Kevin PowellReseñas

"The Kevin Powell Reader: Essential Writings and Conversations" is an excellent book by Kevin Powell, a leader of Black American political and cultural life for more than the past 30 years, and a personality of whom, I am embarrassed to say, I was unaware. Kevin is/was a true Renaissance Man and excelled as a journalist, poet, author, public speaker and political activist since the early 1990s. The first essay published in this book is "A Strong Nation Needs Strong Public Schools" which was a prize-winning essay written and published in 1983 by the Jersey City Education Association when Kevin was seventeen years old. Because many of the essays collected here are personal, reflecting on Kevin Powell's own life, his family, friends, education, work and struggles, it also serves as a kind of memoir of both Kevin personally and of Black life in America in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The subjects of these collected essays vary widely, reflecting on many people whom Kevin has known personally, including his parents and other relatives, and also such well-known figures as Tupac Shakur, Colin Powell, Prince, Barack Obama, Aretha Franklin, Stacy Adams and John Lewis, many of whom Kevin also knew personally. This is a wonderful book reflecting thoughtfully and sincerely on many aspects on life in the United States in the present and recent past. It should be on the shelves of every library in America.recommend it highly!

I won this book from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. I'm so glad I did! I remember reading an article by Kevin Powell many years ago. I was impressed with his writing then an am even more impressed now. His writings cover the gamut: his own struggles as a black man, lover, son, to interviews with some of the rich and famous African Americans. His poetry is honest as it is rhythmic. I love reading his essays. They were thought-provoking, candid, as well as enlightening. I loved all his essays. However, his essay on terrorism is definitely one of my favorites. Although I have not read Kevin Powell's other books, this book certainly captures his essential writings and conversations. I highly recommend reading this book.

The Kevin Powell Reader is an eyes -wide-open collection of candid, passionate, and thoughtful essays that speak to the lived experience of a Black man in the world. The writings contained in this book reflect the spirit of an unflinchingly candid and courageous human, committed to examining his reality and truths, even as they shift throughout his mental, spiritual, and emotional development. The ideas and insights found in these pages will keep readers engaged in a though-provoking, perspective-shifting dialogue with both the author and themselves. Powerful.

This is a good book -- one to be studied and recommended to friends who care about good writing. Powell has wisely included pieces from his early days and through to the present We are allowed to view the evolution of his writing style and his personal understanding of the world.

We are also introduced to life as a black man in America -- the omnipresent threat of violence and death.

Powell cites the work of many others -- poets, philosophers, hip-hop artists, politicians, musicians, feminists -- throughout the book. I learned a great deal by looking up these people and by reading brief biographies on-line. His mind and knowledge are expansive but rooted in his own experiences. He has and writes with the integrity of someone who knows himself well enough to want to write well about others.

The Kevin Powell Reader would be a useful source for writing instructors.

As a white, senior, raised-in-the-suburbs professional woman with radio dial tuned to "classical," I may not have been Powell's choice for an early reviewer. To do his book justice meant listening to artists who were decades old, but new to me. I'm grateful to Kevin Powell for writing so well that he made me want to explore, and to the Library Thing early reviewer's program for introducing us. I'll be reading more of his work.

The Kevin Powell Reader is a good and necessary reminder that the Civil Rights era is not over, and that many of their leading voices are still among us, articulating modes of understanding, defending, and clarifying the struggles, joys, and every-day challenges faced by Black people in the US. It also allows us to see Powell’s intellectual evolution. It is not something that has fossilized, but rather, like a living organism, it changes, mutates, and evolves. It is quite possible to encounter areas in which disagreement with Powell seems but inevitable. But equally inevitable, is the desire to continue engaging with a thinker who is not only able to present his ideas with clarity and force, but equally capable of listening, learning, and incorporating new concepts into his own thinking.

The Kevin Powell Reader is a powerful read because Kevin Powell is powerful human; a powerful writer; a powerful linguist; a powerful truth-sayer; a powerful activist. It doesn't matter what topic he's writing about, Powell has a way of giving the reader two things to think about: the topic itself and the context of the topic from the soul of a Black man in America. I'm not sure the last time I dog-eared and highlighted as many pages in a book as I did while reading this collection and Powell's writings have truly changed my life. I can't avoid placing this often over-used book review cliche in my review because it is absolutely true: This book is a must-read.

The Subtitle says it all. "Essential writings and conversations.".... Read this book!For anyone who (like me a month ago) is unfamiliar with Kevin Powell ... Read this book! For anyone interested in the evolution of a righteous man ... Read this book! For anyone entertained by good interviews and conversations with fascinating people .... Read this book! For anyone who enjoys modern poetry ....Read this book! For anyone wondering how a caring human being copes with the vagaries of life with aplomb, kindness, and class .... Read this book! For anyone wondering about the influence of Hip Hop culture .... Read this book!

Better yet, purchase this book, read it, and give to another. Mr Powell's is a voice that needs to be shared. I am a better person having read it.

An insightful and inspiring collection of essays and poems written over a 40 year span dealing with personal memoir, hip hop culture, racism, sexism, and various black heroes.

The Kevin Powell Reader is a nice collection of writings and essays throughout the writer’s career. He uses humor and heart to convey the topics of the world around him that matter most. He is a passionate writer that knows how to expertly craft an essay to convey a wide range of emotion and depth. I really enjoyed this collection. Something to keep on the nightstand or coffee table and revisit again as the mood takes you. I look forward to reading more from him.

Perhaps the best description I can give of The Kevin Powell Reader is a comment he makes near the end of the book when discussing Kendrick Lamar’s most recent album, "Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers": “[I]t is a remarkably personal record of a life and a time, and times past, and times yet to be.”

Mr. Powell writes truth: his own truth, the truth of Black men in America, the truth of the Black experience in America, and the truth of other tyrannized members of American society.–past and present; and also the truth of a grievous history of the American story that continues to subject minorities and marginalized “others” to degradation and abuse. Through his own stories and poetry, as well as interviews and essays, he explores in depth a history of violence, murder, disenfranchisement, and other heinous crimes against Blacks in America, merely for being Black. He does not neglect to include the denigration of other groups who, like Blacks, are also victimized by a nation that promises equality for all, yet offers it only to some.

From his introduction to his final chapter, I often shuddered as he shared his life, the life of his parents and grandparents. His prose reads like poetry; his personal stories, interviews, and essays about others--famous, infamous, and invisible–are deeply expressive. His writing is raw, tender, tough, engaging, shattering, moving–pulling the reader into the stories he relates. Although those stories evoke empathy and outrage, and though I do not want to detract from or diminish the unique Black perspective that he paints, Powell also presents a universal truth about how we treat–and are treated by–others; and even how that experience affects how we treat ourselves. In a telling statement in a personal essay (“Will Racism Ever End? Will I Ever Stop Being a Nigger?”) he notes, “. . . I was trying to smash the mirror that was myself once and for all.” Is this not a universal cry that cuts across race, religion, nationality, gender, cultural traditions–across time itself?

This book reaches deep inside and touches the reader emotionally, intellectually, viscerally. All that being said, if one can detach and read as a historical (and current) view of the Black experience in America, Powell’s essays, poetry, interviews, and reflections offer a fascinating look at people and events–past and present–that are important to understanding who we are today as a people. Hopefully Powell's incisive look at the Black experience can help all of us move forward toward creating a society in which each person is valued for who THEY are as individuals–and maybe someday, who WE ALL can become.

Great book to pick up and read a selection during down time at work. This book will be passed on to my favorite local HS AP Writing teacher as soon as I finish reading it :) Thank you for offering this book for Early Reviewers at Library Thing!

4.5

Raw, honest, and moving. I love, as I always have, Powell's voice. Such a good read.

An enjoyed book; looking forward to applying the techniques discussed.