He Can Read, Write, Rhyme, Paint and Inspire

Danny Simmons came hesitantly into the snow from Brooklyn to Plymouth on Tuesday night, February 22. Perhaps because his reading at the Carl Drerup Gallery was scheduled the same day the fifth season of The Def Poetry Slam series when into production at HBO studios, but perhaps it was just the cold. Simmons and his brother Russell co-wrote the idea for the Def Poetry Jam and sent it to HBO. “They bought it. That was a fluke but the art is something that will stay with me forever” Simmons said after talking about the series to the audience of about twenty PSU students and faculty.The art is exactly what brought Simmons to the PSU campus. The sons of a writer and a painter, Danny and Russell didn’t fall far from the tree. Russell, know n as a mogul in the music and clothing industries, has joined forces with his big brother Danny; painter, poet and writer who has founded many art foundations. Simmons is the owner of the Rush Arts Gallery in Manhattan, where he also heads the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, which raised $1.7 million last year to promote the arts for youth. He also owns Corridor Gallery in Brooklyn. His brain child in the world of artistic promotion these days is a network of galleries and artists called “Project Diversity”. His aim is to promote the integration of cultures and people in the arts. The project is sweeping Brooklyn with contemporary art. The importance and impact that art and the community can have on each other was the message Danny Simmons carried throughout all of his anecdotes. A drug user for some 20 years of his life, Simmons says, ” the thing that gave me the spiritual fortitude to stop using was that I had art in my life. I lost my wife, my house…the only thing that I kept was the art”.Simmons came comfortably before the gathering in the small gallery. The 51 year old, no doubt baritone, sat before the audience bringing the microphone a comfortable hands free distance from himself. Behind him a show of his paintings were projected onto a screen. Before talking about and reading from his recently published fiction book “Three Days as the Crow Flies”, he briefly noted his painting and his galleries. While talking, he laid his hands relaxed in his lap or waved one casually across the air.His paintings seemed to echo things the settlement of things, and that chaos just before they find their place. They were often caustic and layered, using colors borrowed from sunsets and moonsets, burning reds, orange and yellows often fading in and out of one another, and deep alluring blues filled in the background of many canvases. The figures in many of the paintings begged for much more consideration than the automated slideshow allowed.After a few minutes Simmons read aloud the first chapter of “Three Days as the Crow Flies”. It was clear right off, and without regret, that the story was largely autobiographical. The book may be Simmons masterpiece, if production time is a measure of staying power. According to Simmons he first wrote this book 10 – 15 years ago, then left it alone for five years and then spent five years editing. The result is a novel about a cocaine addict named Crow who steals paintings from his friend, Danny, in order to support his habit. Crow then ends up engulfed in the fickle and racially divided art world, claiming Danny’s work as his own, bolstering himself on the NYC gallery food chain.The second selection from the book that Simmons shared came from the middle, showing off his first hand experiences with the hip-hop movement of the 1980’s, and showcasing such real life characters as his brother Russell, and members of The Beastie Boys. After reading, Simmons became engaged in discussion with the audience, fielding questions and elaborating to show off his spectrum of artistic and business pursuits. Although constantly promoting classic art forms, Simmons admitted to being an avid comic book reader and collector, ” Some people have 401K and stocks, I have Captain American #2″, he proclaim with a childish grin, behind his slightly graying beard.”Three Days As the Crow Flies” can be purchased at most major book retailers and online at Amazon.com.