Rob Penny
Rob Penny was born in Opelika, Alabama, United States on August 6th, 1941 and is the Playwright. At the age of 61, Rob Penny biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
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Robert Lee "Rob" Penny (August 6, 1941-2003) was an African-American playwright, poet, social activist, and scholar.
Penny wrote more than 30 plays and 300 poems.
Early life
Penny was born in Opelika, Alabama, on August 6, 1941. As a child, he moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was raised. Penny, a 1957 graduate of Central Catholic High School (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), had aspirations of joining the priesthood as a child.
Academic life
Penny was recruited by Jack L. Daniel, Ph.D., and Curtiss E. Porter, co-directors of the University of Pittsburgh's Africana Studies Program in 1968.
Porter and Daniel wanted to produce a faculty representative of both academia and community. Porter, especially himself, a writer, flocked Bebop jazz and street lyricism into hard hitting terse poetics that referred to street life.
He was a lead writer for The Centre Ave Poets Writer's Workshop, which also included Charlie Williams, Nick Flournoy, and August Wilson, America's best African playwright. Many believed Penny to be Wilson's mentor in those days. Penny's appointment, as well as other non-traditional academics, such as choreographer Bob Johnson, was part of a push to reuse the Black Studies curriculum with a wholistic Black Aesthetic, which, according to Porter, in particular, should include Black academics. He was promoted to associate professor in 1971 under Porter's leadership.
His tenure provided the foundation for the increase of his art's production. Following Porter's departure from the Chairmanship, Penny moved on to serve as chair of the Africana Studies Department from 1978 to 1984. Penny was also a founding member of the Africana Studies Department.