Ed Bullins
Ed Bullins is an influential American playwright, born on July 2, 1935, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His early life was marked by a challenging transition from predominantly White schools to a more difficult environment that led to gang involvement and a near-fatal stabbing. After serving in the U.S. Navy, where he excelled as a boxer, Bullins moved to Los Angeles, pursued education, and began his journey as a writer. He gained recognition in the 1960s for his one-act plays, which explored the African American experience and political themes. His full-length play, *In the Wine Time*, produced in 1968, launched a series of works that depicted the complexities of life for Black urban communities.
Bullins was deeply engaged with cultural organizations, including the Black Panther Party, and became a notable figure in politically charged theater. Throughout his career, he received several accolades, including Obie Awards and a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, highlighting his contributions to American theater. Later, he transitioned to academia, teaching theater while continuing to write and produce plays that address social issues. Ed Bullins's legacy is marked by his bold narratives that challenge societal norms and engage with themes of race, identity, and activism.
Ed Bullins
Playwright
- Born: July 2, 1935
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Died: November 13, 2021
- Place of death: Boston, Massachusetts
Playwright
Ed Bullins is a playwright whose work focuses on political and social issues facing African Americans in the United States. The vast majority of his work was released during the 1960s and 1970s and focuses on social issues particularly relevant to that time, such as drug use and racial discrimination, but he has continued to publish new works, including his play Harlem Diva in 2006.
Areas of achievement: Literature; Sports: boxing; Theater
Early Life
Edward Bullins was born on July 2, 1935, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Bertha Marie Queen and Edward Bullins, Sr. As a child, Bullins was sent to primarily White schools; he received good grades in elementary school and was very dedicated to school work. However, during his junior year of high school, Bullins transferred to Franklin High School, where he became involved with gangs. His gang activity led him to be stabbed in the heart, almost fatally. Shortly after the incident, Bullins dropped out of school and joined the US Navy where he became a champion boxer and prolific reader.
In 1958, approximately three years after the end of his term in the Navy, Bullins moved to Los Angeles. He passed a high school equivalency test and started studying at Los Angeles City College. While in college, Bullins took up writing and put together several short stories for a self-created magazine called The Citadel. He attended various colleges, but his education was interrupted by his theatrical work. While studying for his bachelor’s degree at San Francisco State University, Bullins joined a creative writing program and began writing plays.
Life’s Work
Much of Bullins’s early work was written in San Francisco State University’s creative writing program, including How Do You Do?, Clara’s Ole Man, and Dialect Determinism. These one-act plays marked Bullins’s theatrical debut in late 1965.
After the success of his early plays, Bullins took a short break from writing to found an African American cultural organization and to work with the Black Panther Party. He also became the cultural director of the Black House, which showcased politically oriented theater projects by African Americans. Shortly after joining the Black House he moved to New York City.
In 1968, Bullins produced his first full-length play, In the Wine Time, which examined the black urban poor. The play became the first in a series that chronicled the lives of a group of friends; other plays in the series are The Corner, In New England Winter, The Duplex, The Fabulous Miss Marie, Home Boy, and Daddy, all released between 1968 and 1977. Two of these plays—The Fabulous Miss Marie and In New England Winter—were honored with Obie Awards in 1971. Bullins’s greatest acclaim, however, came in 1975 when he was awarded a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for The Taking of Miss Janie.
During the late 1980s, Bullins resumed his education at Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1989. In 1994, he completed a master’s degree in playwrighting at San Francisco State University. In the interim, he completed the play Salaam, Huey Newton, Salaam in 1991.
After completing college, Bullins turned to teaching. He took up a post as a theater professor at Northeastern University in 1995. Bullins released another dramatic play called Boy x Man. The play, in a departure from several of his earlier writings, was based on Bullins’s own childhood. In 2006, he published the play Harlem Diva. He also served as the associate director of the New Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, New York, leading the Black Theatre Workshop and editing the theater's magazine, Black Theatre. In 2020, Bullins became one of the first recipients of the Legacy Playwrights Initiative Award, which honors elder playwrights whose careers may be less known to the public.
Significance
Bullins was a major playwright of the second half of the twentieth century. His work weaves political activism and social issues, especially those pertaining to African American society, into compelling narratives. His plays often were controversial, with some critics upset by his use of violence and depictions of African Americans. He also focused on contentious topics such as interracial tensions and Black nationalism. However, Bullins received several accolades as well. The Fabulous Miss Marie and In New England Winter received Black Arts Alliance Awards. In 1971, Bullins also received a Guggenheim Fellowship. The Taking of Miss Janie, one of his most celebrated plays, received an Obie Award and a Drama Desk-Vernon Rice Award.
Bibliography
Als, Hilton. "The Timely Resurgence of Ed. Bullins." New Yorker. Condé Nast, 21 Apr. 2014. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.
Bullins, Ed. Ed Bullins: Twelve Plays and Selected Writings. Ed. Mike Sell. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 2006. Print.
Bullins, Ed. The Hungered One. New York: Akashic, 2009. Print.
"Bullins, Ed." BlackPast.org. BlackPast.org, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2016
Elam, Harry Justin. African-American Performance and Theater History: A Critical Reader. New York: Oxford UP, 2015. Print.
Hay, Samuel A. Ed Bullins: A Literary Biography. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1997. Print.