David is a librarian, musician, writer and performer whose work focuses on music/performance, gender, religion and librarianship in multicultural contexts and the arts.

He is the author of numerous articles and poems, such as that on the music of GILBERTO GIL published in the Afro-Hispanic Review. He is co-author, with his life companion Randy P. L. Conner, and their co-daughter Mariya Ayn Sparks of the Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol, and Spirit (Cassells,1997) and other published articles and conference papers.
He is co-author of the forthcoming: Queering Creole Spritual Traditions (April, 2004).

Born in 1947 in Richmond Indiana, he trained in the arts (dance, theater, and music) since youth at dance and music conservatories in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles. San Francisco, and Naples Italy. Since the 1960s, he concentrated on the study of music, poetry, and religion and, since the 1970s, has been active in music performance, recording, theater and community politics.

At the age of five he began his study of dance with Elizabeth Kolp, a dancer and vaudeville performer. He was trained at the SCHUSTER-MARTIN SCHOOL (Cincinnati, Ohio) in Dance & Theater, Naples Conservatory of Music -- San Pietro a Majella (Piano, Sofeggio, Vocal Coaching); the AMERICAN CONSERVATORY of MUSIC (Chicago, ILL.)in Music Theory & Counterpoint, Butler University (Indianapolis, IN.), and MANNES COLLEGE of MUSIC (New York, N.Y.) in Music Composition (with William Sydeman), Conducting, Vocal Coaching and Piano Accompaniment, and at Indiana University at Bloomington in Music Composition (with John Eaton)

A lecturer in and instructor of music and humanities at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas, he was also a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Texas-Austin. He has also worked privately with instrumentalists, vocal students, and theatrical performers.

He is currently a Librarian at the College of Alameda in Alameda, California. He has also worked in several library systems, including the University of Texas at Austin as a paraprofessional archivist at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, Rare Book and Manuscripts Library. He has also volunteered as an archivist for the San Francisco Public Library History Center and the Lesbian and Gay Archives in San Francisco, CA.

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Arts (Humanities). New College of California, San Francisco, California 1989.

Undergraduate studies include:

• Humanities
• Music Composition
• Piano Accompaniment
• Psychology of Music & Therapetic methodologies

Master of Music, University of Texas at Austin, 1993.

Graduate studies and training include:

• Nonwestern music -- especially African & Music of the Americas
• Ethnography of music & performance
• Anthropology of music as an tool of a culture's expressive behavior & spiritual beliefs.
• Archival science -- processing, conservation, cataloging, writing of finding aids and HTML standards

Masters in Library and Information Science, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, 1997. Graduate studies and work experience include:

• Cataloging
• Reference & Library Instruction
• HTML Web design
• Database searching & Maintance
• Archives and Manuscripts.

Computer skills include:

• IBM Macintosh & NT platforms
• UNIX/DOS Word for Windows, Filemaker Pro, INMAGIC, & Photoshop
• Online searching on the Internet and commercial databases
• Cataloging using AACR2 standards on numberous electronic cataloging and bibliographic systems, such as Horizon, RLIN, and OCLC.

PUBLICATIONS

Queering Creole Traditions: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Participation in Yoruba Traditions and Vodou,
Haworth Press: New York, (forthcoming) April, 2003, with R.P. Conner

And Revolution is Possible: Remembering the vision of This Bridge, in This Bridge We Call Home: Radical visions for Transformation
, editied by Gloria E. Anzaldua and Analouise Keating. Routledge: New York, 2002.

Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol, and Spirit.
Cassells Publications: London, 1997. (Co-authored with Randy P. Conner and Mariah Ayn Sparks

Homenaje a los Santos: the Influence of Yoruba Music, Theology, and Ritual Practice on Afro-Latin Popular Music.
Master Thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 1993.

"Gilberto Gil: Praise Singer of the Gods,"
Afro-Hispanic Review Vol. 11 (1-3), pp. 70-75, 1992.

"Two poems," Fag Rag, Boston., 1979

"Unicorn" in The Poet. Doris Nemeth, editor. Mishawaka, Indiana: Fine Arts Society, 1977.

PERFORMANCES, READINGS, and LECTURES

• 1997-2003

  Various lectures, readings, and performances in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles on religon, spiritual and gay identity including:
  San Fransico Main Library, Cody's Books (Berkeley), Unversity of California at Berkeley, Different Light Bookstore (San Francisco), Gaia Bookstore (Berkeley)

• 1994

  "Sissy Boy Blues to Vogue Queens: Queer Identity in Popular Music/Performance,"
  Paper read at "Seizing the Moment: The Fourth National Graduate Student Conference on Lesbian, Transgender, Bisexual, and Gay Studies," University of Texas at Austin, March, 1994.

• 1991-1995

  Multicultural Humanities and Music Classes in World music, European Art music, music, religion, and cross-cultural healing practices.

• 1992

  Benefit Poetry Reading with Lesbian and Gay writers.
  Benefit Paul Kirby Fund for Persons with AIDS, Austin History Center, Austin, Texas.

• 1989

  New College of California. San Francisco, CA. Lecture on Music and non-western healing practices.

• 1985

  "Discovering Gay Spirit." Lecture with Randy Conner, First Unitarian Church, Austin, Texas.

• "Twin Hearts: A Celebration of Lesbian and Gay Love." Co-organized and participated in this poetry/video event. Chameleons Cafe, Austin, Texas.

• 1983

  "Edward Carpenter: Gay Poet, Visionary, Musician, and Proto-Feminist."
  Article read at "A Special Showing of Gay and Lesbian Manuscripts and Rare Books," exhibit and literary event.
  Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin.

• 1982-1983

  "Gay Spiritual Consciousness" Workshops. San Francisco, California. Assisted in monthly seminars focusing on gay identity, ritual making and the arts.

• 1982

  "Dream of the Beloved." Poetry/music performances at Noe Valley Bookstore, the Clarion Cafe, and other San Francisco venues.

• 1981

  "Feast of Flames."
  Assisted and performed in this poetry, music ritual event with Gloria Anzaldua, Judy Grahn, Randy Conner, Luisah Teish, and others,
  Women's Building, San Francisco.

• 1980

  El Mundo Zurdo ("The Left-Handed Path").
  Reader & assisted at poetry reading series at Small Press Traffic, San Francisco.

• 1975-1979

  Poetry and Music Multi-media Performances at
  Langton Street Arts (San Francisco), La Boheme Cafe (San Francisco), and numerous other Bay Area, Southern California, and Midwest poetry/music venues with Boxcar Productions, a musicians collective.

• 1971

  "Composition in Blue: A Memphis Ode to Martin Luther King, and Furry Lewis, Bluesman" and "Baba Bey." Musical score, co-writer, and performer, Indiana University at Bloomington Experimental Drama Series, and International Conference of Concrete Poetry and the Arts, University of New York at Plattsburg, New York.