By Angelique Fullwood
As a part of the Black Student Union’s Distinguished Lecturer Series, author and activist Kevin Powell spent time with TCC students on February 23 to discuss his latest book, The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy’s Journey into Manhood. It is a critically acclaimed and brutally honest memoir about his life. In this book, Powell shares his experiences in dealing with the issues of racism and poverty in the United States while learning how to survive and overcome the trauma that comes with it.
Q:How has growing up in poverty affected your world view?
Kevin Powell: The most vivid thing I describe in my new book, “The Education of Kevin Powell” is the poverty. Its unacceptable that people have to live in the kind of environment in this country and all around the world. It’s unacceptable that there are a small percentage of people that have most of the wealth in this country and in this world, while the rest of us are living check to check trying to make ends meet. That’s what matters to me. Yeah I’ve went to college, but I’m always going to view the world through the eyes of poor people/working class people because that shaped me in the first part of my life.
Q:What influenced you to become an avid reader?
KP: Yeah I’m an avid reader and that’s because of my mother. My mother was poor- she had an 8th grade education and grew up with nothing. So the only other thing that she could do for me other than “Hey, make sure he doesn’t starve to death” is “let’s make sure he gets the education I didn’t get.”
Q:Many people recognize the need for social change, but what was it for you that made you decide to act and do something about it?
KP: Poverty is a form of violence. I’ve been travelling this country every week as an activist, as a speaker, as a writer- if you’ve travelled the way I’ve travelled or if you just see what’s going on here in Tallahassee then you’ll see that our communities are suffering. It’s about Justice; it’s about being unapologetically fearless when it comes to talking about economic inequality in this country. Why does every hood look the same wherever you go? Why does Tallahassee look like Brooklyn? you know what I’m saying? Why does every hood have the same stuff? A soul food restaurant, barbershop, beauty salon, check cashing place, rent a center, mad churches, and mad funeral parlors. There’s something wrong with that, when I can go through every community and it looks the same, and people are suffering trying to figure out their way. On top of that we have to deal with racial profiling and police brutality and the women have to deal with domestic violence and sexual assault.
