On October 10, 2017—what would have been prolific Chicago-born entertainer and activist Oscar Brown, Jr.’s 91st birthday—Maggie Brown happened to meet Dan Logan at the Logan Center’s fifth anniversary celebration. It was there that Maggie, one of Oscar Brown, Jr.’s daughters, learned that the Logans (the benefactors of the Logan Center) were not only fans of her father’s work, but Dan even recalled interviewing him during his days as a journalist. This chance meeting led, just a year later, to the launch of the Oscar Brown, Jr. Archive Project at the Logan Center, with Maggie and her sister Africa—the two youngest of Brown, Jr.’s seven offspring—serving as co-directors and Artists-in-Residence.
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Our father went on to impact the jazz world, theater community, and Black Arts Movement, and was best known for his classic recordings “Sin and Soul” and “We Insist! Freedom Now Suite” with Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln. He was also a jazz lyricist (“All Blues,” “Afro-Blue,” and “Work Song”) and playwright, with musical productions rooted in the South Side of Chicago like “Opportunity, Please Knock,” produced with the Blackstone Rangers in 1967, to the pioneering “Kicks and Company” in 1961 at McCormick Place,
The archive project’s purpose is threefold: to assemble, preserve, document, interpret, disseminate, and perform the various works created by Brown, Jr., a multi-talented singer, songwriter, composer, author, playwright, poet, essayist, and thinker; to expand access to his creative works by establishing an archival collection for research; and to produce some of his lesser known works and compositions for exposure to wider and younger audiences. Born October 10, 1926, in Bronzeville, our father grew up absorbing the sights and sounds of his South Side community. He began performing early, as a teenager, and was one of the chief practitioners of delivering spoken word over jazz in the late 1950s. During the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, Brown became a pioneer in the entertainment industry, writing and performing songs, poems, and plays that celebrated African American life and the fight for social justice.
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There seemed to be a kind of poetic justice at work when Dan stepped forward to kick off our archival preservation efforts…it marked yet another example of the Logan family’s dedication to the arts.”
Our Dad the grand pap
—Maggie & Africa
He combined various musical genres, such as jazz, blues, folk, and gospel, to fashion his message of justice, and enjoyed entertaining and educating his listeners, coining the word “edutainment” to describe his approach and style. “Edutainment”—the blueprint that he designed to transform despair into hope and promise by developing the natural talents of his people—is a marked contrast to the dehumanizing lyrics and violent imagery that have become far too prevalent today. Indeed, edutainment has been tragically underutilized in the face of endemic violence flowing from within and without disenfranchised black communities. 34 | arts.uchicago.edu
and Off Broadway with Muhammed Ali starring in the title role in “Buck White.” But few people know that he authored over a thousand poems, wrote numerous essays, and brought the Jackson 5 and Avery Brooks to national attention through his Gary, Indiana Talent Show in 1968. Our father was committed to channeling his talents in an outpouring of prose, literature, and artistic expressions for what he called Human Improvement Potential (HIP), which he defined as any ideas or
