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Kevin Powell        

Writer, Humanitarian, President of BK Nation

Kevin Powell is one of the most celebrated political, cultural, literary, and hip-hop voices in America today.

The Jersey City product of a single mother, absent father, horrific poverty, and violence, he was able to study at Rutgers University in his home state of New Jersey due to the Educational Opportunity Fund, a program created during the Civil Rights Movement to benefit poor youth.

Says Kevin, “Just to be able to get to college, to be exposed to a new world, a new way, changed my life forever, and I am forever grateful for the chance.”

Kevin has gone on to be a poet and journalist and the author of 14 books, including When We Free The World, his new short essay collection about freedom, justice, and equality in America; and his critically acclaimed autobiography, The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy’s Journey into Manhood, which is being adapted for the screen. One of his upcoming books will be a biography of Tupac Shakur, who Kevin interviewed several times while a senior writer for Quincy Jones’ Vibe.

Indeed, he has penned articles, essays, and blogs for a wide range of newspapers and magazines and major websites, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, The Nation, NPR, ESPN, Essence, Ebony, Rolling Stone, Esquire, HuffPost, Utne Reader, The Guardian, The Baffler, The Progressive, Complex, and British GQ.

As a civil and human rights activist, Kevin will launch a new American organization in 2023, yet to be named, focused on voter education and voter empowerment, and bringing people together, and which will showcase a website full of blogs from contributors of diverse backgrounds.

Kevin’s activism also includes an annual clothing drive for homeless youth in New York City; a leadership role in the movement to re-define manhood away from sexism and violence; a deep responsibility to mentorship and development of people of every age as agents for change; and a commitment to democracy, justice, diversity, inclusion, and equality for the American people, be it education, #MeToo, immigrant rights, gun violence prevention, marriage equality, economic opportunity, healthcare access, or an end to racial profiling.

To further demonstrate that commitment to a life of service Kevin ran for Congress in his adopted hometown of New York City in 2008 and 2010; he has lectured and worked and traveled in all 50 American states and 5 of the world’s 7 continents; he is directing, writing, and producing his first documentary film, also called “When We Free The World,” about healthy manhood versus toxic manhood, about fathers and sons; and Kevin is the playwright of an upcoming stage play, based around his writings, speeches, and conversations about what it is to be a man.

Kevin is a proud and long-time resident of Brooklyn, New York.

Speech Topics


Dreaming America: Barack, Pop Culture & the New Activism

Let's Get It Started: Redefining American Manhood

Powell would speak for about 45 minutes on his lifelong battles with sexism, dating to his years as a boy, as an adolescent and teen athlete, as a male very influenced by popular culture and street culture. Powell talks very candidly about the maturation of his sexist behavior in college, culminating with his pulling a knife on a fellow student.

His speech is not simply about discussing the problems, but also offering practical, proactive solutions to get males to rethink how we have defined manhood our entire lives, often at the physical, spiritual, and emotional expense of women. Indeed, he will talk very honestly about his periods of deep denial, about his counseling sessions, about the challenges he was given by women, about the books he began to read, and how all those things began to broaden my thinking and, in a sense, push him toward healing (an ongoing thing), consistent self-reflection, and, finally, the recognition that he had an obligation to speak out against any sexist behavior, whatever form.

From Rosa Parks to Hurricane Katrina: Civil Rights in America

Kevin Powell, one of the leading voices in America today, not only pays homage to the Civil Rights Movement, which greatly benefited his generation, the hip-hop generation, but he also traces the historical connections between the Civil Rights era and the hip-hop era. From Emmett Till's murder to Hurricane Katrina, from dr. King's Poor People's Campaign to the birth of hip-hop in the late 1960s/early 1970s, Powell tackles the tough questions of what was won and what was lost as a result of the Civil Rights Movement, why there has been vast class and generational gaps in Black America since the Civil Rights era, and what Hurricane Katrina brought to the surface as we watched it unfold on television, as many of us watched the Civil Rights struggles on television. Moreover, because Powell has been a central figure in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, including trips, himself, to New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Houston in the days immediately following the hurricane and flooding, he offers firsthand accounts and personal insights to what went wrong, how what went wrong falls into the ongoing struggles for Civil Rights, and why Mrs. Rosa Park's recent death is a reminder of the work ahead.

How to Build Corporate Responsibility & Trust in the 21st Century

Kevin Powell has consulted and worked with a number of major corporate brands through the years, including Coca-Cola, Best Buy, Nike, VirginMobile, Clear Channel Communications, Nissan, Microsoft, and Random House. In this keynote presentation, Powell details moments in American history of corporate generosity; highlights some of the issues and crises affecting the American social fabric in these early days of the 21st century; and offers a concrete and multidimensional game plan for corporate involvement in the community, including ways a corporate entity can boost brand awareness or repair their brand image in the aftermath of not so positive media attention while giving back.

The Leadership We Are Waiting for Is Us: How to Become an Effective Leader

Powell feels he has been a leader his entire adult life, practically from the moment he set foot on the campus of Rutgers University in the mid 1980s as a teenager. Inspired by the presidential campaigns of Jesse Jackson and the anti-apartheid movement filtering through colleges nationwide, Powell threw himself into the role of student and youth leader on campus and off. Over time those early experiences have been translated into very visible and influential careers at MTV and Quincy Jones' Vibe magazine, as one of the most prominent voices of the hip-hop generation, and in New York City as a very active and well-respected community leader, trendsetter, business owner, and mover and shaker. Most recently Powell ran for Congress in Brooklyn, New York, and plans to seek elected office again in the near future. Indeed, Powell's varied experiences in academia, media, corporate America, politics, and the arts and entertainment worlds have afforded him the unique opportunity to develop a comprehensive action plan for leadership and leadership development in corporate America. This simple and accessible approach to leadership development includes a step-by-step guide on how individuals can identify their inner leadership qualities and skills, and how best to highlight those qualities and skills for the good of themselves and their company.

Are Dr. King & His “Dream” Still Relevant?: Community, Social Media, & the New Activism

In this thought-provoking and interactive lecture Kevin Powell, one of America’s most engaging political, community, literary, and cultural leaders and voices, takes the audience on a journey from Dr. King to Ferguson, Missouri, from civil rights to hiphop, from race and power to gender, class and all the many ways we are different, and the same. Drawing on his own personal experiences as a product of post-Civil Rights America, Kevin discusses his family’s history in the Jim Crow South, his childhood as a product of integrated schools, and how and why Dr. King’s life and work became relevant to him—and why it was not for several years. Connecting the dots between elders and young people, Kevin also dives into the tricky terrain of twitter, Facebook, and other social media as the spaces of the new activism, and why we should be paying attention to these new tools for change in the 21st century.

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Redefining Manhood: Changing Us, Changing The World

In response to continuous issues of domestic violence, sexual assault, and Columbia student Emma Sulkowicz carrying a mattress around campus to protest her on campus rape, Kevin Powell will lead conversations that will focus on where definitions of manhood come from (home, religious institutions, sports, pop culture, mass media, etc.), how they help us as males, and how they stunt and hurt us as males. He will examine our own journeys and also those we’ve witnessed of famous or iconic figures in our society. The dialogue will feature an honest conversation about gender, violence against women and girls, and the role we men play, since most cases are male violence against females. And how we males can become allies to women and girls in the struggle against all forms of gender violence, abuse, and oppression. Kevin will cover: what is power, what is privilege, who has it and why, and who does not have it, and why. He will also examine how these messages are reinforced through popular culture, including hip hop, college campus life, and sports. Finally Kevin will draw on his own experiences with gender violence, as well as the very personal and transparent writings he has done on the topic.

  • The Leadership We Are Waiting for Is Us: How to Become an Effective Leader

  • How to Build Corporate Responsibility & Trust in the 21st Century

  • Diversity 101: Creating a Healthy & Successful Workplace

  • From Rosa Parks to Barack Obama: Civil Rights in America

  • Lets Get It Started: Redefining American Manhood

  • History Is a People's Memory: The Importance of Black History Month

  • Someday We'll All Be Free: Young America, Voting & the New Activism

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News


'The Education of Kevin Powell': An activist and ex-MTV star looks ...
When hip-hop journalist, social activist and performance poet Kevin Powell moved from New Jersey to New York City at the age of 24 in 1990, he was an ...
Kevin Powell writes a searing yet uplifting memoir
In The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy's Journey Into Manhood, author, journalist and activist Kevin Powell is attempting the latter, offering his personal story ...
Writer-activist Kevin Powell says his new memoir tells 'a human story ...
Kevin Powell talks about his new memoir, his influences and the state of the black male in America.
Writer Kevin Powell kicks off publicity tour on book about his ...
Writer, political activist and lecturer Kevin Powell chose his hometown of Jersey City tonight to kick off a nationwide tour to promote his "brutally honest" book ...
Why one activist thinks we need a men's movement - CNN.com
Kevin Powell is the author of the new book "The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy's Journey into Manhood." Follow him on Twitter @kevin_powell, or email him  ...

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