Renaissance Men I (ePub)

Mr. Holder is noted for writing historical, biographical plays such as Zora Neale Hurston at The American Place Theatre in 1998 starring Elizabeth Van Dyke and Joseph Edwards, directed by Wyn Handman, and When The Chickens Came Home To Roost starring Denzel Washington as Malcolm X and Kirk Kirksey as Elijah Muhammad, directed by Allie Woods, at The New Federal Theatre in 1981. Mr. Holder has won playwriting awards including the AUDELCO twice (Audience Development Committee acknowledges theatre excellence in African American Theatre) for When the Chickens Came Home To Roost and M: The Mandela Saga. For the body of his work, The National Black Theatre Festival presented him with both the OTTO for Political Theatre and The Garland Anderson Award. Mr. Holder is also noted for his experimental works including the multilingual BIRD OF PARADISE in 1972 with Ornette Coleman and the URBAN DECALOGUE in 1974 with Jacquie Berger.

In addition to his work as a dramatist Mr. Holder is the author of several volumes of poetry and 7 novels. He has also acted in ZORA: WHU, which featured Yvonne Southerland as the famed novelist. He is the father of three children and husband to Andrea, an actress. Mr. Holder is a member of the faculty at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY) where he has taught English in the SEEK Department for the past twenty-five years.

The author is a native New Yorker and has watched the scene change slowly over the last sixty years. Over the last ten years he has made some astounding realizations about the nature and cause of it all, which is reflected and refracted in his work.