Two River to Present Grammy Nominated Poet, Author & Activist Kevin Powell

Two River Theater, in partnership with the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, is inviting you to join Grammy-nominated poet, activist and author Kevin Powell for “What Would Dr. King Say Now? How to Heal America” on Sunday, January 19, 2025 at 2pm in the Joan and Robert Rechnitz Theater. There will be a pre-event reception at 1PM with light refreshments served. After the interactive program, Kevin will be available to sign copies of The Kevin Powell Reader, a collection of his writings.

"America is going through a very heavy period of division, hate, violence in unseen ways, a search for its soul,” says Kevin Powell.  “If there was ever a time to visit or re-visit the life and work and words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the great Civil Rights Movement, it is now. To go forward, we must look back. That is what this gathering at Two River Theater is about for me. How do we as a community of people, as members of the human race in spite of our differences, go forward, even in difficult times?"

“Kevin Powell is a resounding voice of humanity, and sensibility in an unstable chapter in the American story,” says Gilda Rogers, Executive Director of the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center. “As a truth teller in the spirit of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Powell represents compassion and embodies the passion of a modern day change agent.”

Kevin Powell is one of the most celebrated political, cultural, literary, and hip-hop voices in America. He is a prolific writer and a GRAMMY-nominated poet; Kevin is a heavily sought after public speaker who has lectured in all 50 states and on five continents. A native son of Jersey City, New Jersey, the human and civil rights activist has been engaged with nearly every democratic movement of the latter 20th and early 21st centuries, either as a servant-leader, a behind-the-scenes advocate, or in a leadership position with fellow writers, artists, and change agents. In 2008 and 2010, Kevin ran for the United States Congress in his adopted hometown of Brooklyn, New York.

As an author, Kevin has written 16 books, including Grocery Shopping with My Mother, his third volume of poetry; The Education of Kevin Powell, his critically-acclaimed autobiography, which is being adapted for the screen; and his most recent title, The Kevin Powell Reader, which collects over 30 years of Kevin’s literary output. Currently, he is working on a biography of the iconic rapper and actor Tupac Shakur, who he interviewed several times as a founding senior writer for Quincy Jones’ groundbreaking Vibe magazine. Kevin’s writings, ranging from interviews, celebrity features, social commentary, poems, and blogs, have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York Amsterdam News, CNN, NPR, ESPN, Essence, Ebony, Rolling Stone, Esquire, HuffPost, Utne Reader, The Guardian, Politico, The Progressive, Complex, British GQ, and other outlets.

As a truth-seeker, bridge-builder, hip-hop authority, and pop culture curator Kevin has been at the center of several watershed moments. He was a cast member on the very first season of MTV’s “The Real World,” which launched the reality tv genre. He produced, in partnership with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Brooklyn Museum, the very first history of hip-hop exhibit in America. In the worlds of film and theater, Kevin has directed, co-written, and co-produced his debut feature-length documentary, When We Free The World. Kevin is also creating a stage play that will be based on Grocery Shopping with My Mother, his moving collection of poems that he transformed into a musical project. That music project was GRAMMY-nominated in 2024 for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album.

A vegan, two-time New York City Marathon runner, bicyclist, skateboarder, student of yoga, avid hiker, and member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Kevin is a proud and long-time resident of Brooklyn, New York, and happily married to Evangeline Lawson, photographer, filmmaker, writer, and his equal partner in every way.

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