Interview with Kevin Powell

Daniella: “It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. Powell” Kevin: “What’s good? How you doing?”
Kevin Powell is a New Jersey native but currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. Despite coming from extremely poor single-mother led household, Powell attended Rutgers University. While there, Powell exhibited exemplary leadership skills through his involvement in a student-led apartheid movement, his work around voting rights and anti-racism. Kevin Powell has since published ten books, written countless essays and reviews for publications including, Vibe, where he became the writer who did the most interviews with Tupac Shakur during his career. Kevin is well known for his criticism on hip-hop, and domestic violence due to past personal struggles. Powell encourages the use hip-hop as a resource for social change by organizing numerous concerts, rallies, and forums and is now at the head of the movement to redefine American manhood; free of stereotypes of violence and sexism.
He came in, shook our hands, and declined a seat. As soon as he began answering our questions, he emitted this New York swagger we certainly weren’t expecting.

Daniella: During and after your undergraduate years at Rutgers University, you were committed to social change by involving yourself with anti-apartheid movements, voting rights, and many other issues plaguing the black community at the time. Today you are very well known for your insight on hip-hop. How did your experiences then evolve into speaking about hip-hop and now black manhood?
Kevin Powell: I speak about people. That’s what I do. My life work is dedicated to helping people…it’s not just in one category. One thing I’m real careful of is never being boxed in. Am I a hip hop head? Absolutely. I grew up a B-boy graffiti writer. I went to college with Sister Souljah she was known as Lisa Williamson and we used to organize a lot with the hip hop artists of the day so that’s a part of my life. But the way I put it since I was 18 years old my life has been about public service and it’s taken on many forms over the years. And the way I put it once you become conscious, once you become aware, unless you are going to deny who you are as you get older, for the rest of your life you’re going to be an advocate for people and that’s been the case for me now for 25 years so that’s not going to change.

Daniella: What are the biggest challenges you face in your career today?
Kevin Powell: I don’t use the word career. That’s the first thing. I don’t say career I say life journey. And life journey is like a novel, it has many chapters. I think you have to look at it like that. The biggest change was dealing with self-esteem; doubting myself, having fear, fears of prison. And I always challenge people now you know. You can’t be afraid of anything. A lot of it is our psyche; particularly in our community as black folks because of institutionalized racism and sexism, and classism, all these ism’s, we don’t realize how this really does something to our spirits to make use believe that there are certain things that are not possible. Everywhere I go a black person inevitably says “I’m trying to do something” I’m like when did we start saying that. Either you’re going to do it, or you’re not. So for me throughout my life the challenge has been to have the courage, even when it may not always be there, to dig into myself and say let’s pause for a second, lets regroup. Understand Kevin, you’ve been to certain places, we’ve been to this river before. What did you do before to get across that river? Unfortunately a lot of us inevitably panic. And then we freeze. At this stage in life, my recommendation to people, especially to young people, do not allow anything to stop you from going forward for too long. Including yourself.

Jessicah: By this age, most of us have heard all of the negative stigmas associated with “black manhood” and the things that define it. Today you are speaking about “redefining black manhood”. What will this message touch on for black males? And how will it speak to the black females?
Kevin Powell: I’m going to talk to both groups about redefining who we are because I think women and men are equal. I feel that very strongly. I think both groups need a lot of work at this point. Simply I think both groups are endangered in a lot of ways. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be a black female in 2011. All of the destructive that images ya’ll are bombarded with every day. And so the challenge is to figure out ways that you can navigate through all of this madness as women. And then from there it is real basic. Do we want to be boys or do we want to be men…I’m talking about do you understand how to express who you are, if you’re feeling any kind of thing… Do you understand the concept of love and self-love and love of others? Do you understand the importance of nonviolence and peace? Do you respect women as equals? Do you have the ability to evolve to change? Are you responsible, are you accountable. Do you think with this brain as opposed to other parts of your body like so many of us do unfortunately? And so those are the kinds of things I think about and I challenge folks on when I talk about manhood and womanhood.

Jessicah: So what should we look forward to from you in the next coming year? What are you working on now?
Kevin Powell: We’ve launched a new organization called BK Nation. BK stands for building knowledge. It’s going to be a massive website. We want to have it really rocking when the next presidential election cycle comes around. I constantly get questions from people about services and resources. People need information and access to resources. So our organization is going to provide that on a national level with the website. I got 2 books coming out. My childhood memoir which is going to be called, Now the education of Kevin Powell. That’s going to come out in the fall of 2012. The best way I can describe it it’s a postmodern version of Richard Wright’s Black Boy. I hope that the story can inspire some people. And then after that book is done I’m going to spend a couple of years writing what I hope will be the definitive biography of the life of Tupac Shakur because it’s never been done. And you continue to do this. I love traveling. I love doing what I do. Speaking around the country and continue to be a voice for people who often don’t have a voice. That’s my life work so that’s not going to change.
Kevin Powell stood in front of an audience of about 90 people on Wednesday March 30th in a Benedum auditorium to speak about much more than how to redefine Black manhood in America. Mr. Powell didn’t even want the formal introduction normally given for keynote speakers. He didn’t want to stand behind the desk and lecture. In fact, the first thing he did was write his twitter name on the board in a dry erase marker and say “What Up?” to anyone who came through the doors. Kevin started his discussion with current events like the three world wars America is currently involved in with Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He then began speaking about the most recent Chris Brown incident on GMA and how manhood is improperly defined as a partial result of “systemic institutionalized racism”. And this, directed the conversation towards “lazy leadership” and 6 ways we can reach our full potential as leaders.

Kevin Powell reached out to the audience to define these facets of leadership.
1.Spirituality- meaning to have faith in something or connecting to the universe. “Love is gangsta. And self love is part of spirituality. If you don’t know who you are, you participate in self hatred and try to fit into someone else’s definition of nice skin color, or weight, or good and bad hair.“ It’s about having a moral compass.”
2.Politically- this is about understanding the historical context of your current condition. Lazy Leadership means you just talk about the issues and do nothing about it.
3.Financially-change your relationship to money. Our self worth is tied to material things and we need to understand the difference between wealth and being rich.
4.Cultural Swagger- This is how we carry ourselves. “We have previously been conditioned to survive, not to win. We have to have the backbone to say that this is unacceptable, and ask what we can do here.”
5.Physical Health- “First you need to know your family’s medical history. Then, you need to have the courage to change your diet and also exercise.”
6.Mental Wellness- “It’s not about managing your anger but finding the root of it. Take ownership of your stuff. We all have issues. You have to be honest to yourself about who you are.”
Powell concluded his lecture by talking a bit more about manhood and explaining that a real man is present in the community. “Saying nothing about it makes you just as guilty. You shouldn’t be saying anything to destroy another black man. Boys play all the time. Men know when to play.”

Powell recommended a few books to the audience to expand their awareness of our history. These books include:
“Ego Tripping” by Nikki Giovanni (poem)
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes (poem)A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America by Lerone Bennett Jr.
And Kevin Powell’s own The Black Male Handbook: A Blueprint for Life
The mix of his down to earth and humble attitude, professional experience, and knowledge made this one of the most inspiring and realistic lectures we have heard in a while. Kevin Powell is widely considered one of most prominent and influential voices of our century and he definitely lived up to his hype. Thanks to all who came out and sorry if you missed it!