Meet Darius Daughtry

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Darius Daughtry. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Darius below.

Hi Darius, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

My road to self-esteem was a circuitous one. As a child, i was always slightly “different” than the other kids around me. I was quiet, small and a reader. My mother and grandmother constantly encouraged me and showered me with love, however, my external environment pushed up against that.
When my attempts to fit in constantly failed, I needed a method of escape. A teacher gave me a notebook and pen, and it was there that I began to discover who I was and learn how to deal with my world.
“Talking” to my notebook helped me develop my identity and those writings eventually turned into poems and stories. Along the way, my Big Brother, Frank, helped to instill confidence in me, and a select few teachers gave credence to my voice as a student and writer.
Slowly, I began to really understand my power. And once I began reading the Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. and James Baldwin, it was a wrap!

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a poet, playwright, director and educator. About nine years ago, I founded Art Prevails Project, a performing and literary arts organization committed to building better communities through increasing the access to arts programming and education. As a nonprofit organization, we work to empower with students and community members through the transformative power of the arts.
We produce socially relevant theatre, provide engage arts education programs and provide spaces and platforms for community members to explore their and express.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

First, I’d say adaptability. You have to be able to pivot. I’ve always stepped into the notion of making a changing even when it is uncomfortable. That manifested as early as middle school, when I decided to go to an different high school than the one my entire family had gone to and all my friends were attending. It continued in college when I had to be honest with myself about my future, and I switched my major from Accounting to a liberal arts path that has lead to where I am today. That comfort with adapting has shown up in multiple career moves and taking a leap to found my organization, Art Prevails Project.

A second quality would be what I define as humble arrogance. Once I gained confidence in myself, I vowed that I wouldn’t let anyone take that away. I have put in years of work, and I am still working and learning. So, I would never dim my light in order to make someone else comfortable. That doesn’t mean to be a jerk or to demean others, but it does mean that you have to know your worth and recognize your value. I can look back at the times where I played small. The never worked out well. And when I look back at the moments when I walked into situations with my head high, chest out and carrying all of my ability and experience, there are no regrets.

I’m not sure this last thing would be a skill or quality, but you have to have a thirst for knowledge. No matter what your area is, you have to learn as much as you can and never stop learning. And that doesn’t simply mean in a traditional school setting. Learning happens in the real world. Learning happens through mentors – near and far. I used to read the dictionary when I was in elementary school. I spend countless hours scouring through encyclopedias. When I was in college, I wanted to learn more about writing for theatre and film. I took classes in those subjects, but I also downloaded PDFs of various scripts. I purchased additional books that were recommended by writers that I admired. I watched movies over and over to learn the intricacies of dialogue. And I still do much of that today. You have to know that your talent can only take you so far.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

In the past 12 months, my biggest area of growth has been in delegation. My default is to just do it. For eight years, I was the only full time employee of my organization. With that being the case, I had to make sure everything was done and done at an extremely high level. This proved fruitful and saw Art Prevails Project grow immensely, but it left my exhausted and came with an identifiable ceiling.
We grew enough to be able to hire three other full-time employees. My thought was that their presence was going to take so much of my plate and allow me to operate in my zone of genius. However, there were issues at the beginning. i didn’t want to let go. Things needed to be done the way I would have done them.
After some trials and conversations with my employees and mentors, I’ve begun to have a better relationship with letting others handle things. It hasn’t been easy, but I am steadily becoming more comfortable with trusting others.

Contact Info:

• Website: artprevailsproject.org dariusdaughtry.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/artprevailsproject. instagram.com/dariusdaughtry
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtPrevailsProject. https://www.facebook.com/TheDarkerBrother
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dariusvdaughtry/

Image Credits

Gregory Reed
Jazz Patterson