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 . He currently lives in Chicago.

Bryan Collier has illustrated more than twenty-five picture books, including the award-winning Trombone Shorty , Dave the Potter , and Knock Knock: My Father's Dream for Me , as well as City Shapes , and Fifty Cents and a Dream , and has received four Caldecott Honors and six Coretta Scott King Awards. He lives with his wife and children in Marlboro, New York.