During the civil rights era, he was a member of the Society of Umbra, a collective of Black writers. Cannon taught humanities at Medgar Evers College, helping to integrate the public school system in New York. In 1969 Cannon penned the novel Groove, Bang, and Jive Around, which author Ishmael Reed called the precursor to rap and author Darius James called in the New York Press "an underground classic of such legendary stature that New York's black cognoscenti have transformed the work into an urban myth." Cannon, along with Joe Johnson and Ishmael Reed, began an independent publishing house that focused on multicultural literature in the 1970s called Reed, Cannon and Johnson. In 1973 he also collaborated with Reed to interview the first Black sci-fi writer, George S. Schuyler, for Yardbird II, Reed's own publication. Cannon met his friend, artist David Hammons on a park bench in the 1970s. The two have collaborated on certain works, including Invisible Paintings, where he traced Cannon's painting collection with pencil and then removed the physical works. Hammons once bottled Cannon's voice speaking poems. Cannon has written poems about Hammons work and made public appearances for him. Cannon was a mentor to many writers including Eileen Myles, Norman Ohler and Paul Beatty. In 2013 he was featured with curator Lydia Y. Nichols in an artist talk about Black bodies and migration for Curator's International.
''A Gathering of Tribes''
In 1990 Cannon was visiting the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe with Hammons when he was inspired to create A Gathering of the Tribes first as a literary magazine to document the vibrant culture that was happening in the Lower East Side. The first issue was published with less than 1000 copies in 1991 on a Xerox machine. By 1993 Tribes quickly grew into a salon and non-profit multi-cultural interdisciplinary arts organization run from his home in the New York City borough of Manhattan's East Village neighborhood. Cannon wanted it to be a multicultural, multigenerational space for both local and traveling art lovers. The collective also hosted a gallery and performance space where numerous exhibitions and concerts have taken place, supporting and inspiring many notable artists and musicians such as the Sun Ra Arkestra, David Henderson, Chavisa Woods, John Farris, Bob Holman, Ishmael Reed, Billy Bang, Max Blagg and David Hammons. One of Cannon's exhibitions at Tribes Gallery he titled "Exquisite Poop" was inspired by his own relationship with visual art as a blind person. A painter included in the exhibition would describe a piece to participating writers, who would then describe the painting for a different painter who would in turn paint it. In April 2014 both the organization and Cannon were forced to relocate and the gallery permanently shut when the occupancy agreement they had with the woman to whom the building had previously been sold, Lorraine Zhang, ended. Simultaneously a wall which retained some of an art-piece by David Hammons was removed and relocated by the organization and replaced by another minus the pedigree adornment. Tribes magazine began publishing online and Cannon published an anthology in hard copy in 2017.
Personal life
Cannon went completely blind in 1989 from glaucoma.
Death and memorials
Cannon died on July 7, 2019 from sepsis at an assisted nursing facility in New York City at the age of 84. Cannon was memorialized at three events following his death. First there was a tribute reading organized by Bob Holman and Chavisa Woods at the Bowery Poetry Club the week after his death, at which many of his contemporaries, colleagues, and admirers offered remembrances. Among those who spoke and or performed were; Katherine Arnoldi, Janine Cirincione, Patricia Spears Jones, Valery Oisteanu, Penny Arcade, Ron Kolm, Nina Kuo, William Parker and Daniel Carter, Cannon's sister Evelyn Cannon, his daughter Melanie Best, Nancy Mercado, Steve Dalachinsky, Mike Tyler, andUrayoán Noel, as well as Holman and Woods. For the second gathering held on September 6, 2019 at the Flamboyan Theater at the Clemente Arts for Art and A Gathering of the Tribes came together to offering a memorial program featuring poetry in music including sendoffs from the Sun Ra Arkestra, Tracie Morris with Elliott Sharp and Grahman Haynes, Anne Waldman, and Edwin Torres. Thirdly a "Celebration of Life" was held by the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery on Sunday November 3, 2019 which was preceded by a Jazz Funeral parade led by the Rebirth Jazz Band flown in from his hometown of New Orleans beginning at his longtime home at 285 East 3rd street to the place of celebration. Among those offering praise both in words and in music for Cannon at this event were; Matthew Shipp, Paul Beatty, and Victor Hernandez Cruz.
