———. Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry. New York:
Plume, 1992.
Larkin, Joan, and Carl Morse, eds. Gay and Lesbian
Poetry in Our Time. New York: St. Martin’s, 1988.
G. Winston James
Henderson, David (1942– )
David Henderson, born and reared in Harlem, at-
tended Hunter College and the New School for
Social Research. Henderson became a poet, labor
organizer, and political activist during the explo-
sive 1960s, which were dominated by BLACK NA-
TIONALISM and the functionally prescribed BLACK
ARTS MOVEMENT. He also taught at City College,
where he was poet resident. Henderson was mar-
ried to the scholar and black feminist critic BAR-
BARA CHRISTIAN; together they had a daughter,
Najuma.
Henderson was among the founding members
of the Society of Umbra, a critical component of
the Black Arts Movement housed in the Lower
East Side. Its members were committed to provid-
ing an arena for the discussion and exploration
of the complex meanings of black art tenets re-
lated to artist and community. Umbra workshop
participants included Tom Dent, CALVIN HERN-
TON, ISHMAEL REED, and Rolland Snelling (ASKIA
MUHAMMAD TOURÉ). The inaugural issue of its
journal, Umbra, of which Henderson was editor,
outlined its purpose:
Umbra exists to provide a vehicle for those
outspoken and youthful writers who present
aspects of social and racial reality which may
be called “uncommercial” but cannot with any
honesty be considered non-essential to a whole
and healthy society.... We will not print trash,
no matter how relevantly it deals with race, so-
cial issues, or anything else. (Redmond, 321)That there was not consensus within the group is
clearly indicated by its early breakup and the forma-
tion, under the leadership of AMIRI BARAKA, of the
Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School (BART/S).
Henderson is the author of several collections
of poems, including Felix of the Silent Forest (1967),
De Mayor of Harlem (1970), Forest the East Side
(1980), and ’Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky: Life of
Jimi Hendrix (1983). His work appeared in the Paris
Review, 7th Street Quarterly, Evergreen Review, and
Journal of Black Poetry, and it was anthologized in
New Negro Poets: U.S.A., Stephen Henderson’s Un-
derstanding the New Black Poetry, Baraka and Neal’s
BLACK FIRE, and Jerry Ward’s Trouble the Water.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Breman, Paul. “Poetry into the Sixties.” In The Black
American Writers, Vol. 2, edited by C. W. Bigsby,
99–109. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1971.
Henderson, Stephen, ed. Understanding the New
Black Poetry. New York: William Morrow & Com-
pany, 1973.
Redmond, Eugene. Drumvoices, The Mission of Afro-
American Poetry: A Critical History. Garden City,
N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1976.
Michael PoindexterHenderson, George Wylie (1904– )
Novelist, short story writer, and journalist George
W. Henderson was born in Warrior’s Stand, Ala-
bama. He was educated at Tuskegee Institute,
where he also served as a printer’s apprentice be-
fore moving to New York, where he wrote for the
New York Daily News. Henderson authored several
short stories and two novels, Ollie Miss (1935) and
Jule (1946), a sequel.
In Ollie Miss, Henderson, like many of his con-
temporaries in the 1930s, turned to the rural South
for the settings, character types, and dramatic sit-
uations in his work, demonstrating his familiarity
with black folk life of this region. At the beginning
of the novel, Ollie embarks on a journey to visit
her lover, Jule, who lives on a neighboring farm.
There, she is physically assaulted by one of Jule’s
girlfriends; however, she fulfills her intense desire
to become pregnant with Jule’s child. In the clos-
ing section of the novel, Ollie vows to have the
child without marrying Jule and to work 10 acres242 Henderson, David