People of all ages packed a small room at the DuSable Museum Saturday to catch Kevin Powell’s presentation on Martin Luther King Jr. ahead of the civil rights icon’s birthday.
But it was the presence of children in the first two rows that invigorated the Brooklyn-based author, filmmaker and activist.
Powell addressed the young attendees directly, leading them in a chant: “I. Am. A. Genius.”
“Young people have always made things happen,” said Powell, emphasizing that King was only 26 when he helped lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. “Stokely Carmichael was young. Angela Davis was young. Chicago’s Fred Hampton was 21 years old. But they understood, ‘I have a responsibility to do something.’”
During the nearly two-hour talk, Powell encouraged children and adults alike to find their unique path to advancing equity, while emphasizing the breadth of King’s mission and humanity.
“What they try to do to Dr. King is freeze him in 1963 [with] select sound bites,” said Powell, who is in his 50’s. “Do not participate in the dumbing down of Dr. King. Do not participate in the commodification of Dr. King. Do not participate in the erasing of Dr. King as a whole human being.”
Powell took the audience through the story of King’s life, including his childhood, higher education, the development of his non-violence philosophy, and his role in the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, sparked in part by the lynching of Chicago-born Emmett Till. He also highlighted King’s advocacy for economic justice through his work around housing discrimination in Chicago and demand for equal treatment for sanitation workers in Memphis.
Powell also briefly touched on King’s personal flaws, including accusations of extramarital affairs.
“He wasn’t a perfect human being,” he said. “What I admire, in spite of those imperfections that the FBI certainly tried to exploit, is that Dr. King was consistent in doing the work for our communities.”
One of the most interesting parts of Powell’s presentation was a close examination of King’s speeches, including “I Have a Dream,” which he said has been “taken out of context and misquoted.”
Powell pointed to rarely discussed language of the speech, including a segment likening the plight of Black Americans to “a bad check … which has come back marked insufficient funds,” and King’s mention of “police brutality” twice.
Powell also highlighted other statements made by King, including his description of riots as “language of the unheard,” his call for a “radical revolution of values” in America and his warning against “racism, extreme materialism and militarism” in his speech about the Vietnam War.
Following a Q&A, Powell signed copies of “The Kevin Powell Reader,” a collection of his writings over the years. His latest work, “Grocery Shopping With My Mother,” is nominated for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album at the Grammy Awards. Later this year, he plans to release a documentary on Black men and Black fatherhood in America.
Powell told the Sun-Times he felt it was imperative to speak on King given recent events, from the erasure of Black history from schools to attacks on voting rights.
“I could sit back and be like, ‘Well, I’m good. I got my books. I’ve been on TV, radio and podcasts,’” Powell said. “But that means nothing if people in places like East New York, Brooklyn, or the South Side of Chicago are continuing to struggle and suffer. ... That’s what I think about more than ever as we celebrate this holiday in the midst of all the craziness that is happening in America and in the world.”
