Friday, June 12, 2026

LONG LIVE THE BLACK RADICAL TRADITION: In Homage To the Extraordinary Life, Work, and Legacy of David Henderson (1942-2026) an original, innovative and dynamic poet, cultural critic, literary scholar, author and teacher who helped transform U.S. literature from the mid 1960s on and played a major, very important. and seminal role in the rise and evolution of the revolutionary Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and ‘70s. --PUBLIC READINGS --PART 2


"...so much blood in this soil we're all gonna turn red someday..."
--Line from the poem 'Saga of the Audubon Murder' taken from poetry volume 'De Mayor Of Harlem' (E.P. Dutton, 1970) by David Henderson

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David Henderson New Poetry Series reading
5/12/76

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Henderson reads from 'De mayor of Harlem' Creation Date05/12/76Creator Henderson, David, 1942- Physical Description

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2023-09-22 

DAVID HENDERSON..READING POETRY
  
VIDEO:
 

A well-respected though perhaps under-recognized poet, David Henderson was a founder of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s. He has been an active member of New York's Lower East Side art community for more than four decades. Henderson has published four volumes of poetry, and his work has appeared in numerous literary publications and anthologies. A revised and expanded edition of his highly-acclaimed biography of rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix was scheduled for publication in 2006. Co-founded Umbra Born in 1942 and raised in Harlem, David Henderson later studied writing, communications, and Eastern cultures at various colleges and universities without ever finishing a degree. His first published poem appeared in the New York newsweekly Black American in 1960. Upon moving to the Lower East Side of New York, Henderson became an active participant in the various black nationalist, arts, and anti-war movements. In 1962 Henderson, along with other black writers, founded the Society of Umbra. They held weekly writing and criticism sessions and gave popular public readings. In 1963 the group began publishing the magazine Umbra as an outlet for black writers, with Henderson serving as co-editor and later editor. The first issue included poems by Julian Bond and Alice Walker, as well as three of Henderson's poems. Umbra introduced the work of Nikki Giovanni, Ishmael Reed, and Quincy Troupe, among others. Henderson also was involved with one of the country's first—and most-admired—counterculture newspapers, the East Village Other, which gave rise to the Underground Press Service. Read more: David Henderson Biography - Co-founded Umbra, Infused his Poems with Jazz, Known for His Lush Voice - Poetry, American, University, and York 
 
JRank Articles:  
http://biography.jrank.org/pages/2805...

David Henderson, "Keep On Pushing" (Harlem Rebellion /Summer/1964) —The Poetry Center


Poetry Center Archive Goes Live!

September 13, 2023


Full program video with downloadable audio at Poetry Center Digital Archive: 
 
 
David Henderson, Thursday March 15, 2018, reads from his longer poem "Keep On Pushing (Harlem Rebellion / Summer / 1964)" — with its title from the song by Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions — from De Mayor of Harlem (E.P. Dutton, 1970), at The Poetry Center, San Francisco State University. 
 
The full program features Henderson's complete reading, a generous span of poems from his early books to the present, followed by an extensive conversation in response to questions and comments from the audience.
 
#davidhenderson video by DocFilm Institute, SFSU--San Francisco State University

Readings in Contemporary Poetry - David Henderson and Andrei Codrescu



Dia Art Foundation 
Posted on February 3, 2018 
Tuesday, January 30, 2018, 6:30 pm

This reading, which was originally planned for December 5, 2017, has been rescheduled for January 30, 2018. Dia:Chelsea 535 West 22nd Street, 5th Floor New York City Readings in Contemporary Poetry curator, Vincent Katz provided an introduction for the evening's reading 
 
PLEASE NOTE:  David Henderson's part of this program begins with an introduction by Victo Katz @ 32:48 and the formal reading by David begins @ 37:23 
 
VIDEO: 
 
David Henderson, "Song of Devotion to the Forest" (for the Ituri Pygmies) —The Poetry Center



Poetry Center Archive Goes Live!
September 13, 2023
 
#poetrycenterarchivegoeslive#davidhenderson

Full program video with downloadable audio at Poetry Center Digital Archive: 
 
David Henderson, Thursday March 15, 2018, reads his brief and lovely poem "Song of Devotion to the Forest (for the Ituri Pygmies)" from his book The Low East (North Atlantic Books, 1980), at The Poetry Center, San Francisco State University. 
 
The full program features Henderson's complete reading, a generous span of poems from his early books to the present, followed by an extensive conversation in response to questions and comments from the audience. 
 
 
Video by DocFilm Institute, SFSU

David Henderson, "Keep On Pushing" (Harlem Rebellion /Summer/1964) —The Poetry Center



Poetry Center Archive Goes Live! 
 
September 13, 2023 
 
 
Full program video with downloadable audio at Poetry Center Digital Archive: 
 
 
David Henderson, Thursday March 15, 2018, reads from his longer poem "Keep On Pushing (Harlem Rebellion / Summer / 1964)" — with its title from the song by Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions — from De Mayor of Harlem (E.P. Dutton, 1970), at The Poetry Center, San Francisco State University. The full program features Henderson's complete reading, a generous span of poems from his early books to the present, followed by an extensive conversation in response to questions and comments from the audience.
 
VIDEO:
 

#poetrycenterarchivegoeslive #davidhenderson video by DocFilm Institute, SFSU 
 
BOOKS AND RECORDINGS BY
DAVID HENDERSON:

Books:
  • Felix of the Silent Forest (poetry), Poets Press, 1967
  • De Mayor of Harlem (poetry), Dutton, 1970; North Atlantic Books, 1985
  • Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child of the Aquarian Age, Doubleday, 1978; condensed and revised as 'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky: The Life of Jimi Hendrix, Bantam, 1981; revised and reissued, Omnibus, 2003. Expanded edition, Simon & Schuster, 2009.[4]
  • The Low East, North Atlantic Books, 1980
  • Neo-California, North Atlantic Books, 1998
Edited books 
  • Umbra Anthology 1967–1968, Society of Umbra, 1968
  • Umbra/Latin Soul 1974–1975, Society of Umbra, 1975
Anthology appearances 
  • New Negro Poets: USA, Indiana University, Press, 1964
  • Where is Vietnam? American Poets Respond, Anchor/Doubleday, 1967
  • Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing, Morrow, 1968
  • The World Anthology: Poems from Saint Mark's Poetry Project, Bobbs-Merrill, 1969
  • Poetry of the Negro, 1746-1970, Doubleday, 1970
  • Open Poetry: Four Anthologies of Expanded Poems. Simon & Schuster, 1973
  • Moment's Notice: Jazz in Poetry & Prose, Coffee House Press, 1993
  • Trouble the Water: 250 Years of American-American Poetry, Signet, 1997

Recordings 
 
  • New Jazz Poets, Broadside, 1967
  • Black Poets IV, Pacifica Tape Library, 1973
  • Poems: Selections, Library of Congress, 1978
  • (With Sun Ra) "Love in Outer Space", The Singles, Evidence, 1996
  • (With Ornette Coleman) The Complete Science Fiction Sessions, Columbia/Legacy, 2000



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