Dennis was born in New York City, on Sunday, December 11, 1977, at 10:20PM. He was born on the west side of Harlem at 114 street in St. Luke's Hospital. He was born from a black Father and a black and cherokee Mother. He was born Dennis Sumlin, named after his cousin on his mother's side. . He was born with Glaucoma that affected his left eye. At the age of 6 months, he was taken in, and later adopted by an older couple from Brooklyn New York. He was separated from his natural family. His older brother was taken in by another family, but most of the rest of the natural family stayed connected in one way or another. . When Dennis was adopted, the Holston name was added. making Sumlin his middle name. At the age of 3, Dennis began Head start school. He was considered to be an extremely intelligent kid. He grew up in a three story brownstone in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Aside from his adoptive parents, he also lived with his adoptive aunt, and cousins. His mother was a retired nurse who was involved in the Pentecostal church. Most of his mother's side of the family had church ties. Many of them held high positions with the church. His father was a retired cop, and worked as an E.M.S. driver. He wasn't a part of any church. His aunt was a Jehovah's Witness. During Dennis's childhood, his mother exposed him to many church related activities. On occasion, he would go to his aunt's services as well. As he got older, he observed other faiths, but nothing stuck. He eventually got away from religion altogether. Although Dennis never totally dismissed the bible, that was not the central part of his philosophy.
Childhood
By most standards Dennis was an average kid growing up in the big city. He had friends in the naberhood, and at school, and almost everywhere he went, however, there were a few things that set him apart from the other kids. Dennis was very honest. At times, he could be too honest for his own good. Aside from lying about kid things like homework, he told the truth about things, even when it got him in trouble. For example, in third grade, he forged his mother's signature on a permission slip for a class trip. The teacher suspected something, and asked him did his mother sign it, instead of sticking to the story, he told the truth. This kind of thing happened throughout his life. Dennis also proved to be a very rebellious kid. While you might expect this from most kids, this kind of rebellion was an early indicator of a strong independent streak, and his willingness to defend it using almost any method available. He also had a particular fixation on adulthood. When given the chance, he would make friends with older people, and do other things that symbolized adulthood to him, even when it got him in trouble. Other routines were things like going to bible camp. Like most other kids, Dennis had an imaginary world. He would express this by drawing.
Transition
Throughout Dennis's childhood, several eye related medical issues would arise. He had Glaucoma in the left eye, so doctors would focus on maintaining sight in the right eye. This resulted in several surgeries. One surgery in November of 1988 left him temporarily blind. While his sight returned, more issues were ahead. On May 12, 1989, while in school, Dennis noticed that he had trouble seeing what was on the paper he was working on. While the class work was able to be enlarged, Dennis's sight got worse over the corce of the day. He did not change his routine or tell his mother until two days later. Upon finding this out, his mother took him strait to the doctor, and by May 16, he was in surgery. The cause of Dennis's blindness was a detached Retina. The surgery was able to restore some of his sight, but over a short time, he lost his sight completely. This resulted in a radical change in his life. Aside from things like changing schools, Dennis had to find a way to refocus his creative energies and come to terms with being blind. When it was time to learn Braille and mobility, he resisted both. He eventually learned the skills he needed, but not without some interesting incidents. His self esteem went strait down as well. He did not want to be in his class picture because he thought that he was ugly because he was blind. Refocusing his creative energies was a lot smoother. He began recording audio cassettes that dramatized sitchuations between fictitious people. He made up the scripts, and did all of the voices. The acting tapes became part of his daily life. After a while, he moved into writing songs and recording homemade music albums. He also created an imaginary country.
Building Blocks
As Dennis moved into his teens, the music albums became a bigger project. Thanks to a high school teacher, Dennis met a blind man with a studio in his basement. He began recording albums in the small 8 track studio. Dennis also signed up for vocal lessons. While Dennis continued recording the acting tapes for a while, the music became the dominant activity. While the acting and the singing played out, Dennis also took up another pastime, politics. Starting in 1989, Dennis got into listening to political talk shows, and soon he was a regular caller. During the 1992 presidential campaign, Dennis, using the name Mike, was discussing all kinds of topics with some of the biggest hosts of the day, such as Rush Limbaugh, and Ed Koch. Doing all these things at the same time gave Dennis a lot of things to strive for. A long with wanting to go into politics, become a singer, become a DJ, and have a talk show, he also wanted to become a teacher, witch was a dream of his before becoming blind. Becoming a therapist was also something he found interesting.
Making Moves
Dennis got his first job in 1994. He was a receptionist at a senior center in Brooklyn. This gave him a taste of what work, and having money was like. In September of that year, Dennis made what most people would think was a very bad decision. He wanted to drop out of high school. Despite resistance from almost everybody, Dennis granted his own wish on March 20, 1995, at the age of 17. This was quickly followed up by other moves toward independence. Starting in 1995, Dennis taught himself the New York City subway system, and became an independent traveler. This brought limitless freedom. That was followed up with gaining control of his finances from his mother. Within a few years, Dennis built up a new world of friends, worked at different places, and contributed to organization building. During this trip into young adulthood, Dennis ran into another topic that became a major activity. Astrology became a major subject in his life. He studied astrology independently by going to book stores.
Establishment
By the tail end of the 20th century, Dennis was laying down a solid ground to stand on. In 2000, he attended his first meeting of the National Federation of the Blind. By 2001, he was already deeply involved with the NFB agenda. He was fighting for the rights of the blind along side the NFB's New York state affiliate. This enabled Dennis to find a track into politics. Through the NFB, Dennis found his way into another one of his interests. At the 2001 NFB convention in Philadelphia, Dennis attended his first meeting of the Performing Arts division of the NFB. While he had a good time in that first meeting, he made no effort in dealing with the division until the next convention. The division was in danger of collapsing by the summer of 2002. A whole new leadership had to be put in place, and Dennis took the treasury office that year. Dennis also got a lucky break that year that allowed him to teach his first computer class. Once he got that chance, the computer teaching thing caught fire. These developments were quickly followed up by another event. One of the ways that Dennis was able to reach out to the public was through telephone chat lines. One of these lines was a place where people discussed politics. Dennis started a daily news commentary on the line. This quickly grew into what would become the Blind Vision program. At first, the Blind Vision talk show was only able to be heard by calling into a telephone number that allowed people to record long messages. This was enough for Dennis's near hour long program, but after a while, the show found its way on to the internet. With the internet exposior, many people found out about the show. The show brought many good things his way. He was interviewed by a newspaper, and he was able to interview local politicians. He used this as another springboard into the political world. Another program developed around the same time as Blind Vision, was the Pop Top program. This program was a top ten pop music program, and was also on the internet. After some time, he discontinued Blind Vision, and after a little time off, he began the SuperStar Grown Folk Radio program.
Coming Together
Dennis was elected president of the Performing Arts division of the NFB in July of 2006. By that time, he was already holding local offices in the New York state NFB. As the performing arts president, Dennis had a direct hand into the division's major projects, and was able to get involved in music business related work. While all this activity was going on, there was one other thing that Dennis wanted, but was not able to accomplish. As a child, Dennis was separated from his natural brother, and he always wanted to find him. Several small attempts were tried over the years, but in 2007, Dennis got down to business. He hired a private investigator, and on March 28, 2007, he got the phone call telling him that his brother has been located, and on April 30, 2008, Dennis was reunited with the rest of his natural family, including brothers and sisters that he did not know he had. Dennis is a strong and fiercely independent person who has been able to bounce back from major set backs. Whether it was going blind in 1989, being homeless in 2000, or the loss of his girlfriend in a car accident in 2007, Dennis has found the strength to move forward. He continues to make all his dreams come true.
