Danez Smith was born St. Paul, Minnesota. They are a founding member of the multigenre, multicultural Dark Noise Collective. In poetry slam, Smith is a 2011 Individual World Poetry Slam finalist and the reigning two-time Rustbelt Individual Champion, and was on the 2014 championship team Sad Boy Supper Club. They earned a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where they were a First Wave Urban Arts Scholar.