Danny Simmons

Daniel Dwayne Simmons Jr. (August 17, 1953 – June 14, 2026) was an American abstract expressionist painter, a published author, poet, and philanthropist. He was the older brother of hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons and rapper Joseph Simmons ("Reverend Run" of Run-DMC). Simmons was the chairman and a co-founder, along with his siblings, Russell, and Joseph “Rev Run” Simmons, of the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, which provides disadvantaged urban youth with arts access and education. He was the founder of Rush Arts Philadelphia and RAP Gallery II, a new solo exhibition/arts education gallery that opened in 2019 and a onetime board member of the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Public Library, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National !Conference of Artists, and a past Chairman for the New York State Council on the Arts. Along with his brother Russell, Simmons established Def Poetry Jam, which has enjoyed long-running success on HBO. In 2004, Simmons published Three Days as the Crow Flies, a fictional account of the 1980s New York art scene. In 2015 Simmons moved to Philadelphia and opened Rush Arts Philadelphia gallery (RAP) to further the Rush Arts mission and to begin to create a national presence for the service organization. In 2016, he opened Rush Arts Philadelphia and RAP Gallery II, a new solo exhibition/arts education gallery that opened in 2019. His works appear at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Museum, Chase Manhattan Bank, Deutsche Bank, Schomburg Center for Black Culture, The Smithsonian, United Nations, and, on an international scope has shown work in France, Amsterdam and Ghana. In 2019, he was appointed to the Philadelphia Museum of Art's African American Collections Committee.