Haywood Fennell, Sr. was born in Harlem, NY. He lived his early years in Wilmington, NC and attended Williston High School. He returned to New York City and joined the US Army for six years during the Vietnam War as an Information Specialist and photographer. He moved to Boston in 1978. He is a community organizer and educator using the principle of collaboration to get things done.

Haywood is a staunch advocate for Veterans rights. He is the Founder of Tri-Ad Veterans League, a volunteer Veterans organization involved in cultural enrichment programs and literacy. He founded the Oscar Micheaux Family Theater Program Company in 1997, a community based theater program. He is the Playwright in Residence and has written six plays and has self produced four. He is a children’s book author of the Coota book series and the first writer/researcher for the Coota Literacy Enhancement Project that focuses on improved literacy concepts with Black themes designed for middle school students.

He is the Founder of the Stanley Jones Clean Slate Project, a think tank modeled project for CORI Reform along with improved transition services for those returning to the community from incarceration. He is the Chairman for the Veterans and Friends of the General Edward O. Gourdin Statue Committee raising funds for the statue that will represent Black Veterans history and will be located in Roxbury’s General Edward O. Gourdin Park.

Haywood has worked in the field of substance abuse and mental health disorders and earned a certificate of completion at U/Mass Boston. He is the Host of the popular BNNTV and radio program The Other Page and is a graduate of U/Mass Boston with a BA in Community Organizing. He is a widower and his children and their families live in New York City. Haywood loves to write. He has written eleven plays and has produced four. He has written and self published four books and is the Founder of the Coota Literacy Enhancement Project. Haywood lectures on the Dynamics of Black History with focus on the Harlem Renaissance Era.