Born Edward L. Joseph in Havana, Cuba, Jamal Joseph was raised in New York City where he joined the ranks of the Black Panther Party in September 1968 at the age of 15. The Assassination of Martin Luther King had occurred that same year, leaving Joseph feeling outraged. He sought out the Panthers believing them to be the most militant Black group around. However, when he asked his local branch to arm him, instead of receiving a gun as he expected, the local chapter gave him a stack of books by African-American authors instead. He was informed that is how he would be "armed".
Legal experiences
In 1969, Joseph was one of the defendants in the Panther 21 trial, which accused the Panthers of planning a series of deadly attacks across New York City. Joseph spent a year in prison pending the verdict before it was deemed he, as well as all other defendants, were ultimately not guilty. During Joseph's time in the Black Panther Party, he befriended Afeni Shakur, who was later one of his fellow defendants in the Panther 21 trial, and would act as Godfather to her son Tupac Shakur. In 1981, he was convicted for harboring a fugitive, Mutulu Shakur, who had taken part in the robbery of a Brink’s armored car in Rockland County, New York as part of an operation by members of the Black Liberation Army and the Weather Underground. For this, Joseph served 5 and a half years in Leavenworth State Penitentiary in Kansas, where he earned two college degrees and wrote his first play.
Career
Upon his release from prison, he became a poet, an author, a playwright and director. He earned his BAsumma cum laude from the University of Kansas while at Leavenworth. His first position after incarceration was at Touro College, in East Harlem. While there he was instrumental in arranging for historic graduation ceremonies at the Apollo Theatre. with a graduation address by Ossie Davis, preceded by a spectacular Graduation Procession down the middle of 125th Street He is a full professor and former chair of Columbia University's Graduate Film Division and the artistic director of the New Heritage Theatre Group in Harlem. He has been featured on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, BET's American Gangster and on Tupac Shakur's The Rose That Grew from Concrete Volumes 1 and 2. He is the author of the interactive biography on Tupac Shakur, Tupac Shakur Legacy. Joseph was nominated for a 2008 Academy Award in the Best Song category for his contributions to the song "Raise It Up", performed by IMPACT Repertory Theatre and Jamia Nash in the 2007 film August Rush. His memoir Panther Baby was published in February 2012 by Algonquin Books.
