Mark Allan Davis

Biography: 

Mark Allan Davis is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies in the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University. An artist, scholar, educator, and labor activist, his work centers the relationships among body, archives, and memory, examining how Black histories are embodied, preserved, and reimagined through performance, literature, and collective action.

An original Broadway cast member of The Lion King, Davis brings an extensive international career in dance, theatre, choreography, and directing to his scholarship and teaching. During eleven years in Europe, he founded the dance theatre company Les Danses Dønsk in Munich, created evening-length productions, taught, and choreographed three feature films. He taught across the Five College Dance Department through Smith College and subsequently held appointments at institutions including the University of Memphis, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and Ohio Northern University before joining SF State in 2016.

His current book-with-a-play, Somebody “Blew Up” San Francisco State College, investigates the Black Student Union and Black Arts movements preceding the 1968–1969 strike. An excerpt appeared in Continuum: Black Literature Collection. He served on the team creating SFSU Oral History Archive: The Voices of Truth and Power and produced a May 1, 2025 program connecting this research with music, dance, poetry, and testimony.

Davis also produced Monumental Reckoning: Juneteenth 2024 LIVE with sculptor Dana King and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department. He is producer and subject of the documentary short Before the After (2023), which explores illness, embodiment, artistic identity, and mortality. The film received Best U.S. Documentary Short at the Austin International Art Festival and Best Documentary Short and Best LGBTQ Film at the Niagara Falls International Short Festival. Its distinctions also include official selections at the Seattle Filmmaker Awards, Chicago Filmmaker Awards, Vancouver Independent MovieMaker Awards, New York Indie ShortFest, and IMAGEOut International LGBTQ Film Festival.

His writing appears in Black Fire This Time, Volume 2, with additional work forthcoming in Volume 3. His play The Last Blues of the Empress is forthcoming from Aquarius Press. Across his work, Davis connects Black creative expression with historical inquiry, community engagement, and educational freedom.