my writing seriously, as a rapper. It wasn’t until I was 17 that I tried writing poetry. Honestly I felt more honest and vulnerable in my poetry, than in the music. 

They both serve their purpose in my journey, but it’s something about spoken word poetry and the creative process that I feel made my music 100x better each song and verse that I wrote. Poetry trains the eye to see and hear words and pictures in a way that an average rapper wouldn’t. 

Poetry made me quiet the noise and helped me pull from my soul. It’s therapeutic and cleansing for me. I feel like The Most High speaks to me more clearly through poetry than any other way. So people feel my spirit more so on stage, than anywhere else. 

JR Valrey: How did you get into poetry? When did you start writing? When did you start presenting?

Donte Clark: I wrote my first poem when I was 17. A brother of mine named ,Therence James, used to write poetry. He’d share his bars with me, and I’d share raps with him. I never fully understood what he was talking about in words, but the flow and feeling of it was smooth and resonated with my spirit. 

At the same time I started diving into a lot of Tupac’s art and expression, and realized that he wrote poetry too. A public figure like Pac writing poetry is big, because it showed his range in writing, and how potent he is as a thinker and communicator. He was well read, and well respected as an artist. I wanted that. 

So I saw poetry as my edge over other writers. Then I heard this brother named Black Ise, on Def Poetry Jam. After that, I said I gotta write a poem. The first poem was a love poem to a crush of mine, and she loved it. We dated my senior year of high school. My second poem made people cry, and told me that I had a way with words and a powerful delivery. After that I never looked back

JR Valrey: What is the story behind how you rocked your first stage?

Donte Clark: My first stage, as far as I can remember, was me reciting my second poem at an after school program family forum. It was 200+ in the audience, and I was shitting bricks. I had very bad anxiety. I couldn’t eat or drink anything before the performance. My stomach was queasy, my back teeth would hurt if I chewed any gum. I was having panic attacks in my head, but my outward appearance was very stoic. 

Every single soul either cried or was overwhelmed with my delivery.

I remember going onto the stage and standing behind the podium with the mic. I just started reciting my poem. My defense was my appearance. I told myself people are more afraid of how I present myself than who I truly am. If I play on that for my performance, it gives me the passion and conviction needed to overcome my fear and deliver with power. 

Every single soul either cried or was overwhelmed with my delivery. The love I got afterwards was a high that was more filling than it was intimidating. Each performance I would be nervous, but it became less and less overtaking of my body, and more of a mind game. Nowadays I rarely feel anything before a performance. I pray, and ground myself in the honor of being able to speak and be heard, then it flows out like living waters. 

JR Valrey: How is your acting career going? Are there any films that you are working on?

Donte Clark: As far as acting, I’ve been on the fence about it. Sometimes I get the itch to jump back in and give it a full go. I haven’t applied myself to acting much. I do wish to write more plays and feature films. I started a script for a tv idea. I have at least 10 play ideas that can be for television or big films for our culture. 

I just gotta buckle down and knock these joints out. Guaranteed to give you that ol school 90s classic Black film feeling, that aint none of these new films coming out is giving. They cool, but they aint hittin like that for me. With all due respect though, but I’m coming for it real soon. 

JR Valrey: You have such an explosive performance, what do you want people to get from watching you read?

Donte Clark: When watching me perform, I hope people don’t even see me. I want them to see the pictures I paint and get the spirit of GOD that flows through me. I pray not to be celebrated for vanity sake. 

I do want my words to land on fertile soil though. I see each heart, mind, and soul, as an opportunity to plant good seeds. If anything I say helps grow good fruit within your life, let your works be a testimony. Other than that, when you see me speak, just know it’s not me. It’s GOD shining through. I’m the broken vessel that is overflowing with the heavens. 

JR Valrey: Where will you be reading your poetry next? 

Donte Clark: I’m figuring out an official poetry reading in person sometime this spring or early summer. I was asked to perform April 30th at SF Main Public Library. I’m looking forward to that. 

April 22nd at 2pm you can catch me at El Campanil Theater, starring in a short spoken word film and performing live. I plan to do a summer tour of poetry, so be on the lookout for that. It’s up this year, I’m about to zone in and go get mines. 

JR Valrey: Speaking as a poet, where do you want to be in five years?

Donte Clark: In five years, if GOD says the same, I want to see my people in their own land together, having the biggest homecoming this world has ever seen. And I want to be a featured poet, on the biggest stage the world has ever seen. That’s what I’m working towards. 

JR Valrey: How do people keep up with you online?

Donte Clark: People can stay in touch with me on instagram. That’s where I’m most active right now. Follow @donblak. My facebook is Donte Clark, and my twitter is @YoFavoritePoet. Talk to me, I talk back. One love and all prosperity to whoever is reading this. See y’all soon. 

JR Valrey, The People’s Minister of Information, is the Oakland Bureau Chief for the SF Bay View. He is also the instructor for The Community Journalism Program.

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