Danny Glover
Fellow and Board Member
Actor, producer and humanitarian, Danny Glover has gained respect for his wide-reaching community activism and philanthropic efforts, with a particular emphasis on advocacy for economic justice, and access to health care and education programs in the United States and Africa. He has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program, focusing on issues of poverty, disease and economic development in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. He currently serves as UNICEF Ambassador and Ambassador for the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent.
Mr. Glover has also been a commanding presence on screen, stage and television for more than 30 years. Glover’s film credits range from noted movie roles in Dreamgirls, Color Purple, Witness, and the blockbuster Lethal Weapon franchise to smaller independent features, some of which Glover also produced. In 2005 Glover co-founded NY based Louverture Films with writer/producer Joslyn Barnes, and later partnered with Susan Rockefeller and Bertha Foundation. The company is dedicated to the development and production of independent feature and documentary films of historical relevance, social purpose, commercial value and artistic integrity.
Glover was recently seen in Rage co-starring Nicolas Cage and Beyond the Lights. He also filmed roles in the feature films Almost Christmas for Universal Studios, Monster Trucks for Paramount, and the independent Complete Unknown. More of his filmography can be found here.
Recommended Reading
Posts by Danny Glover
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Danny Glover on George Floyd and Possibly Reviving ‘Lethal Weapon’
In an exclusive interview with Nick Vivarelli from Variety magazine, Glover discusses immigration, the murder of George Floyd, the fight for racial justice, and how these narratives can be democratized through “cultural production.”
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How the Arts Foster Community and Create Change
In an area with such stark inequality as the Bay Area, with pressing human needs such as poverty and homelessness, why should foundations and philanthropists support artists and arts organizations? In this opinion piece, Danny Glover and Congresswoman Barbara Lee explore the important relationship between artists and their communities.
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Actor Danny Glover: My parents proudly worked for the US Postal Service. Don't destroy it.
African Americans have the most to lose from Postal Service cuts and the most to gain from innovative reforms that help the poor, like postal banking. In this opinion piece, Danny Glover talks about the Postal Service and its continued importance to Black communities.
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Beyond MLK: What is to be done, with Danny Glover, Nina Turner, and Eddie Conway
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Creating a Culture of Sustainable Activism
On Martin Luther King Jr. day, actor, activist, and Founding Fellow of the Sanders Institute Danny Glover received the President's Award at the NAACP Image Awards held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which highlight the work of people of color in film, TV and other fields.
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We Must Speak Powerful Truths To Power
The present state of our country and of our world beckons to all of us. As we confront climate change, multiple refugee crises, the threat of global conflict, and a disturbing normalization of fascism, our collective future mandates that we unite around calls for justice with a sense of urgency – justice for women, justice for LGBTQ communities, justice for immigrants, justice for racial and ethnic minorities, justice for religious minorities, justice for the economically disenfranchised, justice for our environment.
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Danny Glover on Kamau Right Now! Live from Laney College
On August 17th, 2017 Danny Glover participated in a live podcast recording of "Kamau Right Now!" with comedian Irene Tu and Anita Sarkeesian, founder of Feminist Frequency. “Kamau Right Now!,” a debate, discussion and comedy show, records in front of a live audience and broadcasts on San Francisco’s KALW, the oldest FM station west of the Mississippi.
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Danny Glover Remarks on Nelson Mandela Day 2017
On July 18th, 2017, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Danny Glover delivered remarks to the General Assembly on International Nelson Mandela Day. Mr. Glover highlighted the legacy of Mandela as a reminder that "nonviolent resistance paired with sustained activism, is the key to transforming a potential dead end into a new beginning."
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How Progressive Cities Can Reshape the World — And Democracy
"As national governments lurch to the right, a citizens coalition is Barcelona is showing how ordinary people can reclaim control of their communities."
This article, written by Bertie Russel and Oscar Reyes and published on Danny Glover's website, describes the successes and evolution of the "citizen platform Barcelona en Comú." It comes to a number of conclusions about the main lessons "that can help inspire and inform a radical new municipal politics that moves us beyond borders and nations.":
1) The best way to oppose nationalist anti-immigrant sentiment is to confront the real reasons life is shit.
2) Politics doesn’t have to be the preserve of rich old white men.
3) A politics that works begins by listening.
4) A politics that works never stops listening.
5)Politics doesn’t begin with the party.
6) Power is the capacity to act.
7) Transnational politics begins in your city.
8) Essential services can be run in our common interest.
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Reparatory Justice
On March 29 2016 Danny Glover gave a speech to the OAS countries.
In it, he reflects on his life, his heritage and the experience of Afro-Descendants - not only in the United States but across the world.
"In my country, the United States of America, which is the richest and arguably most developed country of the world, there are forty-million Afro Descendants, many of Caribbean and Latin American heritage. On a daily basis, U.S. news is inundated with disturbing and saddening stories of Black women and men, particularly the young, being killed by law enforcement officers and vigilantes or being incarcerated; of young black people facing high rates of under and unemployment, poverty, lack of access to education and health care, and consequently succumbing to high rates of illness and death. The current state of democracy, justice, and socio-economic development for Afro Descendants in the United States is disappointing and tragic."
He ends his speech with three calls: a call for respect, a call for justice, and a call for development.
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Danny Glover And The New Civil Rights Movement
In this video, Chris Hayes speaks with Danny Glover about the evolution of the civil rights movement in the 1960s to the modern Black Lives Matter movement.
Glover points out that many of the issues that were being fought in the 60s are still being fought today and that the continual struggle has been to "change the narrative" for persons of color in the United States. He specifically calls for focus on tangible issues - How political decisions will change people's lives.
He also describes that protests have been successful before - from many of the successes of the civil rights movement to the ways in which protests changed how the Vietnam war was reported and therefore, how the American public reacted to it. Today, there are different instruments for protests (e.g. social media). However, that does not change their power.
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Standing up, fighting back: Full Speech
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The Black Power Mixtape: A Conversation at The New School
The New School (http://www.newschool.edu) and Haymarket Books (http://www.haymarketbooks.org) present: Danny Glover, Kathleen Cleaver, and Brian Jones discussing the new book: The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975. Moderated by School of Media Studies Assistant Professor, Michelle Materre.
The Black Power Mixtape: 1967 -- 1975 is an extraordinary window into the black freedom struggle in the United States, offering a treasure trove of fresh archival information about the Black Power movement from 1967 to 1975 and vivid portraits of some of its most dynamic participants, including Angela Davis and Stokely Carmichael. The book — like the documentary film that inspired it — includes historical speeches and interviews by: Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Emile de Antonio, and Angela Davis. And it also features new commentary voiced by: Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, Harry Belafonte, Kathleen Cleaver, Angela Davis, Robin Kelley, Abiodun Oyewole, Sonia Sanchez, Bobby Seale, John Forte, and Questlove.
Presented by the New School for Public Engagement | http://www.newschool.edu/public-engag... The Black Power Mixtape available at: http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/The-... Location: The Auditorium, Alvin Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall Monday, May 5 2014 at 8 pm
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Danny Glover On His Documentary: The House I Live In
In this interview, Danny Glover talks about the documentary "The House I Live In" and the broader societal issues that are addressed in the documentary about the war on drugs that Glover summarizes with the statement: “The war on drugs is not a war on drugs itself, it is a war on people.”
The issues that Glover specifically mentions are the rotating prison pipeline where individuals "are caught up in this perpetual chain of in and out of jail", the disenfranchisement of the population who has served time in jail, and ultimately the "unintended consequences of [the war on drugs] policy" that has adversely affected the African American community.
Glover mentions that it is important for society to take a step back and conduct a civilized conversation about this situation. He states that "we have abandoned certain groups and said that the value of their live if not as important as the value of someone else" and therefore, it is important for people have conversations about their experiences and humanize that population. In so doing, we can raise awareness about the policy, its effects, and demand change.
He believes that we need to take a step back and question the status quo.
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Danny Glover And Göran Olsson Talk 'The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975'
In this video "Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975" Director Göran Olsson and Producer Danny Glover sit down and talk about the film and why the ideas that were brought to light by the Black Power Movement are still relevant today.
They begin with a discussion of how the film came about - through a discovery of high quality footage of prominent Black Power leaders in Swedish archives and then discussions with prominent individuals like Danny Glover who were exposed to the Black Power, its leaders, and ideas during their youths.
Glover explains that the importance of this documentary is not only showing more footage of the Black Power Movement - it is changing and challenging the accepted narrative of the movement. He describes that this footage gives viewers a glimpse into these people's minds in a much more humanized way than the history books teach. The film educates, enlightens, and will hopefully spark conversation about that period in time and the Black Power movement.
Glover also points out that the ultimate goal of the Black Power Movement was "a re-imagining" of democracy; this is a goal that did not start with the Black Power Movement, or the Civil Rights Movement, and it has not ended. Glover states that there are always issues in this country that need to be challenged - unemployment, and women's rights, through to senior citizens rights. He believes that this documentary provides its watchers with an opportunity to take what they can learn from the Black Power Movement and apply it to their own lives.
The video ends with a conversation about the power of film.