Lynn Manning dies at 60; blind poet, athlete, Watts theater group founder
After a stranger blinded him with a gunshot to the face at a Hollywood bar, Lynn Manning never thirsted for revenge. He had a life, after all.
At 23, he had to learn how to get around by himself. To stay fit, he took up martial arts and became a world champion in blind judo. To stay sane, he wrote funny, angry, poignant poems and read them at poetry slams. To grapple with stage fright, he studied acting. To find his voice on a tangle of profound issues that were wrapped up in having a disability and being an African American, he wrote acclaimed one-act plays and co-founded a theater company in Watts.
Manning's assailant tangled with him in a pinball tournament and came back with a gun. He was never found.
"I sincerely hope he gets what's coming to him, but I don't dwell much on it," Manning told a Pennsylvania newspaper, the Allentown Morning Call, in 2007. "Some say it's important for a victim to get closure, but I think if you need that sort of thing to move forward, you're still a victim."
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-lynn-manning-20150806-story.html
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