BTB COMMITTEE MEMBER

David A. Tucker II is an award-winning playwright, novelist, and photographer whose multidisciplinary works explore the intersections of race, culture, and political systems. His theatrical voice is bold and cinematic, often blending photography, music, and video to create immersive and politically resonant experiences.

His plays have been developed at theaters across the United States and include The Nude (winner of the 2023 National Latinx Playwriting Award), Camille, Persistence of Vision, Baghdad, Lubyanka, Under the Skin, and North Wind Blowin’, a play with music.

In 2016, Tucker traveled to Monrovia, Liberia, to research the aftermath of the 2014 Ebola epidemic. That journey inspired Smoke, a multidisciplinary project encompassing a stage play, documentary photography series, and short film. Smoke was named a finalist for both the 2018 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and the AITAF Bridge Award, and it was supported by a 2016 GAP Award from Artist Trust and a 2017 Artist Up grant from 4Culture, Artist Trust, and the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.

Tucker is also the author of several novels, including SNAPSHOT: Reluctant Revolutionary, Baghdad, The Patter of Little Feet, and Slipstream. He is currently working on a new literary trilogy titled The Monsters We Became.

As a visual artist, Tucker’s photography has been exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries and museums, with recent exhibitions at the Royal Photographic Society, Museum of Gloucester, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Photographic Center Northwest, Blue Sky Gallery, LightBox Photographic Gallery, and the Springfield Art Museum. His work can be viewed atwww.davidtuckerphotography.com.

A retired U.S. Army Major and twenty-two-year veteran of the Special Operations community, Tucker commanded the 315th Psychological Operations Company during its 11-month deployment to Baghdad (2003–2004). His military service also included deployments to Kosovo (2000) and Haiti (1994).