David Henderson (poet)

David Henderson was born on September 19, 1942, in Harlem, New York City. He was raised in Harlem, and attended Bronx Community College, Hunter College and the New School for Social Research. He studied writing, communications and Eastern cultures without ever completing a degree. His first published poem appeared in the New York newsweekly Black American in 1960. Henderson became active in the many Black nationalist, arts and anti-war movements, upon moving to the Lower East Side of New York. Along with other black writers, Henderson founded the Society of Umbra in 1962. Henderson worked with the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Free Southern Theatre in New Orleans, and the Teachers and Writers Collaborative at Columbia University. He was poet-in-resident and taught at City College of New York. In the late 1960s and '70s, he served on the board of directors of the University Without Walls in Berkeley and as artistic consultant to the Berkeley Public Schools while living in California. He also taught English and Afro-American literature at the University of California at Berkeley and San Diego. Later, he taught courses, seminars, and workshops at Long Island University, New York's New School and St. Mark's Poetry Project. Henderson's poetry has been included in numerous anthologies, including two that were edited by Langston Hughes. Henderson has also contributed to many periodicals and other publications including Black American Literature Forum, Black Scholar, Essence, Paris Review, New American Review, Saturday Review, and The New York Times. Henderson spent more than five years researching, interviewing, and writing the biography Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child of the Aquarian Age, which was originally published in 1978. It was condensed and revised as 'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky in 1981. An expanded and revised edition was published in 2009 as 'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky: The Life of Jimi Hendrix. Umbra In 1962, Henderson co-founded Umbra, both a literary collective and literary magazine with other Black writers and artists in New York's Lower East Side. Henderson began as co-editor and then later became the general editor. Other notable editors and regular contributors to Umbra magazine include Tom Dent, Ishmael Reed, Brenda Walcott, N. H. Pritchard, Askia Toure, Lorenzo Thomas, Al Haynes and Calvin C. Hernton, among others. Nikki Giovanni and Quincy Troupe were also published in Umbra magazine. Family Henderson has a son, Imetai Malik Henderson. He married Barbara Christian, the scholar and black feminist critic. Together, they have a daughter, Najuma Ide Henderson. Henderson and Christian divorced. ==Selected works==