Ed Bullins life and biography

Ed Bullins is an African American playwright. He was also the Minister of Culture for the Black Panthers. In addition, he has won numerous awards, including the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and several Obies. He is one of the best known playwrights to come from the Black Arts Movement. Bullin's most ambitious playwriting undertaking was his Twentieth-Century Play Cycle, a proposed cycle of twenty plays representing the full gamut of African-American experience.

After seeing Amiri Baraka's play Dutchman, Bullins felt that Baraka's artistic purpose was similar to his own. As a result, he joined Baraka at "Black House", BAM's cultural center, which included Sonia Sanchez, Huey Newton, poet Marvin X, and others. The Black House strongly believed in the concept of "Protest Theatre". The Black Panthers used Black House as their base in San Francisco, which briefly allowed Bullins to be their Minister of Culture. Eventually, Black House found itself split into two factions. One group considered art to be a weapon and advocated joining with whites to achieve political ends. The other group saw art as a form of cultural nationalism and didn't want to work with whites. Bullins was a part of the latter group, which turned out to be the losing side. As a result, he left.

Wrote plays:

How Do You Do? (1965, one act)
Dialect Determinism, or The Rally (1965, one act)
Clara's Ole Man (1965, one act)
In the Wine Time (1968)
The Corner (1968)
Goin' A Buffalo (1968)
In New England Winter (1969)
The Duplex (1970)
The Fabulous Miss Marie (1971)
The Taking of Miss Janie (1975)
Home Boy (1976)
Daddy (1977)
Salaam, Huey Newton, Salaam (1991)

Others:
The Hungered One (1971, short stories)
The Reluctant Rapist (1973, novel)

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