Malcolm Davis possesses a wealth of knowledge and passion. From a young age, he understood that he was destined for greater things. Born and raised in Berea, Kentucky, Davis is biracial, with his mother’s Appalachian roots and his father’s Affrilachian heritage. His father, Hasan Davis, was part of the first coalition of African American poets known as the Affrilachian Poets, who coined the term Affrilachia. Frank X. Walker, a native of Appalachia, created the term in 1991 to underline the significance of African American identity within Appalachia. Affrilachia is a term that highlights the connection between African American heritage and the cultural identity of the Appalachian region, emphasizing how the two are deeply intertwined.

Keeping his father’s passion close to heart, Davis now runs the Affrilachian Arts Institute (AAI), an organization that seeks to uplift Black artists in Appalachia by fostering a supportive community, promoting cultural visibility, and preserving the region’s rich history through creative expression, including music, theater, poetry, and more. Most of these performances take place throughout the Appalachian region; however, Davis has begun to take things further outside the area. The mission of AAI, according to Davis, is “upholding the transparent and real history of our region, especially when that doesn’t line up with people’s distorted forms of the history. This includes queer, Black history fully. It is a liberating space for these types of narratives.” 

The newly minted organization was founded in January 2024. Davis is a proud Affrilachian artist, amateur farmer, and country musician with a deep love for Appalachia and Kentucky. As an amateur farmer, he is currently tending a vegetable and herb garden in four raised beds, cultivating a wildflower patch for pollinators, and caring for a small flock of chickens, with plans to welcome a herd of dairy goats soon, deepening his connection to the land and the region’s agricultural heritage.

Davis explains the very complex history he and many share growing up Black and queer in Appalachia as “a journey of reclaiming identity and belonging in a region that has long overlooked its Black and queer histories — a lived tension between erasure and pride, where art becomes both a tool for liberation and a bridge between personal and collective memory.” He never felt as though the national narrative surrounding Appalachia or Black Americans aligned with his identity and sense of self. 

Malcolm Davis at an Affrilachian Arts Institute event.

“Black history is Kentucky history, which is Appalachian history,” says Davis. “Black art is Kentuckian art and, thus, Appalachian art. To see all of these things as one and understand a sense of belonging for Black folks in Appalachia is the mission here. Growing up, I didn’t know that was here, and I don’t want other young Black kids to feel that way.”

Davis is on a mission—one of intentionality, of identity, of heritage. Out of a sense of duty to repay the soil that nourished him and to help enable others who at some point may have felt like strangers, Davis set about building a home in Appalachia for Black historians and artists. His newest one-man play, The Slave, Monk Estill, is not only a play—it’s an act of reclamation.

Affrilachian Arts is not only an organization but a movement. Davis portrays, in small, one-man productions, the hidden histories of Black Appalachians, which are lost beneath the weight of stereotype, erasure, distortion, and revision. The Slave, Monk Estill recounts the tale of a man who was a slave to Captain James Estill, the man after whom Estill County, Kentucky, was named. But Davis will not allow Monk Estill to be remembered only as a slave. In his work, Davis is not simply documenting history—he’s recovering human beings from history’s silences—those produced by archival omission, cultural displacement, and the epistemic violence of forgetting—through an intentional act of artistic and ancestral reclamation.

Affrilachian Arts Institute Logo

“I’m not interested in telling stories where Black folks are just footnotes in somebody else’s history,” Davis says. “Monk Estill wasn’t just a slave—he was a strategist, a survivor, a healer. My work is about making sure we remember that and feel it.”

Monk Estill is one of history’s unsung heroes. When Fort Estill was abandoned by soldiers pursuing raiders, Monk Estill, abandoned there, tricked his captors into believing that their fort was well defended, saving its occupants. Later, amid the carnage of the Battle of Little Mountain Creek, he carried severely wounded James Berry a quarter-mile from danger after his slave owner was killed in battle. Berry’s heirs exist today because Monk Estill chose mercy in a world that gave none to him.

Monk Estill, who understood this earth, made gunpowder, hunted with reverence, and was closer to earth than any man. Davis prefers to perform The Slave, Monk Estill outdoors, so that Estill’s spirit can ride upon the wind and walk among trees. Davis last performed atop an old church for the Affrilachian Summit at Mt. Sterling’s Gatewood Regional Arts Center, close to where Estill’s story occurred. It’s all about that sense of place, that same blood and earth.

“The land remembers what the archives forget,” Davis proclaims. “When I perform outside, I’m not just telling Monk’s story—I’m inviting him home. The trees, the wind, the soil… Every time I speak his name in the open air, I’m planting something for the next generation to harvest.”

For Davis, it’s all about family. He dazzled at Berea’s first Juneteenth event in 2024, and he’s keeping Estill’s torch alive on tour—from North Carolina to this July’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. Having collaborated with local arts organizations in the past, such as the Appalachian Arts Alliance, Davis is not only ensuring that Affrilachia is not just a word—it’s a living, honored, deeply felt culture. In his own practice, Davis is not simply paying tribute to what exists—he’s building what’s next.

To learn more about Davis and Affrilachian Arts, please go to https://www.affrilachianarts.org/.