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HIP-HOP GETS POLITICAL: POWELL FOR CONGRESS

Most of us are old enough to recall Kevin Powell as a cast member of the first season of MTV’s The Real World (back when it was provocative, ground breaking documentary television and before it descended into “OMG! Everyone is, like, drunk and hot and totally gonna make out!”). What some of you may not know is that Powell has a 25 year career as an activist and writer based in Brooklyn. He is the author of some 11 books and was an integral part of Vibe’s original editorial line-up.

Powell is currently making his second run for Congress in Brooklyn’s 10th Congressional District, which includes the iconic Bed Stuy, Fort Greene and East New York neighborhoods (home to a lot of Hip-Hop history and some of your favorite artists, indluding Jay, B.I.G., Jeru, the GZA, ODB,  etc). My interest in Powell’s campaign is twofold: I’m not only a huge fan of his writing and activist work, but I’m also a resident of the central Brooklyn area he wants to represent. And I definitely think the brother represents a change we need around these parts.

Powell has been a Brooklyn resident since 1990 and admits to being detached from local politics until the second half of the decade. When he began to ask people about sitting Congressnman Ed Townes, he soon found out that the politician was a “Wizard of Oz type figure” who had little physical presence or positive impact upon the central Brooklyn communities he represents. Today, only 30% of East New York high school students will graduate in four years. Ed Townes has been in office longer than I’ve been alive and yet he has no major legislation tied to his name.  It should be noted that he DID,  however, sign legislation to continue the war in Iraq, has received a lot of lobbyist money (including from the tobacco lobby), miss some 1,000 votes since 1993 (he spends most of his time in Florida and DC) and closed his Bed Stuy office because of mice infestation. Townes seems to have arrived at that place in a politicians career where the people are here to serve him, not the other way around. Unfortunately, generations of older folks tend to go out and reelect these people who they are familiar with, without taking the time to question the things that they aren’t getting from them. And we younger people tend to have a political apathy that is embarrassing on a number of levels.

One of the things I’ve heard Kevin state on a few occasions that holds a lot of weight with ne is hiw cannot sit back and wait for President Obama to be all the change we have waited for in this country. In a speech a few months ago, Powell spoke on how the election of Ronald Regan in 1984 brought with it a very carefully orchestrated paradigm shift on the part of the Republicans. They “penetrated the minds of the youth” via the spread of college Republican groups and “changed the spiritual conversation of the country” with the work of the Christian Coalition. The creation of Fox News, to inform the public as they saw fit, also furthered their agenda. Imagine if we, the members of “the Hip-Hop generation” were interested in mobilizing ourselves in the same way…

Powell, who describes himself as a “pro-feminist, anti-sexist American male” stated that he and his activist comrades (including writer and public relations maven April Silver of Akila Worksongs) are already doing the work of an elected official and that not a day goes by without people of Brooklyn reaching out to them for some sort of help.  ”Imagine if we had the resources that the Congress people have” he said. Resources that Ed Townes does not seem to be using for the greater good of the people of central Brooklyn.

To be frank, I believe in this person and that’s the only reason I’d take the time to write this. A longtime follower of his career, Powell is no longer the angry young man he appeared to be through the lens of MTV’s “The Real World” some 18 years ago. He is approaching his campaign with a level of righteous indignation, tempered with love and a profound sense of peace.  Powell has a deep demonstrated to helping others, with a focus on women and Black males I find to be quite admirable. He’s not some lifelong politico, but a member of the Hip-Hop generation who has grown up essentially before our eyes in to the sort of leader Central Brooklyn is crying out for.  This is a person who I feel best represents my interests in Congress and the interests of my community.

For more information about Kevin Powell and his campaign, please check out his website, which details his platform and gives you the opportunity to both sign up to volunteer and donate.  You can also connect with him via Facebook and Twitter.

DROPPED BY SisterToldja

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1 Comment to HIP-HOP GETS POLITICAL: POWELL FOR CONGRESS

1. 

   This guy is a cornball. Period. How are you guys vouching for him? Is it strictly based off the strength of him being on an MTV reality show? How is this guy qualified for public office? And I ask all this as a Bed-Stuy resident. Jefferson and Stuyvesant. This guy is NEVER there except during election time, when he stands at the Utica train station in the morning so he can flash his teefuhs at us and force his campaign literature on us underrepresented ghetto dwellers — a ghetto that he does not know and is obviously only trying to step foot in during the election cycle. I hate to say it but you just can’t trust a black politician (Obama is a halfie…), especially one in New York state. I could go on and on about this but suffice to say this guy is a clown, a bum, and he wants to represent areas of New York that he wouldn’t think of going near after the sun goes down, let alone in a non-election period. He’s a buffoon. Oh, by the way, he’s from Jersey. LMAO! Interlopers, stay out!
bctw on August 12th, 2010

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