Percy Johnston facts for kids

Percy Edward Johnston (born May 18, 1930 – died March 20, 1993) was an African-American poet, playwright (someone who writes plays), and professor. He also helped start a group called the Howard Poets and published a literary magazine named Dasein.

Life and Career

Percy Johnston was born in New York City. His father was a jazz drummer, and his mother played the concert harp. His grandfather was a concert singer. Even though music was a big part of his family, Percy chose not to become a musician. However, you can see music's influence in some of his work titles, like Concerto for a Girl and Convertible.

He went to school in New York City, Washington, DC, and Richmond, Virginia. Before going to college, Johnston worked many different jobs. He was a florist (someone who sells flowers), a policeman, and even served in the United States Air Force.

Percy Johnston later attended Howard University. There, he studied philosophy and became one of the first members of the Howard Poets in 1958. He continued his studies in English at Howard, also working as a teaching assistant (a student who helps a professor).

Johnston lived in Washington, DC, until 1968. Then, he moved back to New York City permanently and stayed there until he passed away. He became a philosophy professor at Montclair State University. He also started the Afro-American Association of Philosophy. He wrote two scholarly books that looked at black philosophical ideas in literature and other works. In his later years, Johnston ran a small theater called Studio Tangerine in Greenwich Village. He put on some of his own plays and plays by others there.

The Howard Poets

The Howard Poets group was very important for Percy Johnston's career as a professional poet. This group was a community of young poets who were students at Howard University from the late 1950s to the early 1960s.

Some people sometimes confuse them with the Dasein poets, who came later from this first group. The eight main members of the Howard Poets were: Johnston, Walter DeLegall, Alfred Fraser, Osward Govan, Lance Jeffers, Nathan Richards, Leroy Stone, and Joseph White. Percy Johnston became one of the most published poets from this group.

While at Howard, these students could learn from important thinkers. These included Sterling Brown, Owen Dodson, John Hope Franklin, E. Franklin Frazier, and Eugene Holmes. Toni Morrison, who was then known as Antonia Wofford, was a young English instructor. She also worked closely with the group and attended some of their events.

Besides their teachers, a shared love for philosophy brought the Howard Poets together. Johnston studied philosophy in college. Four other members (DeLegall, Fraser, Govan, and Stone) also studied philosophy. These classes taught the young poets about different ways of thinking.

The Howard Poets wrote just before the Black Arts Movement began. They were different from this later group because they focused on aesthetics (the study of beauty) more than nationalism (a strong feeling of pride in one's country). This might have come from their training in phenomenology and other philosophical ideas. Many of the Howard Poets also grew up during the bebop era. They were inspired by the free-form styles of popular jazz musicians.

With this background, Johnston and Oswald Govan organized a series of poetry readings. These started on Howard's campus in 1958. Both students and people from the community really enjoyed their performances. The writings of the Howard Poets often mixed current civil rights issues with different poetry styles. These included beat poetry and jazz lyrics.

At first, the Howard Poets only performed at campus events. But they were eventually invited to read at the Library of Congress. Their poems also reached people around the world. This happened when their work was included in Rosey E. Pool's 1962 European book, Beyond the Blues: New Poems by American Negroes.

The group started to break up in 1960. Johnston and Leroy Stone agreed to do a reading by themselves for a campus group. They did not include or tell the other Howard Poets. The campus newspaper called this reading Johnston's and Stone's "professional debut." This solo venture caused problems within the group. After this, the Howard Poets only appeared together in printed works.

The Howard Poets' last big project was Burning Spear: An Anthology of Afro-Saxon Poetry. Johnston published this book in 1963 through his new company, Jupiter Hammon Press. This book was the only collection of the Howard Poets' work ever printed. Walter DeLegall was the editor.

In this book, the poets described themselves as "A new breed of young poets who are to American poetry what Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis are to American jazz." Even though the book did not sell a lot, it shows the new and exciting work of the Howard Poets. It also shows Johnston's role in connecting different parts of the art world.

Dasein Journal

Percy Johnston started Jupiter Hammon Press in 1960. He felt that black poets were not getting enough attention from publishers. In 1962, Johnston, who mostly paid for the project, and his press published Dasein. This was a quarterly (published every three months) magazine for African-American artists.

The Dasein poets kept many of the Howard Poets' main ideas. They wrote about civil rights struggles in their poems. They used smart and philosophical ideas to look at black nationalism (a movement that supports the unity and self-determination of black people). They also found inspiration in jazz music.

However, this new group grew to include other poets. These included Dolores Kendrick, Clyde Taylor, and William Jackson. You can still see the influence of Howard professors on Dasein. Its advisory board included Sterling Brown, Arthur Davis, Eugene Holmes, and Owen Dodson.

Johnston was the main critic and historian for the journal. He often wrote about the history and changes in African-American writing styles. The last issue of Dasein was printed in 1973. From 1962 until it ended, individual members of the Howard Poets slowly stopped writing for the journal. But Johnston continued to be the publisher. By the final issue, only two poems from an original member, Lance Jeffers, were included.

Dasein is another example of an avant-garde (new and experimental) magazine. It gave a community and a place to publish for poets of the new black arts movement. Johnston was very important in keeping it going.

Percy Johnston's work with the Howard Poets, Dasein journal, and the Jupiter Hammon Press deserves to be remembered. He created important spaces in artistic and intellectual groups, even though his work has sometimes been overlooked in major collections of African-American poetry.

Publications

• Concerto for Girl and Convertible (New York: Continental Press, 1960).
• Dasein: A Quarterly Journal of the Arts (Washington, DC/ New York: Dasein-Jupiter Hammon, 1961–1973).
• Burning Spear: An Anthology of Afro-Saxon Poetry. Walter DeLegall, ed. (Washington, DC: Jupiter Hammon, 1963).
• Sean Pendragon Requiem (New York: Dasein-Jupiter Hammon, 1964).
• Six Cylinder Olympus (New York: Dasein-Jupiter Hammon, 1964).
• Dessalines: A Jazz Tragedy (play; date unlocated).
• Afro-American Philosophies: Selected Readings from Jupiter Hammon to Eugene C. Holmes (Upper Monclair, NJ: Monclair State College Press, 1970).
• Phenomenology of Space & Time: An Examination of Eugene Clay Holmes’s Studies in the Philosophy of Time and Space (New York: Dasein Literary Society, 1976).
• William Shakespeare: Pioneer of Modern Free Verse (New York: New Merrymount Press, 1977).