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LAWRENCE -- The Black Student Union at the University of Kansas will present noted journalist, poet and cultural critic Kevin Powell as a featured speaker during African-American History month activities.
Powell will speak at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 3, at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union. His lecture will focus on the hip-hop culture on college campuses. A book signing in the Kansas Union lobby will follow the lecture at 8:30 p.m.
Powell's articles, essays and reviews have appeared in a range of publications, such as Newsweek, Code, Essence, the Washington Post and Vibe, where he worked as a senior writer for several years.
The only child of a single mother who left the rural South in search of a better life, Kevin grew up on the streets of Jersey City, N.J., and attended Rutgers University in the mid- to late 1980s, studying political science and English. There he emerged as a student activist, working in the anti-apartheid movement, conducting voter registration drives and launching a national black youth and student alliance. He went on to work as a social worker in Newark, N.J., and later became an English instructor at New York University's Saturday high school program.
Powell eventually began freelancing for the Black American, San Francisco Weekly, Rolling Stone, Interview, YSB, Emerge and the Amsterdam News. Powell also was a cast member on the MTV show "The Real World" in 1992. That same year, Powell wrote the cover story for the premiere issue of Quincy Jones' highly anticipated magazine, Vibe. Less than a year later, Powell was named a senior writer for Vibe, where he wrote exclusively until 1996, helping it become one of the fastest growing pop-culture publications in history.
Powell published his first book, "In the Tradition: An Anthology of Young Black Writers," in 1993, and he edited it with Ras Baraka, son of noted writer Amiri Baraka. His other books include "Keepin' It Real: Post-MTV Reflections on Race, Sex and Politics," a collection of essays, and the recent "Step into a World: A Global Anthology of the New Black Literature."
Because of his television exposure and literary and journalism work, Powell is a highly sought-after public speaker. He has lectured on racism, sexism, American popular culture, black and American history, Martin Luther King Jr., contemporary literature, multiculturalism and the history of hip-hop at dozens of colleges and universities across America, including Yale, Princeton and Stanford.
Robert Page, director of Multicultural Affairs at KU, said Powell was a keynote speaker at the university in 2000 during the Black Student Union's conference on government. Page said the students liked Powell so much, they tried to get him to visit the university again and this was the first time Powell was available.
Other African-American History Month events include:
• A black faculty, staff and student basketball game, 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 1, Robinson Gymnasium
• "Am I My Brother's Keeper?" (a black male think tank), 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5, Burge Union
• Diversity Dialogue: "Playas, Pimps and Ball Players: African-American Men Speak about Racism," 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, Kansas Room, Kansas Union
• David Parson Dance Company, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7, Lied Center
• Black History Trivia Bowl, 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 10, Burge Union
• Delta Sigma Theta program, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11, Burge Union
• "How African Culture Has Impacted Latin America," 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12, English Room, Kansas Union
• Black Graduate Student Association town hall meeting on diversity at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 13, Kansas Union
• BSU talent show, 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14, Frontier Room, Kansas Union
• NAACP Black Heritage Ball, 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 16, Kansas Union ballroom
• Dole Institute presents Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, civil rights activist and presidential historian Roger Wilkins for an onstage conversation, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 16, Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union. Complimentary tickets (limit two) available at 749-3911.
• Black Student Union meetings, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17 and 24, Burge Union
• "African-American Leadership: A Historical Perspective," 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18, Burge Union
• "Can We Talk? A Dialogue Between Black Women," 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19, Burge Union
• Big 12 Conference on Black Student Government, Feb. 20-23, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla.
• "African-American and Latino Relationships," 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 24, Gridiron Room, Burge Union
• "Being a Successful Black Woman of Today," a Sigma Gamma Rho program, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25, Kansas Union
• "Race vs. Ethnicity, the Struggle of Being Black and Latino," 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 26, English Room, Kansas Union
• Hawk Link stEp Tutor Social, 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 27, Kansas Union
• Diversity Conference: "We Are One Community," Friday, Feb. 28, Kansas Union
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