Essex Hemphill
(April 16, 1957 - November 4, 1995)
3351 Mt. Pleasant St. NW, Apt. #9, Columbia Heights neighborhood, DC.
Hemphill was a gay rights activist and the author of three books of poems: Earth Life (1985), Conditions (1986), and Ceremonies (1992). He edited the landmark anthology Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men (1991).
Raised in Southeast DC, Hemphill was the recipient of a Lambda Literary Award, a National Library Award for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Literature, and a visiting scholarship at the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities. He formed a performance art group with Larry Duckett and Wayson Jones in the 1980s. He also appeared in several films, including Tongues Untied, Black Is...Black Ain't, and Looking for Langston.
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