Born in North Carolina, Drake received his MFA in Painting in 1990 from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. A 2004 Rockefeller Fellow at the UNC Chapel Hill Center for Global Initiatives, Drake created several traveling exhibitions on human rights including immigration and Muslim American xenophobia. The latter traveled internationally including exhibitions in The Kingdom of Bahrain during the Arab Spring and the Heart Mountain Japanese Interment Camp in Powell, Wyoming. Drake's exhibition Double Vision also exhibited in West Jerusalem and in Palestine. In 2015, Drake moved to New York City where he started the Bayard Rustin Residency to end racism in the United States and created a series on the ways children express extreme trauma. The series, called Other Tears, in printed in a self published portfolio. Drake linocuts are exhibited in installations and as street art throughout New York City. His most recent solo show focuses on Global Warming and the history of racism and White Supremacy.