Darryl Alladice - father, partner, actor, performance poet, writer, mentor, and educator - was born on June 3, 1954 in Harlem, New York. 

First, he lived with his parents, Earlean Swinson and Eric Alladice, and later his sister, Denise, on West 111^th Street in Harlem. Darryl’s Jamaican grandparents, Adela and Percival Alladice, lived around the corner.  Darryl and his many cousins gathered at the Alladice home every day and were really more like siblings. When Darryl was 10, Eric left, and Earlean moved the family to Crown Heights, Brooklyn. They began to spend more time with her side of the family (Swinson and Jones), who came from Wilson, North Carolina.

Because of his frequent hospitalizations due to Sickle Cell disease as a child, he was placed in Health Conservation classes in public school.  When he was in eighth grade, a guidance counselor, recognizing his intelligence, recommended that Darryl go to Fort Hamilton High School, a large, academically based, nearly all-white school located in Bay Ridge.  He worked in a pharmacy after school.

Living on his own from the age of 18, he put himself through City College of New York (CCNY) by driving a cab and being a short-order cook.  It was at CCNY where he discovered the writers of the Harlem Renaissance – particularly James Baldwin – that began a lifelong romance with the spoken word.  He wrote for the Black student newspaper, The Paper.

After graduating in 1977, Darryl spent a year touring the State of Florida with the Asolo Repertory Theatre, performing children’s shows, primarily in schools.  He returned to New York and began an acting career, appearing in several commercials, including one for Burger King.  Actor, director and lifelong friend, Gregg Daniel, directed Darryl in a Brooklyn production of “The Medal of the Honor Rag.” Outside of performing, Darryl supported himself by taking on administrative duties for Mayor Koch and Teachers College.

In 1986, he and Elaine Ray were married at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.  They moved to Boston soon thereafter, which is where their daughter, Zuri Adele was born in 1990. Darryl began his career as an educator in the Boston public school system in 1987, and received his master’s in education from Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1993. 

While in New England, Darryl continued to perform, acting in productions staged by the Wheelock Family Theater and Trinity Rep. His performance as Malcolm X in Jeff Stetson’s “The Meeting,” an imaginary interaction between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, became an annual event on the MLK holiday, while he continued to write poetry and plays.

When Elaine and Zuri moved to Palo Alto, California in 1995, they all remained extremely close and saw each other frequently. Darryl made a commitment to Zuri’s education, often flying to California for her first day of school, attending her school performances and graduations, and meeting with her teachers. Parents and teachers in the Palo Alto school district embraced him as a member of the community.

Darryl moved from Boston to New York in 2000, where he continued his teaching career of over 30 years, focusing on social studies, English, and Language Arts for sixth grade students.  After retiring from the New York City Department of Education in 2014, he continued to teach writing and performance art to students at the James Baldwin High School through New York Live Arts, an organization founded by Bill T. Jones.

Darryl's work has been produced and performed at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Asolo Theater of Florida, The Writers’ Room, The Black Box Theater, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center, City College of New York, Bowery Poetry Club, Cornelia Street Café, LaMama Theatre, Queens Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, Woods Hole Library, Barnes & Noble, 440 Gallery, Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, the Welcome to Harlem series, and Boulevard Books.  He did a residency at the Vermont Artists’ Studio and Writing Center in Johnson, Vermont in 2011.  He published two books of poetry, entitled Jaundice and Measuring in Liters.

In 2004, Darryl married Joy Rosenthal.  Together they produced performances of jazz and poetry – at Zora’s place in Brooklyn, at the Dwyer Center in Harlem, and at Saint Augustine’s Baptist Church on the Lower East Side. 

In 2015, they formed the non-profit, One Breath Rising, with like-minded colleagues, and continued producing such performances.  One Breath formed a partnership with the 440 Gallery in Park Slope, where they presented artists on the second Sunday of each month, ten months a year.  Darryl read at their most recent in-person reading on March 8, 2020, immediately after a hospital visit. One Breath Rising will continue to nurture writers and musicians in his honor.

Darryl did all of this in spite of incredible health challenges.  He was born with sickle cell anemia, a blood disease that causes severe, sudden pain and organ damage, and often, hospitalization.  In fact, sickle cell, often considered to be a pediatric disease, claimed Denise's life when she was 39 years old.  Despite this, Darryl rose and rose again. 

The reality of his condition helped Darryl prioritize the importance of love, family, and inclusion.  He brought long-lost relatives into the fold of the family again and again.  He reached out to nieces, nephews, and cousins of the younger generations and mentored many children who were not related by blood.

Darryl loved coffee shops (which is where he did a lot of writing) and loved the people in them.  He loved routines.  He loved the Temptations, the Mets, Miles and Mingus, and the spoken word. He read the New York Times from cover to cover each day.  He loved to travel, and to meet people from all walks of life. He loved watching Serena, Tiger, Kobe, and Michael excel at what they did  and carried an undeniable sense of pride when Barack Obama won the presidency.  He remembered the names and faces of actors and the roles they’d played throughout their careers, and possessed a deep, critical  knowledge of film directors and their work.  He had high expectations and suffered no fools.  His own art reflects his experiences with poignancy, humor and warmth.

Darryl was very supportive of Zuri’s chosen profession as an actor, and he was never happier than when he saw her on Good Trouble each week. 

Darryl made his transition with Joy and Zuri by his side on May 15, 2020, following a sickle cell crisis.

Darryl did not want his life to be defined by his illness – and it was not.  Darryl’s story is one of resilience, reinvention, love, and deep gratitude.

To honor Darryl’s legacy, we ask that you read, reach for the stars, and be kind, particularly to your family. 

In lieu of flowers, please donate to One Breath Rising, Inc. which will continue its work as part of his legacy.

 An in-person celebration of Darryl’s life will be planned when his wide circle of family and friends can gather safely in physical proximity.