Ed Bullins facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ed Bullins
Born	(1935-07-02)July 2, 1935 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Died	November 13, 2021(2021-11-13) (aged 86) Roxbury, Massachusetts, US
Pen name	Kingsley B. Bass Jr
Occupation	Playwright
Education	Benjamin Franklin High School Los Angeles City College
Literary movement	Black Arts Movement
Notable awards	Guggenheim Fellowship Obie Award
Spouse	Patricia Cooks ​ ​ (m. 1962; div. 1966)​

Edward Artie Bullins (born July 2, 1935 – died November 13, 2021) was an American playwright. He sometimes wrote under the name Kingsley B. Bass Jr. Bullins won several important awards for his plays. These included the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and multiple Obie Awards. He was a key figure in the Black Arts Movement. He also worked with the Black Panther Party in the 1960s. He was their minister of culture.

Early Life and Learning

Edward Artie Bullins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 2, 1935. His mother, Bertha Marie, mostly raised him. As a child, he went to a school where most students were white. He also became involved with a local group of friends.

He attended Benjamin Franklin High School. After an incident there, he left high school. He then joined the Navy. During his time in the Navy, he won a boxing championship. Later, he returned to Philadelphia and went to night school.

In 1958, Bullins moved to Los Angeles. He married poet and activist Pat Parker in 1962. They separated after four years.

After getting his G.E.D. (a high school equivalency diploma), Bullins went to Los Angeles City College. He started writing short stories for a magazine he created called Citadel. In 1964, he moved to San Francisco. There, he joined a creative writing program at San Francisco State College. This is where he began writing plays.

His play Clara's Ole Man first opened on August 5, 1965. It was shown at the Firehouse Repertory Theatre in San Francisco. The play is about a college student who meets Clara and other interesting people. They show her the real life of the ghetto. It turns out that "Clara's ole man" is actually Clara's female partner.

Black Arts Movement and Black Panthers

Edward Bullins saw Amiri Baraka's play Dutchman. He felt that Baraka's artistic goals were like his own. He joined Baraka at Black House. This was a cultural center for the Black Arts Movement. Other artists like Sonia Sanchez and Marvin X were also there. Huey Newton, a leader of the Black Panthers, was also involved.

A book about the Black Arts Movement in 2005 called Bullins one of its "leading theater workers." The Black Panthers used Black House as their base in San Francisco. Bullins became their minister of culture in the 1960s.

Black House later split into two groups. One group, led by Eldridge Cleaver, believed art should be a tool for change. They wanted to unite with all oppressed people, including white people, for a socialist revolution. The other group, including Marvin X and Baraka, saw art as a way to celebrate Black culture. Bullins was part of this second group. While in San Francisco, Bullins started Black Arts/West. This was a theater group inspired by Baraka's Harlem-based theater project.

Working with the New Lafayette Players

A theater director named Robert Macbeth read Bullins' plays. He asked Bullins to join the New Lafayette Players. This was a theater group. Bullins wrote a series of plays that won him a Drama Desk Award in 1968. The title of this series was later changed to Ed Bullins Plays.

Bullins worked with the Lafayette Players until 1972. The group closed because they ran out of money. During these years, ten of Bullins' plays were performed by the Players. These included In the Wine Time and Goin' a Buffalo.

Later Career and Teaching

Bullins moved back to the East Coast in 1967. From 1973, he was a playwright-in-residence at the American Place Theatre. He also started the Bronx-based Surviving Theatre. This group was active from 1974 to about 1980. From 1975 to 1983, he worked at The Public Theater. He was part of the New York Shakespeare Festival's Writers' Unit.

During these years, Bullins wrote two plays for children. They were called I Am Lucy Terry and The Mystery of Phillis Wheatley. He also wrote the words for two musicals. These were Sepia Star (1977) and Storyville (1979).

Bullins later went back to school. He earned a bachelor's degree in English and playwriting from Antioch University in San Francisco. In the late 1980s, Bullins taught drama at the City College of San Francisco. In 1995, he became a professor at Northeastern University.

Edward Bullins passed away on November 13, 2021. He was 86 years old. He died in Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts, due to health problems.

Themes in His Work

Samuel A. Hay, who wrote about Bullins' life, said Bullins had different ideas about theater. Other playwrights like Amiri Baraka wrote "protest art." This art aimed to directly fight racism. Alain LeRoy Locke suggested Black playwrights should condemn racism with "well-made plays."

Hay believes Bullins' writing wanted to "get people upset." He wanted them to see racism in new ways. Another critic, W. D. E. Andrews, saw a different difference. He said Bullins focused on showing the real experiences of Black people. This was different from just showing relationships between Black and white people.

The writer Ishmael Reed once said about Bullins: "He was able to get the grass roots to come to his plays." This means everyday people came to see his plays. Reed added, "He was a Black playwright who spoke to the values of the urban experience." Many of these people might have never seen a play before.

Awards and Recognition

Bullins received many awards for his plays. He won the Black Arts Alliance Award twice. These were for his plays The Fabulous Miss Marie and In the New England Winter. In 1971, Bullins received the Guggenheim Fellowship for playwriting.

He won an Obie Award for The Taking of Miss Janie. This play also received a New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Also in 1975, he won the Drama Desk Vernon Rice Award. He also received four playwriting grants from the Rockefeller Foundation. He got two playwriting grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2012, Bullins was given the Theatre Communications Group Visionary Leadership Award.

Selected Works