The Transformation of Kevin Powell

2008-09-19
By Gil Robertson IV

Over the years America has watched Kevin Powell’s transformation from the impetuous youth on the first season of MTV’s “The Real World, as a journalist/author (whose credits includes a stint as a senior writer at Vibe magazine and 8 books), to his most recent incarnation as a serious contender for the 10th congressional seat  representing Brooklyn, NY. Although he lost the race, the robust turnout for his candidacy hints at a promising future in politics.

For the time being he is back to his first passion as an author with the release of his 9th book, “The Black Male Handbook: A Blueprint for Life”, which he calls a must-read” guide and call-to-action for Black boys and men to redefine their manhood for the greater good of themselves, their communities and the world. 

EbonyJet.com recently spoke to Powell about his coming of age, his work as an author and the lessons he learned from his loss.

What was behind your transition into politics?
As George Orwell once said, everything is political. I am 42 and I have been a political activist and community organizer since I was 18. I have done extensive voter education and voter registration work my entire life. I have worked on and supported many political campaigns. So there is not really a transition into politics. As a leader you are just always thinking of different platforms to use, to help the people. My running for Congress this year was not about me, it was about the people. Black America is in dire need of a different kind of leadership. I am saying to people now if someone calls her or himself a leader in the 21st century, she or he had better be doing 1 or all of these 3 things: 1) Changing the direction of the conversations we've been having with bold new ideas and a new vocabulary; 2) Creating and sustaining institutions, organizations, or businesses that serve the community; or 3) Working on the frontlines on a regular basis, as a teacher, as a social worker, as a doctor, as a community organizer, as a mentor, as a spiritual leader, and so on.

If that person is not doing any of those things, then she or he is just a spokesperson, just a mouthpiece, making a lot of noise, with no action. Those are the folks you see on television all the time, constantly marching or protesting, with no real purpose whatsoever. The same goes for Black elected officials.

The great irony of the Civil Rights Movement is that we have more Black elected officials in America than ever before, but we are also more disempowered than we've been since the end of the Reconstruction era in the 1870s. It makes no sense. But, then again, it does, because Black politicians, not all but far too many, have become corrupted by power and privilege. So getting elected is not about serving the people. It is about holding on to your seat, your money from donors, your special connections and hook-ups, for as long as you can, even as the community you are elected to represent is in a state of arrested development.

 I simply got tired of seeing this in Brooklyn, so I decided to run for Congress. I lost this year, but, then again, we won, because we ran an honest and clean campaign, we never attacked my opponent personally even as he and his folks participated in the ugliest forms of character assassination. And we got a whole bunch of folks to pay attention to the political corruption, to the process, who had never done so before.

And you best believe I will be running again in 2010.

Assuming you do run again and get elected, what new flavor do you bring as an elected official?
When I get elected in 2010 it is not really about new flavor, it is about the fact I will actually show up for work. And I will work hard. I was raised by a South Carolina-born mother in terrible poverty, without a father. I cannot imagine not working hard, not showing up for work, not having a plan of action, given where I come from. And I could not imagine being anything other than about the people.

And I will certainly term limit myself. One reason why politicians became tainted by the system is because they still in too long, they get comfortable, the power and influence becomes addictive. I come from the Dr. King school of thought: nothing wrong with power as long as it is rooted in God, in love, in a love of the people, and is being used to uplift, not to keep people down.

So now you’re working on an anthology on Black manhood…
I have been doing Black male development in some form or fashion since I was a teenage student and youth leader in the 1980s. The first time I ever began to think about Black manhood in a different way was when I first read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and found myself led to the Nation of Islam. Little did I know, back then, that concepts around eating habits, exercise, mental wellness in the form of knowing our history, and so on, would eventually evolve into my putting forth my own holistic solutions for Black males.

So it is not so much that the essays were selected for The Black Male Handbook. It is that I realized, several years back, that Black people need practical and holistic solutions to our many challenges. That those areas had to include spirituality, pollitcs, culture, economics, physical health, and mental wellness.

From there I simply brought to the table, as editor, the brothers of my generation who I feel have some of the most progressive thinking in those categories. With Hill Harper writing the Forward and Dr. Jelani Cobb ending the book with a brilliant essay that ties it all together called "I Am A Man." As I say in the editor's note, be it Lasana Hotep's essay "Creating A Spiritual Foundation," or Ryan Mack's very timely "Starting A Plan for Economic Empowerment," the mission is to give Black males of all ages real talk, in simple language, with solutions. We've heard enough of the statistics, the pitfalls, and all that. We need to know what the blueprint is for going forward, for being fully formed men. That is why I shaped The Black Male Handbook the way I did, with things like a reading list, a music list, hygiene, etiquette, and job interview tips in the back. We really feel that if Black males take The Black Male Handbook seriously, read it from cover to cover, refer back to it when needed, that they – we --,will become better and wiser men, better and wiser fathers, and better and wiser loved ones and partners.

Besides the recommendations given by your authors, what else can be done to help save Black men?
Every single Black male in the country, especially adult Black males, has got to make a commitment toward self-empowerment, toward self-improvement, in spite of systemic racism, in spite of all the obstacle in our way. And there are many. For example, when I was 18 years old, as I said, I began to pick up books about Malcolm X, about Black history, for the very first time in my life. It was mind-blowing, to say the least. It was like a light switch had gone off in my head as I absorbed the tales about ancient African civilizations, about the middle passage, about slavery in America and in the West Indies, about the great Haitian revolution. I had no idea Black people had been through so much, had done so much. All the inventors, all the historical figures like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, the writers of the Harlem Renaissance, of the Negritutde Movement, of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. My point is this: reading and the digestion of knowledge, of practical information, is the most critical thing that Black males can do to change our lives. Without that action, we are doomed, seriously.

Gil Robertson IV is an A&E journalist and bestselling author. His work covering the entertainment industry has appeared in numerous publications that include the LA Times, the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Black Enterprise magazine.