Danny Simmons

Daniel "Danny" Simmons Jr. is a Neo-African abstract expressionist painter, a published author, poet and philanthropist. He is the older brother of hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons and rapper Joseph Simmons ("Reverend Run" of Run–D.M.C.). He is the co-founder and Chairman of Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, which provides disadvantaged urban teens with arts permission and education. As portion of Rush Philanthropic, Simmons as well as founded Rush Arts Gallery and soon thereafter converted ration of his loft in Brooklyn into the Corridor Gallery. Both galleries allow exhibition opportunities to in front and mid-career artists who do not have billboard representation through galleries or private dealers. Along gone his brother Russell, Simmons conventional Def Poetry Jam, which has enjoyed long-running success on HBO. In 2004, Simmons published Three Days As the Crow Flies, a fictional account of the 1980s New York art scene. He has afterward written a folder of artwork and poetry called I Dreamed My People Were Calling But I Couldn't Find My Way Home. He has along with published Deep in Your Best Reflection and The Brown Beatnik Tomes, two supplementary volumes of poetry. In 2015 Simmons moved to Philadelphia and opened Rush Arts Philadelphia gallery (RAP) to other the Rush Arts mission and to begin to create a national presence for the promote organization.

He is a former board supporter of the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Public Library, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the National Conference of Artists. Today, his works put-on Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn Museum, Chase Manhattan Bank, Deutsche Bank, Schomburg Center for Black Culture, The Smithsonian, United Nations, and, on an international scope has shown comport yourself in France, Amsterdam and Ghana. In 2019, he was appointed to Philadelphia Museum of Art's African American Collections Committee.