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Kevin Powell

Topics:

• Living in a Multicultural America
• The State of Hip-Hop Culture
• Who's Gonna Take The Weight? Developing New Leaders for a New Century
• Dr. King, Civil Rights, and the Hip-Hop Generation
• History is a People's Memory: The Importance of Black History

Of Kevin Powell the world famous poet Nikki Giovanni has said "Kevin Powell is pushing to bring, as he has so brilliantly done before, the voices of his generation: the concerns, the cares, the fears, and the fearlessness." Noted scholar Michael Eric Dyson has called Kevin Powell "a mighty wind of fresh air." Legendary feminist icon Gloria Steinem proclaims that "as a charismatic speaker, leader and a very good writer, Kevin Powell has the courage...to be fully human, and this will bring the deepest revolution of all."

Kevin Powell is a poet, journalist, essayist, editor, cultural curator, hip-hop historian, public speaker, political consultant and fundraiser, and community activist. He was also an original cast member on the first season of MTV's hugely popular show The Real World. A native of Jersey City, New Jersey, Powell is now a resident of Brooklyn, New York. It is from his base in New York City that Powell has published six books, including his most recent, Who's Gonna Take The Weight? Manhood, Race, and Power in America, which is an Essence magazine bestseller.

Powell's next project, Someday We'll All Be Free, will be published in the Fall of 2005 and will feature essays on American democracy, American leadership, and the American dream. Powell is also at work on his childhood memoir, homeboy alone, which will be published in the Fall of 2006. Additionally, Powell is compiling his second volume of poetry, My Own Private Ghetto, and The Kevin Powell Reader, which will highlight the first 20 years of his literary career. Indeed, Powell has written numerous essays, articles, and reviews over the past two decades for publications such as Newsweek, The Washington Post, Essence, Code, Rolling Stone, The Amsterdam News, and Vibe, where he was a founding staff member and worked as a senior writer.

A highly sought after lecturer and commentator, Powell has offered his insights on a variety of social issues, as well as on hip-hop and pop culture, to numerous TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, and internet outlets in America and internationally, and he has spoken at colleges and universities, prisons, community centers, churches, conferences, and forums throughout the nation and abroad.

Powell is currently producing a series of town hall meetings across America called the State of Black Men Tour, which will visit approximately 20 cities by December 2005. His future political plans include a run for political office in 2006, in New York City, or launching a new national organization geared toward the empowerment of young people. Of his life work Powell says, simply, "My life-calling is to be a servant for the people, period. Money, fame, status, personal achievements, and all that means very little to me when pain and suffering are still real on this planet. I am interested in the powerless becoming powerful."