Alexis De Veaux photographs

1946-2020

This biographical note, originally written for the Alexis De Veaux papers by Steven G. Fullwood and Nora Soto in 2008 and 2016, was revised by Allison Hughes in 2023 and Heather Halliday in 2025.

Alexis De Veaux (born 1948, New York City) is a writer, poet, and playwright. Born to parents Richard Hill and Mae Gould De Veaux, Alexis was the second of eight siblings, growing up in Harlem and the South Bronx. She attended Cornell University from 1967 to 1969, then finished her bachelor's degree at the State University of New York (SUNY), Empire State College in 1976.

De Veaux's career as a writer began in the early 1970s, when she joined a writer's workshop run by Fred Hudson at the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center in Harlem. Her first published story, "Remember Him an Outlaw," appeared in the Fall 1972 issue of Black Creation. The following year, she published her first books: Na-Ni, a children's story, and Spirits in the Street, a fictionalized poetic memoir about growing up in Harlem. Her other published works include another children's book, An Enchanted Hair Tale (1987); poetry volumes, Blue Heat (1985) and Spirit Talk (1997); biographies, Don't Explain: A Song of Billie Holiday (1980) and Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde (2004); and the experimental fiction works Yabo (2014) and JesusDevil (2023). Her work has also appeared in various collections of Black lesbian writing, including Afrekete (1995) and Does Your Mama Know? (1997).

From the late 1970s to the 1990s, De Veaux was an editor at Essence magazine, to which she contributed a number of articles, ranging from personal essays to journalistic pieces, including an interview with Nelson Mandela upon his release from prison in 1990.

De Veaux is the author of multiple plays produced Off Broadway and in regional theaters. In 1976, filmed versions of her plays The Tapestry and Circles, both directed by Maya Angelou, were produced by KCET in Los Angeles and aired nationally on the Public Broadcast Service (PBS) television show Visions. In 1977, she co-founded the Flamboyant Ladies Theater Company with her partner at the time, actress Gwendolyn Hardwick. In 1980, she started the Gap Tooth Girlfriends, a writing workshop for women of color. The group, which included Jewelle Gomez, Lorraine Bethel, and Sapphire, published two anthologies, in 1981 and 1986.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, De Veaux taught literature and creative writing at various colleges, including Sarah Lawrence College, Vermont College, Norwich University, and Wabash College. In 1990, she enrolled at SUNY Buffalo, earning an MA (1991) and a PhD (1992) in American studies. She was a professor in American and women's studies at SUNY Buffalo from 1992 until her retirement in 2012.

De Veaux had a longtime partner, Loyce Stewart, who died in 2005. As of 2023, she is married to visual artist Sokari Ekine.