Hodari B. Davis is an African-American grass roots educator, activist, artist, and leader. He is one of this, generations most sought after educators and activists. Dr. Pedro Noguerra, Professor of Urban Education at Harvard University, “Hodari is one of the best teachers I have ever seen. He has inspired thousands of youth to succeed beyond their own imaginations, and encouraged generations of people to rethink their perspectives on Urban Youth and Hip Hop Culture.”
With earned degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Masters Degree in Education from San Francisco State University, he is committed to scholar activism, educational empowerment, and youth development. Although much of his work has been done in the San Francisco Bay Area, his reputation has taken him across the United States as an educator and an artist.

He has taught at several schools throughout California, and facilitated classes on topics such as; African American History, Black Psychology, Urban Education, The History of Hip Hop Culture, Hip Hop Literacy, Ethnic Studies, Leadership Development, Youth Empowerment and Social Justice. He has also trained educators around the country in different venues including the Multi - Cultural Alliance, Making Waves at The Branson School, and The National Association of Independent Schools People of Color Conference, and others.
Hodari has delivered workshops and lectured at several conferences and universities including Stanford University, UC Berkeley, UCLA, San Francisco State University, Mills College, The University of San Francisco, and others. He has presented workshops for specific schools and districts on topics such as Diversity in Education, Hip Hop Literacy, Educational Psychology, Project Based Education, School Climate and Culture, Classroom and Behavior Management, and many other topics.
Hodari was featured on PBS Frontline: School Colors, a documentary about integration at Berkeley High School. He has also appeared on Nightline, the Sunday Morning Show (KALX), the Wake Up Show, and Hardknock Radio. He has presented at The B-Boy Summit, Power Moves Hip Hop Conference, and other National Hip Hop Conferences. He has performed with Bas 1 as BasBombing Soundz on Television in New York City, and at the 27th Anniversary of the Zulu Nation in the South Bronx. In 2002 Hodari was named by Red Eye Magazine as one of the top 50 Hip Hop Activists to look out for.

Currently he is the Senior Director at Youth Speaks, and sits on several boards including: The Museum of Hip Hop Culture and Urban Expression, and the Department of Secondary Education at San Francisco State University.
Hodari is a husband and a father of three beautiful children. He currently lives in Oakland California.

James has spoken on numerous panels, including at the New Progressive Coalition, the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, the Social Venture Network, Changemakers, Hip Hop Activism, the Open Society Institute, and Grantmakers in the Arts, and has published numerous articles on youth, poetry, spoken word, and education. Through his work with Youth Speaks, he ahs raised over 10 million dollars toward the development of a national movement of brave new voices bringing the noise from the margin to the core.

Winner of a 1997 Bay Guardian Fiction Award and a 1999 Poetry Award, among many other awards for his writing, James was a 1996 San Francisco Poetry Slam Champion, has had his own work, both fiction and poetry, published in numerous journals and publications and performed nationwide from the Nuyorican to San Francisco’s Fillmore. As part of his work, James also created and still chairs Brave New Voices, the International Youth Poetry Slam Festival, which is hosted in a different American city each year, and has overseen the development of Youth Speaks chapters and affiliate programs nationwide, including in NY, Seattle, Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Honolulu, and Madison, WI. He served as the Poetry Advisor and an Executive Producer for the award-winning documentary film Poetic License, which aired nationwide on PBS stations, was the Casting Director for a national anti-substance abuse Spoken Word PSA Program, is an Executive Producer of a forthcoming Documentary series on youth and spoken word on HBO, serves as Youth Casting Director for HBO’s Def Poetry, and is a recipient of the prestigious Northern California Creative Work Fund Arts Grant, with which he wrote and starred in No Man’s Land with Paul Flores, Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Beau Sia. James has also received awards and fellowships from the San Francisco Arts Commission, the California Arts Council, the Gerbode Foundation, amongst others, and has been recognized by San Francisco State University on three occasions for his work serving the arts. James was also recognized by the Ford Foundation as a Future Aesthetic artist and presenter as part of a national hip-hop generation movement. He has been featured in media across the nation, including Poets & Writers, the New York Times, Seventeen Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, CNN, ABC, Nightline, Source, Vibe and National Public Radio. James founded Youth Speaks while a graduate student in the MFA program at San Francisco State University. He is currently working on a memoir about Youth Speaks.