LAMAMIMET

Daniel "Danny" Simmons Jr. was born on August 17, 1953, in Hollis, Queens, New York, to Daniel Simmons Sr., a truant officer and black‑history professor, and Evelyn Simmons, a teacher and hobbyist painter. He earned a B.A. in social work from NYU and a master’s in public finance from Long Island University Brooklyn.

After leaving a job with the Bureau of Child Support, Simmons began painting, developing an abstract expressionist style that was shown in major institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, and internationally in France, Amsterdam, and Ghana. His work also appeared in corporate collections like Chase Manhattan Bank and Deutsche Bank.

Together with his brothers Russell and Joseph, he co‑founded the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, later establishing Rush Arts Philadelphia and the RAP Gallery II to provide arts education for underserved youth. He also played a key role in conceiving and co‑producing HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, for which he earned a Tony Award for the Broadway adaptation.

Simmons continued to serve on arts boards, including the Brooklyn Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s African American Collections Committee, and received an honorary doctorate in fine arts in 2012. He died in June 2026 at the age of 72, leaving a legacy of artistic achievement and community activism.