Deryl Davis

Here is a sampling of my articles for various publications, arranged by the most recent, then "International," "Arts and Culture," and "Education." Click to view.

Latest

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DC Theater Arts •

Synetic's stunning, emotionally charged 'The Immigrant' reframes America as the land of promise

Synetic Theater’s visually stunning, emotionally charged The Immigrant comes at a pivotal moment in our nation’s story, as well as that of the inimitable company itself. The production opens as one of the country’s largest immigrant deportation programs is underway, and numerous court battles are being fought over the mistaken deportation of some immigrants and the intended or accomplished deportation of others. For Synetic, the battles are personal: Its founders, Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili,...
DC Theater Arts •

Taffety Punk's 'Beowulf' reclaims the heroism we need to slay today's dragons

Some of us are old enough to remember reading portions of Beowulf in high school English. Hrothgar, Unferth, Wiglaf, Hygelac, Halfdane … shadowy names from what feels (and felt) like a very distant past. But in a deeply engaging, deeply thoughtful one-man show at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (Beowulf, A Retelling), Taffety Punk Artistic Director Marcus Kyd turns those high school recollections on their head, suggesting that Beowulf and his tale have a great deal to say to us today about the tr...
DC Theater Arts •

How can theater talk back to Trump?

President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders banning “discriminatory” diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and “gender ideology” from federally funded arts projects, as well as his purge of the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center (making himself chairman) and the administration’s fierce crackdown on undocumented immigrants has raised alarms among arts organizations around the country. Theaters are especially vulnerable, as they often display diversity onstage and sometimes...
Winston-Salem Journal •

Travel: A Reunion in Venice Forty Years On

Our reunion group had a shared itinerary for the three days that we would be together in the Lagoon City. Our timing was excellent: In late May, Venice is warm, breezy and sunny. It is also the season of the Biennale, the famed international cultural festival, when Venice hosts the best in contemporary art and architecture from around the world (alternating between the two each year). Many in our group took advantage of the opportunity to see the latest world art housed in some of the city’s gra...
DC Theater Arts •

Review: Ralph Fiennes Mixes Humor with Horror in STC's Stellar "Macbeth"

“Blood will have blood,” soldier-cum-murderer Macbeth asserts midway through the play that bears his name. This sad, time-honored truth about the cyclical nature of violence lies at the heart of Shakespeare’s Scottish tragedy and of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s stellar new production — adapted by Emily Burns and brought over from the UK — starring Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma. There is unusual star power here, to be sure, but STC Artistic Director Simon Godwin and a remarkable cast breath...

International


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Washington Diplomat •

After Botched Ebola Response, WHO Fights to Do Better with Coronavirus Pandemic

Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and now president and CEO of the public health initiative Resolve to Save Lives, said the WHO’s response to the coronavirus pandemic “has been much better than the Ebola response.” Frieden added that, given how rapidly the new disease is spreading, it’s difficult for any entity to keep up, especially one with the bureaucratic complexity of the WHO. “We are a more interconnected world,” he said. “That allows
Washington Diplomat •

Taiwan Voters Send Strong Message to China Not to Interfere with Island’s Sovereignty

On Jan. 11, voters in Taiwan overwhelmingly re-elected independence-leaning President Tsai Ing-wen to a second term in what was seen as a rebuke to mainland China’s attempts to assert greater control over the self-ruled island of 23 million people. It was a stunning turnaround for Tsai, who had been lagging behind her Beijing-friendly rival in the polls until the unrest in Hong Kong scrambled the political dynamics. Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also retained control of the Legislat
Washington Diplomat •

‘Europe’s Last Dictator’ Walks Fine Line Between Russia and the West

While Ukraine is in the spotlight because of the impeachment inquiry against President Trump, a recent report suggests Ukraine’s neighbor Belarus should be receiving more attention from the U.S. and its allies. Like Ukraine, Belarus is a former Soviet republic and a strategically important buffer state between Russia and the West. Unlike Ukraine, however, Belarus is not a functioning or even developing democracy, and its longtime leader, Alexander Lukashenko, is known for his authoritarian rule
Washington Diplomat •

Mekong River, the Lifeblood of Southeast Asia, Becomes Geopolitical Battleground

On Aug. 1, diplomats from the United States, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam came together in Bangkok to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Lower Mekong Initiative, or LMI. A multinational partnership established in 2009 between the U.S. and the nations of mainland Southeast Asia (Myanmar joined in 2012), the LMI focuses on health, education and infrastructure development in the lands that rely on Southeast Asia’s most important river. But as attendees celebrated a decade of co
Washington Diplomat •

French, German Ambassadors Reflect on What Europe’s Future Will Look Like

On Jan. 22, as members of the European Commission in Brussels laid out plans for a two-year “Conference on the Future of Europe,” in Washington, D.C., ambassadors from the EU’s largest and arguably most influential countries, Germany and France, met to discuss what that future might look like. Hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, German Ambassador Emily Haber and French Ambassador Philippe Étienne offered their thoughts on the challenges and opportunities before Europea
Washington Diplomat •

Croatia Assumes EU Presidency as Bloc Navigates Brexit, Migration, Tensions with Trump

Many people know the distinctively horseshoe-shaped nation of Croatia for several things: As the dramatic medieval backdrop for “Game of Thrones”; as the originator of the modern necktie (the cravat, derived from a kerchief worn by 17th-century Croat cavalrymen); as a European sports powerhouse, battling France for the World Cup title in 2018; and as the birthplace of luminaries such as inventor and futurist Nikola Tesla. Even explorer Marco Polo, widely assumed to have been born in Venice, may
Washington Diplomat •

While China Comes Under Fire by West, Its Leadership Touts 70 Years of Progress

Seventy years ago, on Oct. 1, 1949, communist revolutionary Mao Zedong stood before a battery of microphones above Tiananmen Square in Beijing and declared “Long live the People’s Republic of China!” It was the birth of what would become the world’s most populous communist nation and its longest-lasting. But much has changed in China since 1949. This year on Oct. 1, Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping will undoubtedly utter the same words as Mao, but unlike his legendary predecessor, Xi w
Washington Diplomat •

‘Fair Water’ Highlights Need to Share and Preserve a Finite Resource

In 1995, World Bank Vice President Ismail Serageldin made a prediction: “If the wars of the [20th century] were fought over oil,” he said, “the wars of the [21st] century will be fought over water.” Unfortunately, aspects of Serageldin’s prediction already have been borne out. According to the California-based Pacific Institute, violent conflicts related to global water resources have indeed increased, while the World Bank reports that nearly 2.2 billion people live without safe drinking water
Washington Diplomat •

Affluent Terrorists Challenge Narrative that Poverty Drives Extremism

The Easter Sunday terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka that killed more than 250 people sent shockwaves around the world, not only for their brutality, but also because of who carried them out. The bombers weren’t impoverished, uneducated or clearly disenfranchised in any particular way. Rather, they were affluent, well-educated and, in some cases, even extremely wealthy. Two were sons of a millionaire spice merchant with connections to the country’s political and social elite. “It’s not surprising,”

Arts and Culture

Filters & Sorting
DC Theater Arts •

Synetic's stunning, emotionally charged 'The Immigrant' reframes America as the land of promise

Synetic Theater’s visually stunning, emotionally charged The Immigrant comes at a pivotal moment in our nation’s story, as well as that of the inimitable company itself. The production opens as one of the country’s largest immigrant deportation programs is underway, and numerous court battles are being fought over the mistaken deportation of some immigrants and the intended or accomplished deportation of others. For Synetic, the battles are personal: Its founders, Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili,...
DC Theater Arts •

Taffety Punk's 'Beowulf' reclaims the heroism we need to slay today's dragons

Some of us are old enough to remember reading portions of Beowulf in high school English. Hrothgar, Unferth, Wiglaf, Hygelac, Halfdane … shadowy names from what feels (and felt) like a very distant past. But in a deeply engaging, deeply thoughtful one-man show at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (Beowulf, A Retelling), Taffety Punk Artistic Director Marcus Kyd turns those high school recollections on their head, suggesting that Beowulf and his tale have a great deal to say to us today about the tr...
Winston-Salem Journal •

Travel: A Reunion in Venice Forty Years On

Our reunion group had a shared itinerary for the three days that we would be together in the Lagoon City. Our timing was excellent: In late May, Venice is warm, breezy and sunny. It is also the season of the Biennale, the famed international cultural festival, when Venice hosts the best in contemporary art and architecture from around the world (alternating between the two each year). Many in our group took advantage of the opportunity to see the latest world art housed in some of the city’s gra...
GBCS •

Profile of Rev. James Lawson, Civil Rights Activist and Teacher of Non-Violence

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, along with several members of Congress, have nominated United Methodist pastor and leader of the Civil Rights Movement, the Rev. James Lawson, to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the nation's highest honors. In the course of his life as an activist, the Rev. James Lawson has endured racial epithets, accusations of anarchy, threats of physical violence, expulsion from a leading university, overnight lock-ups and months in prison. Now, the government which often...
Washington Diplomat •

‘1 Henry IV’ Depicts Journey of Young Hal from Bar to Throne to Battlefield

Shakespeare’s “1 Henry IV,” running at the Folger Theatre under the capable direction of Rosa Joshi, is a coming-of-age story about choosing among the various possibilities of who and where one will be. Young Prince Hal of England must choose between the harsh realities of the court ruled by his distant and authoritarian father, Henry IV; the riotous life of the London tavern presided over by Falstaff, lord of misrule; and the battlefield dominated by his rival, the courageous but intemperate Ho
Washington Diplomat •

Michael Kahn’s Farewell Does Justice to Ancient Greek Trilogy and to a Storied Career

Amazing, isn’t it, how much we still have to learn from the Greeks. The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s inspired production of Greek playwright Aeschylus’s “Oresteia” — the earliest dramatic trilogy in the Western canon — reminds us that we have only partly learned the lessons this ancient theater originator (who was also a soldier) had to impart. Chief among them are that violence begets violence and that justice and retribution are not synonymous. You might think we would have come further sinc
Washington Diplomat •

Monumental Sculptures Reveal the Elusive Inner Workings of an Artist

There’s a paradox at the heart of the Ursula von Rydingsvard exhibit at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA): Monumental sculpture that evokes inwardness. Michelangelo may have envisioned the inside of a block of marble, but his David, like his Moses or his Pietà, is a very public display of public ideas. That’s not what you get with von Rydingsvard’s sprawling “The Contour of Feeling,” the most ambitious exhibition of the German-born, New York-based artist held in the United States.
Washington Diplomat •

Synetic Relies on Silence and Verbal Gymnastics to Tell Story of ‘Cyrano’

Without a doubt, Cyrano de Bergerac, the title character of Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play of the same name, is one of the great wordsmiths of romantic literature. Like the biblical Aaron, who gives voice to his more famous brother, Moses, Cyrano, a soldier and brilliant poet, articulates the longings of the handsome but tongue-tied lover Christian toward the object of their mutual affection, Roxane. Language is the medium by which Cyrano overcomes the stigma of an enormously long nose, protects hi

Education

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Washington Diplomat •

Digital Literacy Teaches Students How to Tell Fact from Fiction Online

On a recent Monday morning in a journalism class at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Md., students watched an excerpt from the CNN program “Crossfire” featuring a heated exchange between comedian Jon Stewart and conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson. Although the conversation, which made headlines after Stewart accused Carlson and his “Crossfire” co-hosts of engaging in political theater rather than journalism, occurred 15 years ago, it immediately sparked student discu
Washington Diplomat •

Advocates Push for Arts Funding to Provide Students with Well-Rounded Education

As a new academic year begins in schools across America, the issue of arts education is again at the fore. Funding for the arts in public schools, which can vary according to local districts, has by most accounts been declining since the early 2000s, and the U.S. has always lagged far behind many other nations in funding arts education. According to the online music site Pitchfork, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the government’s premier arts funding agency, allotted a mere $8 millio
Washington Diplomat •

‘Fair Water’ Highlights Need to Share and Preserve a Finite Resource

In 1995, World Bank Vice President Ismail Serageldin made a prediction: “If the wars of the [20th century] were fought over oil,” he said, “the wars of the [21st] century will be fought over water.” Unfortunately, aspects of Serageldin’s prediction already have been borne out. According to the California-based Pacific Institute, violent conflicts related to global water resources have indeed increased, while the World Bank reports that nearly 2.2 billion people live without safe drinking water