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Useni Eugene Perkins

Born: 1932, in Chicago, Illinois
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Perkins currently lives in Chicago.

Biography: Useni Eugene Perkins is a distinguished poet, playwright, and youth worker. He is the author of Harvesting New Generations: The Positive Development of Black Youth; Home is a Dirty Street: The Social Oppression of Black Children; and Black Fairy and Other Plays.


Awards:
  • """Hey Black Child"""
  • -- Top 20 Books of the Year, School Library Journal
  • -- Windows and Mirrors from Black #OwnVoices Creators List, Publishers Weekly, 2020
  • -- Starred Review, Kirkus
  • -- Starred Review, School Library Journal
  • -- Starred Review, Publishers Weekly
  • -- Illinois Reads Selection, Illinois Reading Council, 2019

Primary Literary Genre(s): Fiction; Non-Fiction

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Website: https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/useni-eugene-perkins-39
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useni_Eugene_Perkins
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VQ0Qyv5Loc


Selected Titles

Bishop Daniel A. Payne :
ISBN: 9781933491134 OCLC: 436289565

Just Us Books, East Orange, NJ : ©2009.

A brief biography of African-American religious leader of the African Methodist Episcopal Church during the mid-1800s.

Harvesting new generations :
ISBN: 0883782243 OCLC: 58546195

Third World Press, Chicago : ©2005.

A comprehensive exposition on Black youth, this study provides a careful analysis of their problems--personal, societal and institutional--as well as potential solutions for the future. Useni Eugene Perkins has worked with Black youth for over forty-five years in many capacities. He directed a gang outreach program at the Henry Horner Boys Club, served as director of the Better Boys Foundation, President of the Urban League of Portland, Oregon and recently directed the Family Life Center at Chicago State University. In addition, he is the president of the Association for the Positive Development of Black Youth and has been recognized as one of the pioneers of the Rites of Passage movement. He also serves as Special Consultant to the National Association of Former Foster Care Children of America, Inc.--Page [4] of cover.

Hey black child
ISBN: 9781948381215 OCLC: 1038007428

Six-time Coretta Scott King Award winner and four-time Caldecott Honor recipient Bryan Collier brings this classic, inspirational poem to life, written by poet Useni Eugene Perkins. Hey black child, Do you know who you are? Who really are? Do you know you can be, What you want to be, If you try to be What you can be? This lyrical, empowering poem celebrates black children and seeks to inspire all young people to dream big and achieve their goals.

Home is a dirty street :
ISBN: 0883780488 OCLC: 1975860

Third World Press, Chicago : ©1975.

Memories & images :
ISBN: 0883782448 OCLC: 52758851

"The poems in this collection were written between 1965 and 1984. Many of the poems were written during the turbulent sixties when, like many Black poets, I was inspired by the Black Arts Movement. These Black poets, my self included, felt that Black poetry should raise the consciousness of Black people to stand firm against the tyranny of racial strife and injustice. In this regard, most of these poems are fundamentally political in scope; yet I hope they convey some insight about the human condition."--Preface, page ix.

 

 

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