OyamO was born in Elyria, Ohio on September 7, 1943; one of seven children to Earnest Gordon, a steel worker, and Bennie Gordon, a housewife. As a child, he enjoyed the stories that his grandfather, a local preacher, would tell him about "the old days in the South." In fifth grade, his love of writing was noticed by a teacher after he wrote an assignment about his home life longer than that of any of his peers. Despite the difficulties of attending a predominately white high school, OyamO was an honors student, editor of the school paper and student body president. He wrote fictional stories, poems, and letters to the local newspaper about various issues, which were published. In 1963, OyamO began attending the University of Miami at Oxford, Ohio but dropped out after two-and-a-half years, "angry at the educational system." Instead, he moved to New York, where he began working with Harlem's Black Theater Workshop. In 1970, he finished his bachelor's degree at the College of New Rochelle. He went on to receive his MFA in 1981 through Yale University's Playwriting program.
I Am a Man tells the true story of T.O. Jones., who led the 1968 strike by sanitation workers against the anti-union, segregationist city of Memphis, Tennessee. The strike was precipitated by the death of two black sanitation workers. They were accidentally crushed when their foreman instructed them to wait out a rainstorm by sitting in the back of a garbage truck instead of in the garage with the white workers. Jones stands up to the mayor and fights for the day-to-day struggles of his men. The strike attracted national attention from civil rights activists and black power groups. This strike was also the reason Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis when he was assassinated. I Am a Man was well-received, with critics citing it as a historical drama about power, leadership, and the rough-and tumble process of social change. In its multifaceted search for the meaning behind the headline-grabbing events in Memphis, and in its depiction of the roots of black-vs.-black power struggles, it offers both food for thought and an emotional punch.
He is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, as well as fellowships from the Rockefeller, McKnight, and Berrilla Kerr foundations. He also is a recipient of three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1999, he received the Eric Kocher Playwright's Award for The White Black Man.
Personal life
OyamO has five children. He has noted in interviews that he changed his name from his birth name of Charles Gordon to OyamO to separate himself from existing playwright Charles Gordone. The name OyamO came from children in his neighborhood in New York, who meant it as a play on his University of Miami Ohio sweatshirt.
