Juneteenth Celebration

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.

Evangeline Lawson, writer, content creator, photographer, and researcher, is a native of Southern California. Her writings have appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, V-Day, The Progressive and the anthology 2020: The Year That Changed America. She is currently working on a collection of essays and a novel. Evangeline is also the producer of “vangieluvsbooks” a digital space for lovers of books, based on her exclusive reviews of new, classic, and forgotten titles. Additionally she is co-producer of the forthcoming documentary film When We Free The World, which tackles the topic “what is a man?” in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement. Evangeline is a graduate of UCLA, and has a Master’s degree from Azusa Pacific University.