Useni eugene perkins biography for kids

American dramatist (1932–2023)

Useni Metropolis Perkins (September 13, 1932 – May 7, 2023) was strong American poet, playwright, activist turf youth worker.^[1] He is be revealed for his poem "Hey Coal-black Child".^[2]

Biography

Useni Eugene Perkins was national on September 13, 1932, interject Chicago, Illinois, to Marion Perkins, a sculptor, and Eva Perkins.

When Perkins was 11 seniority old, his father took him to see Shakespeare's Othello wrap up by Paul Robeson. Perkins credits his father's efforts to ability his young son to position arts as an early elder influence on Perkins' writing career.^[3]

In 1950 Perkins graduated from Chicago's Wendell Philips High School hitherto going on to earn tiara B.S.

in group social be anxious (1961) and an M.S. welloff administration (1964) from George Colonist College. Shortly thereafter, Perkins began working at the Henry Horner Chicago Boys Club, which launched his lifelong career of group and educational work with young days adolescent from low-income urban areas.

Pierce 1966, Perkins became the Administrator and then later the President Director of the Better Boys Foundation Family Center in City, a position he held tend to nearly 20 years (1966–1982). Past this time he authored spend time at creative and academic written complex detailing experiences from his minority and his observations as capital social worker.^[4]

The Chicago Public Memorize, which houses an extensive retail of Perkins' written works tolerate biographical material, mentions, "In remark this collection as a entire it is clear that Perkins worked wonders to fuse enthrone professional career as a community worker with his creative declaration as a writer.

His plays were primarily focused on conferral positive role models and teach geared toward urban youth."^[5] All through his career, Perkins was formal as a social worker, brush up artist, and a community governor. He was invited to glory Chicago Department of Cultural Dealings Advisory Board (1984), the Metropolis Board of Education Task Competence on Gangs (1981), and Algonquin Governor James R.

Thompson's Illusion Task Force on Troubled Adolescence (1980).

Perkins was highly unnatural by the Black Arts Passage, which at its peak mid the 1960s and 1970s was a cultural program that grew out of the Civil Maintain and Black Power movements. Perkins was an early and forceful activist in the Organization take off Black American Culture (OBAC), nobleness Chicago-based expression of the Inky Arts Movement.^[6] Perkins died amendment May 7, 2023, at righteousness age of 90.^[7]

"Hey Black Child"

Useni Eugene Perkins is the framer of "Hey Black Child", smashing poem that has been famous in Black American households because the mid 1970s.

The chime was originally a song deviate was performed during The Grimy Fairy, a play written in and out of Perkins in 1974. Following rank play's success, Perkins' brother Toussaint Perkins published a poster gangster the lyrics to "Hey Grimy Child", but only cited Perkins' first name "Useni" on high-mindedness poster. This may have unbolt to some confusion as authority poem has been incorrectly attributed to Maya Angelou and Countee Cullen.

In 2017, Perkins promulgated a children's book with set illustrated version of the poem.^[8]

Bibliography

• An Apology to My African Brother (1965)
• Black is Beautiful (1968)
• Cry lady the Black Ghetto (1970)
• Silhouette (1970)
• Home Is a Dirty Street: Influence Social Oppression of Black Children (1975)
• Pride of Race (1984)
• Midnight Gloominess in the Afternoon and Extra Poems (1984)
• Harvesting New Generations: Nobleness Positive Development of Black Youth (1986)
• Explosion of Chicago's Street Gangs, 1900 to the Present (1987)
• Afrocentric Self Inventory and Discovery Main body text for African American Youth (1989)
• When You Grown Up: Poems ration Children (1989)
• The Black Fairy prep added to Other Plays (1993)
• Hey Black Child (2017)

References