Kevin Powell

Grocery Shopping with My Mother

“Kevin Powell returns with a poetic time capsule written with love in honor of his mother’s evolution. Powell investigates the nature of our country's oppression through the generational wounds survived and passed on. These poems are a testament to the healing work of Kevin Powell, as they revel in the power of forgiveness, abundance, and lineage.” —Mahogany L. Browne, Lincoln Center's inaugural poet in residence and author of Vinyl Moon When Kevin Powell’s elderly mother became ill, he returned home every week to take her grocery shopping in Jersey City. Walking behind her during those trips, Powell began to hear her voice, stories, and language in a new way—examining his own healing while praying for hers. Grocery Shopping with My Mother originated as social media posts about these visits and evolved into a breathtaking collection of thirty-two new poems, crafted like an album, plus four bonus tracks celebrating a great love of wordplay. Culturally rooted in the literary traditions of Ntozake Shange and Allen Ginsberg, Powell’s poems honor the likes of V (formerly Eve Ensler), bell hooks, and Sidney Poitier. Grocery Shopping with My Mother dives into the complexities of relationships and contemporary themes with honesty and vulnerability. Creatively and spiritually inspired by Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, Powell’s poems shift in form and style, from praise chants to reverential meditations to, most importantly, innovative hope.

The Education of Kevin Powell 

Offers a compilation of fiction, poetry, essays, criticism, letters, and hip-hop journalism to explore issues in post-civil rights and post-colonial black literature.

A Global Anthology of the New Black Literature

Step Into a World

In a searing, provocative collection of essays, letters, and meditations, a poet and cultural critic confronts such issues as racism, black self-hatred, gender violence, sex, misogyny, and his own mercurial rise from poverty to success. Tour.

Post-MTV Reflections on Race, Sex, and Politics

Keepin' it Real

Written between 1989 and 2008, the poems in Kevin Powell’s powerful new collection encompass everything from his early role as a renowned slam poet (and original cast member of MTV’s Real World) to his current incarnation as a poet operating away from the scene. Within this rich tapestry of musings, confession, and introspection, Powell weaves issues like racism, black self-hatred, and gender violence with his own anguished revelations about sex, love, and misogyny. Sampling from the personal and the political, Powell reshapes them into a provocative soundtrack for the times.

New and Selected Poems

No Sleep Till Brooklyn

"Memoir recounting the author's childhood, struggle to overcome a legacy of anger and violence, and journey to become a voice for others"--

A Boy's Journey Into Manhood

The Education of Kevin Powell

★★BUY THE PAPERBACK VERSION, AND GET THE KINDLE EBOOK FOR FREE★★ Don't have enough time in the day to read your favorite books? Want to get ahead of the competition? Would you like to DOUBLE your reading speed in less than 2 hours? If so then keep on reading... How much easier would your life be if you could blaze through emails at work, read through your newspaper in minutes or retain every piece of information in a long textbook? Speed reading has many practical uses in this busy world. It can help someone advance in their career, get a college student through graduate school, or make reading a more enjoyable and meaningful experience. Speed reading IS the most important skill you can have in this day and age, where information is so readily available, but time is not. But speed reading isn't everything, whats' the point in reading fast if you can't retain all that information? This is why this book will not only teach you how to speed read BUT it will also teach you how you can retain and recall information from your brain. Did you know that most people never tap into even 10% of their potential for memory? With the help of this book, you'll become an information consuming MACHINE. What you'll learn: Speed reading defined and how it has changed since its inception in the late 1950s The benefits this skill brings to daily life, as well as to careers An understanding of how the mind processes information and what happens when a person reads Why what you may have heard about speed reading is most likely untrue Ways to adapt speed reading techniques based on learning styles A primer on the most often used techniques and methods How to use these proven methods to ensure a faster and more efficient reading process Tips and suggestions on memorization and memory recall Where to find additional resources about speed reading Do you want to learn the most important skill you'll ever acquire in your life? This is the first step in advancing forward. The time to get ahead of the competition is NOW

How to Double Your Reading Speed and Improve Memory in Under 2 Hours! Learn Faster, Improve Productivity and Accelerate Learning

Speed Reading and Unlimited Memory

In the spirit of Piri Thomas’s Down These Mean Streets and Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, writer and activist Kevin Powell’s memoir—“illuminating…an education for us all” (USA Today)—vividly recounts the horrific poverty of his youth and his struggles to overcome a legacy of anger, violence, and self-hatred. When Kevin Powell was three, he discovered the volatile nature of his world: a place of pain, poverty, violence, fire, rats, roaches, and a fear that would haunt him for years; but also moments of joy, transcendence, and belonging. By the time he graduated from high school, something his single mother and his grandparents did not do, Powell had survived abuse, abandonment by his father, debilitating low self-esteem, a police beating, and years of constant relocation—from school to school, neighborhood to neighborhood. He was left feeling isolated, wondering if his life had any value, and doubting that he would survive to see old age. In this unflinchingly honest autobiography, Kevin Powell reflects on his tumultuous, turbulent passage from child to man. He revisits the path that led him to become a successful writer, public speaker, activist, and cast member on the influential first season of MTV’s The Real World. He also recalls the terrible lows he endured of depression, thoughts of suicide, alcoholism, bankruptcy, doomed relationships, failed political campaigns, and the soul-shattering murder of Tupac Shakur. Time and again, Powell harks back to lessons his mother taught him as a little boy: never stop learning, never stop telling the truth, always strive to be a better man, do what is right. Written with urgency and insight by one of the most gifted voices of our times, The Education of Kevin Powell is a powerful chronicle of healing and growth, survival and redemption. Ultimately, Kevin Powell’s journey is our journey, too.

Written in the tradition of works by Joan Didion, bell hooks, Toni Morrison, and Eve Ensler, this “profoundly insightful and brilliantly inciting” (Dominique Morisseau, Obie Award-winning playwright) exploration of the soul of the United States—the past, the present, and the future Kevin Powell wants for us all, through the lens and lives of three major figures: his mother, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. Ten short years ago, Barack Obama became president of the United States, and changed the course of history. Ten short years ago, our America was hailed globally as a breathtaking example of democracy, as a rainbow coalition of everyday people marching to the same drum beat. We had finally overcome. But did we? Both the presidencies of Obama and Donald Trump have produced some of the ugliest divides in history: horrific racial murders, non-stop mass shootings, the explosion of attacks on immigrants and on the LGBTQ community, the rise of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, a massive gap between the haves and the have-nots, and legions of women stepping forth to challenge sexual violence—and men—in all forms. In this collection of thirteen powerful essays, “Kevin Powell thoughtfully weaves together the connective tissue between gender, race, sexuality, pop culture, and sports through a series of raw, incredibly personal essays” (Jemele Hill, writer and ESPN anchor). Be it politics, sports, pop culture, hip-hop music, mental health, racism, #MeToo, or his very complicated relationship with his mother, these impassioned essays are not merely a mirror of who we are, but also who and what Powell thinks we ought to be.

My Mother. Barack Obama. Donald Trump. And the Last Stand of the Angry White Man.

Ernie Paniccioli

Nearly thirty years ago, Ernie Paniccioli, considered by many to be the James Van Der Zee of the hiphop generation, began photographing graffiti art throughout New York City as well as the young people creating it. Armed with a 35-millimeter camera, Paniccioli literally recorded the beginning salvos of hiphop, today the most dominant youth culture on the planet. Be it Grandmaster Flash at the Roxy, a summer block party in the Bronx, the fresh faces of Jay-Z and Will Smith, the cocksure personas of Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., and Eminem, or the regal grace of Lauryn Hill, Ernie Paniccioli has been there to showcase hiphop’s emerging talent. With more than 200 photographs that have been culled from a vast archive, Who Shot Ya? is the first major pictorial history of hiphop culture.

Three Decades of HipHop Photography

Who Shot Ya?

Author and activist Kevin Powell and contributors Lasana Omar Hotep, Jeff Johnson, Byron Hurt, Dr. William Jelani Cobb, Ryan Mack, Kendrick B. Nathaniel, and Dr. Andre L. Brown tap into the social and political climate rising in the African American community with this collection of essays for Black males on surviving, living, and winning. The Black Male Handbook answers a collective hunger for new direction, fresh solutions to old problems, and a different kind of conversation—man-to-man and with Black male voices, all of the hip hop generation. The book tackles issues related to political, practical, cultural, and spiritual matters, and ending violence against women and girls. The book also features an appendix filled with useful readings, advice, and resources. The Black Male Handbook is a blueprint for those aspiring to thrive against the odds in America today. This is a must-have book, not only for Black male readers, but the women who befriend, parent, partner, and love them.

A Blueprint for Life

The Black Male Handbook

In When We Free the World, acclaimed writer and activist Kevin Powell presents a stunning and brutally honest survey of America, yesterday and today, and what he hopes for its future, through the window of his own very painful personal trials - as #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, mass shootings, immigration, a global pandemic, and Donald Trump rotate in the background. The result is a deeply spiritual and emotional reminder of why freedom and justice and equality still remain so elusive for many, in this nation, on this planet. Inspired by the poetic dream montage of Langston Hughes, the prophetic letter sermon of James Baldwin, and Bobby Kennedy's raw and naked eulogy speech for Dr. King, Powell has created a fearless literary and political manifesto that is a town-hall meeting for an America seemingly at war with its own soul. With a passion and sensitivity that few writers of his generation can match, Powell tackles leadership, history, family, community, parenting, education, the legal system, racism, sexism, love, hate, forgiveness, mental health, and violence in all forms. And he challenges us, from beginning to end, on what that word "freedom" means, or ought to mean, for all human beings.

Kevin Powell

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