HAUI™ (Howard J. Davis) is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist of mixed Caribbean and British heritage who directs, designs, and devises cross-disciplinary work for stage, screen, and visual arts. His work “defies categorization, much like the artist at its centre” (STIR Magazine), synthesizing hybrid forms shaped by mythology, memory, and music to explore identity, race, gender, and queerness.
HAUI’s early short film C’est Moi—which toured internationally—offered a poetic examination of Marie-Josèphe Angélique, establishing a practice rooted in archival recovery and symbolic storytelling. Originally trained in performance, HAUI comes from a background in theatre and dance and worked as a company member at the Shaw Festival—an embodied foundation that continues to inform his approach to directing, dramaturgy, and visual composition across mediums. He has also been published by Playwrights Canada Press, marking a parallel literary practice grounded in text, music, and devised form.
Over the past decade, he has developed a body of work that bridges art and activism while shedding light on overlooked and erased histories. His feature film Mixed↑ (MixedUp) was described as a work that is “going to allow a lot of people to begin healing” (ETalk Canada), while his immersive, site-specific dance installation Private Flowers—commissioned by Toronto History Museums and devised through the National Ballet of Canada’s Open Space residency—was praised for “bringing forgotten history to life” (Toronto Star). His audiovisual work Aunt Harriet: An Ontario Oratorio, a moving portrait and elegy, “gives Aunt Harriet her voice back” (CBC Arts), restoring dignity to Black rural Canadian history.
At the Canadian Opera Company, HAUI became the youngest stage director in the company’s history. He authored the libretto and co-composed Aportia Chryptych: A Black Opera for Portia White in collaboration with Sean Mayes, who also conducted the premiere. The Dora Award–winning opera was hailed as “a rare world premiere from the Canadian Opera Company” (The Globe and Mail) and praised as “an exciting testament to the wealth of innovative creativity in contemporary opera” (Opera Canada). Centering the life and legacy of Portia White—Canada’s first internationally acclaimed singer of African Nova Scotian heritage—the production foregrounded Black Canadian history while bringing together a diverse creative team across performance, design, and composition.
He is an alumni artist-in-residence at The Watermill Center in New York and has served as artist-in-residence for Wildseed Centre, the City of Toronto, and the City of Guelph. A recipient of the Chalmers Arts Fellowship, he continues to develop new interdisciplinary projects internationally. His collaborations include CBC, APTN, Stratford Festival, and Shaw Festival, and he was recognized by Toronto Metropolitan University with the Outstanding Recent Graduate Award for distinction in the arts. HAUI’s work continues to challenge the boundaries of traditional media, amplifying underrepresented histories, myths, and perspectives.
photo by Evan Mitsui
photo by Michael Cooper
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what are people saying?
haui™ is a remarkable artist with a rainforest of creative ideas spawned from his individualism.
hollywood north magazine
"his insights and commitment to creativity and storytelling were invaluable to the continuity of the work we were doing."
tantoo cardinal, activist and actor
"howard, or "haui," as he positions himself, is a highly intelligent, witty, and talented artist with a huge repertoire of skills...this is an exceptionally professional young man who will make his name, and soon, with a vengeance. his talents are wide-ranging– and unique."
the late martha henry; order of canada, order of on; hon lld, phd, dhum, dfa.
