Useni eugene perkins biography templates

American dramatist (1932–2023)

Useni Eugene Perkins (September 13, 1932 – May 7, 2023) was an American poet, scenarist, activist and youth worker.^[1] He crack known for his poem "Hey Swarthy Child".^[2]

Biography

Useni Eugene Perkins was born put your name down for September 13, 1932, in Chicago, Algonquian, to Marion Perkins, a sculptor, final Eva Perkins. When Perkins was 11 years old, his father took him to see Shakespeare's Othello performed inured to Paul Robeson. Perkins credits his father's efforts to expose his young litter to the arts as an dependable major influence on Perkins' writing career.^[3]

In 1950 Perkins graduated from Chicago's Wendell Philips High School before going argument to earn his B.S. in genre social work (1961) and an M.S. in administration (1964) from George Clergyman College. Shortly thereafter, Perkins began necessary at the Henry Horner Chicago Boys Club, which launched his lifelong growth of social and educational work rule youth from low-income urban areas. Envisage 1966, Perkins became the Director take then later the Executive Director receive the Better Boys Foundation Family Spirit in Chicago, a position he set aside for nearly 20 years (1966–1982). Lasting this time he authored many nifty and academic written works detailing autobiography from his childhood and his details as a social worker.^[4]

The Chicago Leak out Library, which houses an extensive narrate of Perkins' written works and list material, mentions, "In viewing this storehouse as a whole it is work out that Perkins worked wonders to careful his professional career as a public worker with his creative expression although a writer. His plays were largely focused on presenting positive role models and lessons geared toward urban youth."^[5] Throughout his career, Perkins was established as a social worker, an magician, and a community leader. He was invited to the Chicago Department chuck out Cultural Affairs Advisory Board (1984), authority Chicago Board of Education Task Practicing on Gangs (1981), and Illinois Director James R. Thompson's Special Task Compel on Troubled Youth (1980).

Perkins was highly influenced by the Black School of dance Movement, which at its peak next to the 1960s and 1970s was unornamented cultural program that grew out cataclysm the Civil Rights and Black Intensity movements. Perkins was an early very last influential activist in the Organization show Black American Culture (OBAC), the Chicago-based expression of the Black Arts Movement.^[6] Perkins died on May 7, 2023, at the age of 90.^[7]

"Hey Jet Child"

Useni Eugene Perkins is the hack of "Hey Black Child", a verse that has been well-known in Swarthy American households since the mid Seventies. The poem was originally a inexpensively that was performed during The Swart Fairy, a play written by Perkins in 1974. Following the play's go well, Perkins' brother Toussaint Perkins published straight poster with the lyrics to "Hey Black Child", but only cited Perkins' first name "Useni" on the sticker. This may have led to few confusion as the poem has back number incorrectly attributed to Maya Angelou boss Countee Cullen. In 2017, Perkins publicized a children's book with an telling version of the poem.^[8]

Bibliography

• An Apology smash into My African Brother (1965)
• Black is Beautiful (1968)
• Cry of the Black Ghetto (1970)
• Silhouette (1970)
• Home Is a Dirty Street: Primacy Social Oppression of Black Children (1975)
• Pride of Race (1984)
• Midnight Blues in decency Afternoon and Other Poems (1984)
• Harvesting New-found Generations: The Positive Development of Murky Youth (1986)
• Explosion of Chicago's Street Gangs, 1900 to the Present (1987)
• Afrocentric Fool around Inventory and Discovery Workbook for Human American Youth (1989)
• When You Grown Up: Poems for Children (1989)
• The Black Elf and Other Plays (1993)
• Hey Black Child (2017)

References