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Danny Simmons is more than an artist, he’s a cultural architect. An abstract-expressionist painter, Simmons is also a published author, poet, and philanthropist. Also, he’s the older brother of Def Jam founder Russell Simmons and Run-DMC co-founder Joseph “Rev. Run” Simmons.
A true visionary, Simmons views creativity as a vital tool for social healing as the co-founder of the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation.
After decades of shaping New York’s cultural landscape — from founding Def Poetry Jam, which earned him a Tony Award for the Broadway version of the show, to being a major player in the Chelsea gallery scene — Simmons relocated to Philadelphia to launch Rush Arts Philly in the Logan neighborhood.
For a decade, Simmons has been using the power of art to empower his adopted city.
Billy Penn caught up with Simmons to talk about his move to Philly, how the city inspires his art, and why he believes Philadelphia could be the epicenter of the next great cultural awakening.
BP: Did you discover your artistic abilities when you were a kid?
Simmons: I had some artistic abilities really young, because my mother was an amateur painter, and she used to sit me down and paint all the time, so I knew I could do a little bit of something. But I leaned towards writing. I have a novel and a bunch of poetry books and whatnot.
In the early 80s, I couldn’t write, so I tried to paint something to break the writer’s block. Then I thought it would be easier to get people to look at stuff than to read stuff.
At that time, I was a social worker. I went to NYU for social work, and I felt a little frustrated because, doing social work in New York City, all you do is fill cracks. You’re not really changing anything. The only thing I was doing was hanging out with my clients, who were old jazz cats down in the Village. In 1992, I quit being a social worker and decided I was going to be a full-time artist.
BP: How was the transition to being a full-time artist?
Simmons: My mom told me that nobody’s gonna let you starve. Russell was doing his thing, and Run-DMC was all over the place.
When I decided to quit my job as a social worker and take up painting, I wasn’t that afraid. I had a brownstone where I occupied two floors, and I rented out two floors, so I wasn’t gonna be on the street. I didn’t know how I was gonna eat, pay the bills, but I wasn’t gonna be on the street [Laughs].
Russell helped me gut the basement floor and turn it into an art gallery, so my first art gallery was the Sanctuary Gallery in my home. Around 1993, I met some guys in Tribeca with a gallery named Annex, and they gave me my first show. I became partners with them in the gallery, and I was off and running after that. Then we started Rush Arts in 1995.
BP: After all your success in New York, you relocated to Philly and set up shop with Rush Arts in the Logan section of the city in 2016. What was the energy that you felt when you became an official resident of Philly?
Simmons: The energy I felt was from a bunch of friends I had in Philly. I just came off a solo show at the African American Museum, but the year before that, they took me around to all the cultural institutions. I was being plugged in long before I came. My friends, the Tiberino family, who are a family of artists, were encouraging me to come.
I was going back and forth to Philly with a bunch of friends who lived there to see a bunch of friends who lived here. I thought I could sell my house in New York and then buy a building to open another Rush. The neighborhood I moved to was Northern Liberties, which reminded me of Fort Greene/Clinton Hill, where I was living.
BP: What was your first impression of the Logan community?
Simmons: My buddy, Eric Edwards, he’s an African art collector, said to me, when he first visited me here, “This is a nice little hamlet.” I swear to God that’s the name he said [Laughs]. It’s a nice little hamlet with little alleyways and some cobblestones, and there’s Liberty Walk. You walk through, and there are all these shops. It felt warm, it felt comforting.
BP: What is the biggest difference between the art scene in New York and Philly?
Simmons: The biggest difference is that there is a lack of art galleries. There are art galleries here, but it’s not like Chelsea or Brooklyn. Philly has amazing museums, but it doesn’t have the art infrastructure in the neighborhoods or art district that it needs. You can go to Chelsea anytime and see 20 different shows. So it was good that I opened my gallery, according to what people told me, because there was nothing else like it. There were a few other things smaller here, but the Rush name caused people to gravitate towards it. But what I love about Philly is that there are so many murals. It’s a crazy number of murals, and I actually have five of them here. I enjoy having my art in a public way, like I didn’t have in New York, which is not a mural town like Philly is.
BP: How did it feel to have a mural painted in Logan?
Simmons: It was a big deal to me. I was asked by Jane Golden, the director of the Mural Arts program, if I was a board member. I picked a spot, a building right across the street from my gallery. So now there’s a huge space right across the street from my gallery, named Kuba Kingdom. Gabe, one of the Tiberino brothers, did the painting because my old ass was not getting up on a ladder. Gabe actually painted three of the five murals that I have. They’re all in neighborhoods of color where there is less density of murals.
BP: What advice would you offer for aspiring artists in Philly?
Simmons: My big advice to artists is to look beyond the city. You have to look at your work in terms of where you would like to place it and try to get it placed there. You have to go and talk to people to have art shows.
Artists who have their work in galleries often say, “I want you to look at my boy’s work or my girl’s work.” So you need to be out there. Painting in isolation and just hoping somebody will find you is not going to work. You have to be known beyond the confines of where you live.
My last few shows have been at the Houston Museum of African American Art this summer, a show at the Baltimore African American Museum. I’d like to have a show at one of the museums here if I were asked. But you know, I’m very happy to travel because my work is being seen nationally.
