University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press will release Beautiful and Ugly Too by Chuck Perkins, hitting bookstores July 29. New Orleans local Perkins is a product of city’s public school system, and he’s currently the owner of the performance venue Café Istanbul.

Beautiful and Ugly Too is a firsthand account of life in the Crescent City told through poetry and essays. A third-generation New Orleanian, Perkins was born and raised in the Pigeon Town neighborhood. This, his first collection of poetry, aims to provide an authentic description of living in New Orleans from the perspective of the Black working poor and an in-depth understanding of this unique city’s history and culture. It also zooms out to offer a broader perspective of both race and class, as well as themes that connect us all as human beings.

Through it all, these poems do not glorify or vilify. They underscore the fact that nothing is perfect, we are all beautiful and ugly, too.

Dr. Mona Lisa Saloy, Louisiana Poet Laureate 2021–2023, said of the collection, “Chuck Perkins shows NOLA mojo from inside a Black man’s eyes, ears, heart. His sweet prose is memoir-strong, folklore-filled, with New Orleans traditions, fears, and fun. A fine storyteller.”

“From Congo Square to crack houses, jazz funerals to Tchoupitoulas Street, Chuck Perkins explores, in these evocative poems, the beautiful and the ugly of the world and our hometown of New Orleans,” wrote Walter S. Isaacson, journalist, historian, and author of The Innovators.

Beautiful and Ugly Too can be purchased online or through other major retailers.