Age, Biography and Wiki

Essex Hemphill was born on 16 April, 1957 in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., is an American writer and activist (1957–1995). Discover Essex Hemphill's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is he in this year and how he spends money? Also learn how he earned most of networth at the age of 38 years old?

Popular As N/A
Occupation Poet, activist
Age 38 years old
Zodiac Sign Aries
Born 16 April 1957
Birthday 16 April
Birthplace Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Date of death 4 November, 1995
Died Place Philadelphia, Pennsylvania U.S.
Nationality United States

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 16 April. He is a member of famous Poet with the age 38 years old group.

Essex Hemphill Height, Weight & Measurements

At 38 years old, Essex Hemphill height not available right now. We will update Essex Hemphill's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Physical Status
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Dating & Relationship status

He is currently single. He is not dating anyone. We don't have much information about He's past relationship and any previous engaged. According to our Database, He has no children.

Family
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Essex Hemphill Net Worth

His net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Essex Hemphill worth at the age of 38 years old? Essex Hemphill’s income source is mostly from being a successful Poet. He is from United States. We have estimated Essex Hemphill's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
House Not Available
Cars Not Available
Source of Income Poet

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Timeline

1950

The SNM is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history, and the wall’s unveiling was timed to take place during the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

1957

Essex Hemphill (April 16, 1957 – November 4, 1995) was an openly gay American poet and activist.

Essex Hemphill was born April 16, 1957, in Chicago, Illinois, to Warren and Mantalene Hemphill, and was the second eldest of five children.

Early in his life, he moved to Washington D.C. where he attended Ballou High School.

He began writing poetry at the age of fourteen, writing about his own thoughts, family life, and budding sexuality.

1975

After graduation, he enrolled at the University of Maryland in 1975 to study journalism.

Though he left college after his freshman year, he continued to interact with the D.C. art scene: performing spoken word, working on journals, and beginning to publish his first poetry chapbooks.

He would go on to achieve his degree in English at the University of the District of Columbia.

1979

In 1979, Hemphill and his colleagues started the Nethula Journal of Contemporary Literature, a publication aimed at showcasing the works of modern black artists.

One of his first public readings was arranged by Nethula co-editor E. Ethelbert Miller at Howard University’s Founder Library where he performed beside and befriended filmmaker Michelle Parkerson.

He also performed at other institutions, including Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, and University of California at Los Angeles to name a few.

1980

He is known for his contributions to the Washington, D.C. art scene in the 1980s, and for openly discussing the topics pertinent to the African-American gay community.

1982

In 1982, Essex Hemphill, Larry Duckett, his close friend, and Wayson Jones, his university roommate, founded the spoken word group called "Cinque," which performed in the Washington D.C. area.

Hemphill also began publishing his own collections of poetry during this time, beginning with Diamonds Was in the Kitty and Some of the People We Love (1982), and followed by the more favorably reviewed Earth Life (1985) and Conditions (1986).

1983

Hemphill continued performing his rhythmic, spoken word poetry, and in 1983, received a grant from Washington Project for the Arts to perform an "experimental dramatization" of poetry entitled Murder on Glass, alongside Parkerson and Jones.

1986

He would garner more national attention when his work was included in In the Life (1986), an anthology of poems from black, gay artists, compiled by Hemphill's good friend, lover, and fellow author, Joseph F. Beam.

His poetry has been published widely in journals, and his essays have appeared in Obsidian, Black Scholar, CALLALOO, and Essence among others.

In 1986, Hemphill received a fellowship in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts.

It’s almost like a fierce resistance that says, ‘Before I die, I’m going to say these things.’’” Hemphill also wrote a poem dedicated to Beam after his death titled “When My Brother Fell,” and dedicated his 1986 poem “Heavy Corners” to him.

1988

After Beam's death from AIDS in 1988, Essex Hemphill and Beam's mother worked conjointly in order to publish his sequel to In the Life.

1989

Essex Hemphill also made appearances in a number of documentaries between 1989 and 1992.

In 1989, he appeared in Looking for Langston, a film directed by Isaac Julien about poet Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance.

Hemphill also worked with Emmy award-winning filmmaker Marlon Riggs on two documentaries:Tongues Untied (1989) which looked into the complex overlapping of black and queer identities, and Black is... Black Ain't (1992) which discussed what exactly constitutes "blackness."

1990

In 1990, he gave a speech at the OutWrite conference (where he was the only Black panelist), which eventually became the introduction to the anthology.

Brother to Brother would go on to win a Lambda Literary Award.

In the 1990s, Hemphill would rarely give information about his health, although he would occasionally talk about "being a person with AIDS."

1991

The second manuscript was published in 1991 under the title Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men, which archived the works of about three dozen authors, including Hemphill himself.

Writing about Hemphill and Beam in his book, Evidence of Being: The Black Gay Cultural Renaissance and the Politics of Violence, Darius Bost notes that Hemphill moved in with Beam's mother to help finish the anthology, taking on domestic tasks in exchange for room and board.

He writes that Hemphill said in an interview that the anthology “was produced in the ‘context of confronting AIDS and the death around us.

1992

In 1992, Hemphill published his largest collection of poetry and short stories, entitled Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry, which included recent work, but also selection from his earlier poetry collections, Earth Life and Conditions.

The next year, the anthology would be awarded the National Library Association's Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual New Author Award and a Pew Charitable Trust Fellowship in the Arts.

1993

In 1993, he was a visiting scholar at the Getty Center.

1994

It was not until 1994 that he wrote about his experiences with the disease in his poem "Vital Signs."

1995

He died on November 4, 1995, of AIDS-related complications.

After his death, December 10, 1995 was announced by three organizations (Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD), Other Countries, and Black Nations/Queer Nations?) to be a National Day of Remembrance for Essex Hemphill at New York City's Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center.

1996

Cheryl Dunye dedicated her 1996 film Watermelon Woman to Hemphill.

In his essay "(Re)- Recalling Essex Hemphill" in Words to Our Now, Thomas Glave, pays tribute to Hemphill's life, focusing on the lasting effects of his actions.

2014

Glave writes:"In this now, we celebrate your life and language Essex. So celebrating, we know that we re-call you in what is largely, to borrow from another visionary, a 'giantless time.' The sheer giantry of your breathing presence has passed. Now present and future warriors—ourselves and others—will be compelled to learn, as you did and made manifest, that all hauls toward truth—toward venality; ardor, not arrogance; forthrightness, not cowardice."In 2014, Martin Duberman wrote Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS in which Duberman documents the life of Essex Hemphill, along with author and activist, Michael Callen.

The book would go on to win the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Nonfiction.

2019

In June 2019, Hemphill was one of the inaugural fifty American “pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes” inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City’s Stonewall Inn.