HR0884

LRB095 14900 KXB 40843 r






1

HOUSE RESOLUTION


 
2
    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of 
3
Representatives are pleased to honor Eugene Redmond on his 
4
seventieth birthday, December 1, 2007; and

 
5
    WHEREAS, Eugene Redmond was born December 1, 1937 in St. 
6
Louis, Missouri; he was orphaned at age nine and  was raised by 
7
his grandmother and "neighborhood fathers," made up of members 
8
of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and friends of his older 
9
brother; during high school he worked on the newspaper and 
10
yearbook, performed in school and church plays, and composed 
11
for neighborhood singing groups; and

 
12
    WHEREAS, From 1958 to 1961 Eugene Redmond served as a U.S. 
13
Marine in the Far East, acquiring a speaking knowledge of 
14
Japanese; he was an associate editor of the East St. Louis 
15
Beacon from 1961 to 1962; in 1963 Redmond co-founded a weekly 
16
paper in East St. Louis, the Monitor, working at different 
17
times as a contributing editor, executive editor, and editorial 
18
page editor; at Southern Illinois University he was the first 
19
African-American student editor of the university newspaper; 
20
after receiving his bachelor's degree in English literature in 
21
1964, he earned a master's degree in English literature from 
22
Washington University in 1966; and

 
 


 






HR0884
- 2 -
LRB095 14900 KXB 40843 r




1
    WHEREAS, In 1965, while still in graduate school, he won 
2
first prize in the Washington University Annual Festival of the 
3
Arts for his poem "Eye in the Ceiling"; in 1968 he published 
4
his first volume of poetry, A Tale of Two Toms, or Tom-Tom 
5
(Uncle Toms of East St. Louis and St. Louis); he has been 
6
poet-in-residence at Oberlin College, California State 
7
University, the University of Wisconsin, and Wayne State; and

 
8
    WHEREAS, From 1967 to 1969 he was a senior consultant to 
9
Katherine Dunham at Southern University's Performing Arts 
10
Training Center, where he acted, directed, wrote plays, and 
11
supervised the drama and writing departments; twelve of his 
12
plays, ballets, and choral dramas have been produced on 
13
university campuses and on California television; and

 
14
    WHEREAS, Eugene Redmond has been a professor at Southern 
15
Illinois University since 1990; he also works in the public 
16
schools and has established a feeder system, following some 
17
writers from elementary school through high school as a way of 
18
bringing "literacy to the many and the literary to the few"; 
19
his other community activities include organizing the annual 
20
"Break Word with the World" event in East St. Louis, a 
21
month-long "mock trial of the media" culminating in a reading 
22
and publication; and
 
23
    WHEREAS, He has received wide recognition as a poet and 
 


 






HR0884
- 3 -
LRB095 14900 KXB 40843 r




1
teacher; in 1976 he became poet laureate of East St. Louis, the 
2
first poet laureate named by a municipality; he was awarded a 
3
National Endowment for the Arts

 creative writing fellowship in 
4
1978; the Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club was founded in 1986, 
5
with writers such as Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka on the board 
6
of directors; Eye on the Ceiling won an American Book Award in 
7
1991; in 1993 Pan-African Movement USA awarded him a Pyramid 
8
Award for lifetime contributions to Pan-Africanism through 
9
poetry; and he received a "Tribute to an Elder" award from 
10
African Poetry Theater in 1995; therefore, be it

 
11
    RESOLVED, BY THE  HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE 
12
NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we 
13
congratulate Eugene Redmond for his many contributions to 
14
society and culture and wish him a happy birthday; and be it 
15
further

 
16
    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be 
17
presented to Eugene Redmond as a symbol of our respect.