Author to discuss book 'I'm From Division Street'
Author Kenneth N. Green will be back in the Chicago area in May 2011 to help his audiences who grew up in the Humboldt Park and Albany Park areas relive their memories when he discusses and signs his book "I'm From Division Street," published by Author House. He hopes his book will also inspire young people to strive for success, and he will stress this point when he speaks to students at Roosevelt High School.
The book graphically describes how his turbulent boyhood and teenage years in Chicago's tough Humboldt Park neighborhood gave him the grit and motivation to succeed in life as a public defender and defense lawyer in California, an amateur boxer, and as a single parent of a son. Green is listed among the SuperLawyers in California and has been inducted into the California Boxing Hall of Fame. The book is now being sold at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, BarnesandNoble.com, Barbara's Bookstore, Amazon.com and other retailers worldwide.
On Monday, May 2, he will speak at 7 p.m. at the Vernon Area Public Library, 300 Olde Half Day Road, Lincolnshire. For further information, call (847) 634-3650.
On Tuesday, May 3 at 11 a.m., he will present a program at Roosevelt High School, 3436 W. Wilson in Chicago, for students, staff and alumni. For further information, call (773) 534-5000. That's the school he was kicked out of and later graduated from in January 1956. He made a comeback from his challenges as a youth. He hopes to inspire young people to strive for success, despite their circumstances.
On Tuesday, May 3 at 7 p.m., he will give a book talk and do a book signing at Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Avenue in Evanston. For further information, call (847) 448-8646.
On Wednesday, May 4 at 8 p.m., he will speak at Congregation Bnai Shalom, 701 W. Aptakisic Road in Buffalo Grove. For further information, contact Congregation Bnai Shalom at (847) 415-1370.
Green decided to write the book when he learned that the Division Street neighborhood gave rise to the success of such famous people as bandleader Benny Goodman, author Saul Bellow and reporter Art Petaque (both Pulitzer Prize winners), movie director Ben Hecht, movie producer Michael Todd and biologist G.G. Molina.
Despite his childhood torment as a Jewish kid not fitting in, he sought to better himself by applying for a permit to attend Roosevelt High School in Chicago's more upwardly mobile Albany Park neighborhood. Even though some Humboldt Park toughs harassed him for attending a “classy school,” he pursued his dream of making something of himself. Green's book paints a vivid picture of the old neighborhood and what life was like for him and his friends during the 1940s, '50s and '60s. He also colorfully describes each of his close friends.
After he completed high school in Chicago, he and a good friend enlisted in the army and served in Korea. Following his honorable discharge from the army, Green did not want to follow his family to sunny California, so he worked as a cab driver and cash register salesman to put himself through college. He attended Roosevelt University in Chicago for a while. He moved to California, where he earned a bachelor's degree and then became a high school teacher. He taught school during the day and attended law school at night.
Green is the retired Bureau Chief of the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office. He now practices criminal defense law. He is the legal advisor for the California Boxing Hall of Fame and member of the Board of Directors of the World Boxing Hall of Fame. He was legal advisor to the California Professional Boxing Referees. He was on the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Police Department's boxing clinic. He was an instructor in the paralegal program, a UCLA extension course and also an instructor for a youth boxing program.
Kenneth Green and his wife, Maureen, a district attorney in Los Angeles, reside in Sherman Oaks, Calif., and have a condominium in Chicago. The couple makes frequent trips to Chicago, and he plans on visiting his old neighborhood this fall and would be available for interviews, book talks and signings from Oct. 10-14.
He is available for interviews and programs about his book and his life. To arrange a time and date, contact dorothyaweinberg@sbcglobal.net. Review copies of "I'm From Division Street" are available upon request. You can check out his website at kengreenesq.wordpress.com.