Brother Blue

Who was Brother Blue?

Hugh Morgan Hill, who performed as Brother Blue was an African American educator, storyteller, actor, musician, street performer and living icon in Boston, in Cambridge, at Harvard University, MIT, and in the global oral storytelling community. After serving as First Lieutenant from 1943-1946 in the segregated U.S. army in World War II and being honorably discharged, he received a BA from Harvard College in 1948, was accepted into the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences before transferring to receive a MFA from the Yale School of Drama and a Ph.D. from the Union Institute, having delivered his doctoral presentation at Boston's Deer Island Prison, accompanied by a 25 piece jazz orchestra, with a video recording for his dissertation committee's further consideration. While performing frequently at US National Storytelling Festivals and flown abroad by organizations and patrons from England to Russia and the Bahamas, Brother Blue regularly performed on the streets around Cambridge, most notably in Harvard Square. He was the Official Storyteller of Boston and of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA by resolution of both city councils, a most unusual honor, doubled.