about darius.
Darius M. Buckley is an award-winning dramatist, published author, and performing artist. He has a B.A.A. from Central Michigan University where he studied Broadcast and Cinematic Arts and recently earned a Master of Fine Arts in Playwriting at Columbia University. He is currently studying lyric writing in the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop. In his time at CMU, he wrote multiple pieces including poems for The DEFY Film and online publications. He wrote and directed the original Detroit hip hop musical, The Fly & Incredibly Dope Adventures of Tyrone Jenkins. He was also awarded the Robert Newby Fund to Support Student Diversity Efforts at the Student Research and Creative Endeavors Exhibition for his essay, Feeling Myself: Rewriting the Narrative of the Black Feminist.
In recent years, Darius has continued sharing his written work. He performed new songs from his musical at the Detroit Fringe Festival, wrote and directed the film, 5: A Visual Poem, American Thriller and Making Tyrone: A 1VK1 Mini Documentary. He also published three books, Wonder Boy: A Science Fiction Short, Only The Golden Sky Knows, and his first novella, HAZE: Book One. He had his New York playwriting debut with the premiere of his play The Bridge. His play in verse, 18, won a spot in the final 6 of the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival and was published and licensed by Concord Theatricals.
Darius’ MFA thesis, Leo’s Requiem, had a workshop premiere at Columbia’s 2024 New Play Festival. He hopes that his work will inspire young people, provide necessary representation for people of color in genres that have lacked diversity, and create stories for young black minds to escape into and dream.
Photo by Revon Yousif