Donté Clark is a poet, actor, and community activist from the neighborhood of North Richmond, in Richmond, California. He works with youth organizations throughout the Richmond area. In July 2014, Clark, along with Lincoln Bergman and Brenda Quintanilla, were made Poets Laureate of Richmond for a two-year period.
As a student in high school, Clark was recruited by his English teacher Molly Raynor, who was founding a youth arts program, RAW Talent. Clark became the artistic leader of the program’s first play, Té’s Harmony, which examined local issues through the structure of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The 2015 documentary Romeo is Bleeding follows Clark in the process of writing and performing Té’s Harmony. Clark’s mentoring of the community’s youth has led to some becoming mentors and teachers themselves, including poet and actor DeAndre Evans, who appeared with Clark and Will Hartfield reciting poetry for a PBS story about housing in Richmond. Clark has a supporting role in the 2016 film Kicks and the 2018 film Code Switch. He stars in the web series The North Pole. In 2019, he published first book, KNOWFREEDOM. According to a 2021 interview in Richmond Pulse, his second book, Close Caskets, focuses on seeking closure. “It’s about accepting death, every emotion that comes with grieving and healing, and embracing the life that comes after,” says Clark, “But more important is spiritually preparing for the life that comes after, so it’s a call for cleansing the heart.”