• Complain

Kevin Powell - The education of Kevin Powell : a boys journey into manhood

Here you can read online Kevin Powell - The education of Kevin Powell : a boys journey into manhood full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2015, publisher: Atria Books, genre: Non-fiction. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

No cover
  • Book:
    The education of Kevin Powell : a boys journey into manhood
  • Author:
  • Publisher:
    Atria Books
  • Genre:
  • Year:
    2015
  • Rating:
    4 / 5
  • Favourites:
    Add to favourites
  • Your mark:
    • 80
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

The education of Kevin Powell : a boys journey into manhood: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "The education of Kevin Powell : a boys journey into manhood" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

In the spirit of Piri Thomass Down These Mean Streets and Maya Angelous I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, this powerful memoir by writer and activist Kevin Powell vividly recounts the horrific poverty of his youth, his struggles to overcome a legacy of anger, violence, and self-hatred, and his journey to be a man and a voice for others.
Driven by his single mothers dreams for his survival and success, Kevin Powell became the first in his family to attend a university, where he became a student leader keenly aware of widespread social injustice. But the struggle to define himself and break out of poverty continued into adulthood, with traumatic periods of homelessness and despair. As a young star journalist with Vibe magazine, Powell interviewed luminaries such as Tupac Shakur, writing influential chronicles of the evolution of hip-hop from his eyewitness view. Now, with searing honesty, Powell examines his troubled relationships, his appearance on MTVs first season of The Real World, his battles with alcohol and depression, his two campaigns for Congress, and the uplifting trip to Africa that renewed his sense of personal mission. Finally, Powell embarks on a search for the father he never really knew in a redemptive passage from abandonment to self-discovery.
A striking memoir by a child of post-Civil Rights America, The Education of Kevin Powell gives eloquent testimony to the power of the soul to heal

Kevin Powell: author's other books


Who wrote The education of Kevin Powell : a boys journey into manhood? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

The education of Kevin Powell : a boys journey into manhood — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "The education of Kevin Powell : a boys journey into manhood" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Thank you for downloading this Atria Books eBook.


Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Atria Books and Simon & Schuster.

C LICK H ERE T O S IGN U P

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

We hope you enjoyed reading this Atria Books eBook.


Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Atria Books and Simon & Schuster.

C LICK H ERE T O S IGN U P

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

The education of Kevin Powell a boys journey into manhood - image 1

The education of Kevin Powell a boys journey into manhood - image 2

An Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2015 by Kevin Powell

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

Note to readers: Some names and identifying details of people portrayed in this book have been changed.

Poems excerpted throughout this book were first published in the authors poetry collections No Sleep Till Brooklyn (Soft Skull Press, 2008) and recognize (Writers & Readers, 1995).

First Atria Books hardcover edition November 2015

The education of Kevin Powell a boys journey into manhood - image 3 and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or .

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

Interior design by Kyoko Watanabe

Jacket design by Kerry DeBruce

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-4391-6368-9

ISBN 978-1-4391-6421-1 (ebook)

For my mother, Shirley Powell, the first teacher and leader I ever met. Ma, I love you forever

How I got over/How I got over/Oooh, my soul look back and wonder/How I got over

CLARA WARD/THE FAMOUS WARD SINGERS

I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.

KURT COBAIN

People think just because you were born in the ghetto that you are going to fit in.

TUPAC SHAKUR

CONTENTS
Intro

F ISTS POUNDED my face from every angle. I am so stupid for coming out into this hallway , I thought. I shouldve known theyd be out here waiting for me. I wanted to scream, but I resolved to take the beating as punishment for my life. As the blows torpedoed my nose, my eye sockets, my temples, and my ears, my mind staggered toward the possibility that I could die, and I imagined the damage: the deviated septum, the detached retina and the loss of vision, the loudness of sudden deafness, garbled speech. I saw my body days laterswollen, with lumpy clots around the gashesbeing found in a park, decomposed and fed upon by bloated, fanged street rats. My mother would come to the hospital to identify me and screamthe kind of cry every ghetto mother saves for the day when it is her son who has died prematurely. I could hear my mothers anguished voice: Lawd, I knew he would end up this way. He was always walkin the wrong path.

Dang, what a way to go out! Beat down by some pissed-off Black men. I wasnt with that. I squirmed and ducked enough head blows to fold my bony frame into a ball the way theyd taught us in that Jersey City P.A.L. karate classbut the kicks and punches blasted through anyway. Bloodthick, bitter clumps of itoozed between my teeth and gums. My eyes had swollen into puffy balloons, so I couldnt make out the faces through the slits, but the voices sounded familiar:

We should kill this kid for that ISH!

Man, later for that! I aint tryin to get no murder rap.

Stop being a punk, yo! Who gonna tell?

I wanted to say to those voices, Yo, brothers! Dont yall know who I am? Im that kid from around the way.... But they could not have cared less. I was just another Black boy who had played the wrong game and needed a good butt-kicking

Once the men had planted me solidly on the tiled floor, I faked like I was out cold, hoping to get some mercy. Get up, boy, you aint dead yet! Sturdy, leathery hands yanked me by my feet, and I was dragged down the hallway stairs, out of the building, into the parking lot next door. An electric-like current jolted my body, and I could feel my flesh frying atop the friction and heat of the pavement. Does anyone see any of this? I thought as heavy shoes and work boots pummeled my chest and rib cage.

For the first time I bawled loud and longlike an abandoned baby . Aaaah! These dudes are going to kill me! Flat on my back, I cupped the nights pitch-blackness in my outstretched hands and prayed silentlyand I wondered if I were going to heaven or hell. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want ... My mother told me to say that whenever I was in deep trouble. Maybe I had used up too many prayers. But the men, reeking of alcohol and now exhausted, hurled their legs and arms into me a few more times, then floated backwards to admire their work. As they turned away, I could hear them smacking palms and each others backs, muttering, Dang, we beat that kid down....

PART I

trapped in a concrete box
1
My mother

Dear Lawd Ah aint meant to do dis Lawd It wuz uh accident God But God Ah - photo 4

Dear Lawd,

Ah aint meant to do dis Lawd. It wuz uh accident, God. But God,

Ah done had de baby now an it aint

Nothin Ah kin do but t raise it.

But God, how cum dat damn Cunningham done disown his chile?

Oooh Jee-zus! He 13 years older dan me an he should know bedder.

Lawd, Ah swear, if Ah known dat he was gonna do dat,

T m, t leeve me an dis chile

Ah sho wouldnt had never let him touch me.

Ahm ashame Lawd cause dis baby aint got no daddy.

Ah donno where t turn. Ah kint go back down South

Cause deyll call me a heffa .

Oh God! Pleeze show me de way cause dis

Aint gonna be eazy.

All Ah ask Lawd is dat you give me de strength

T take care of dis chile til he grown

Enuf t do fo hisself.

An Lawd, when dat boy gits t be uh man-size, if he ever run int

His daddy, let him make his daddy pay fo what he done did.

Ahm sorry, Lawd, fo sayin it lak dat but dats de way Ah feel God.

Ah-man.

M Y MOTHER ripped me away from the fire-hot radiator as I screamed in agony - photo 5

M Y MOTHER ripped me away from the fire-hot radiator as I screamed in agony. Maaaaa! Maaaaa! Aaaaah! Maaaaa!

I was somewhere between two and three years old, captivated by the hissing of this thing that both warmed us in the dead-cold winter, and also made the kind of noises that lured a child as a familiar toy would. While my mother looked elsewhere, I stared at it, sized it up, and then I raised my right hand, as if saluting it, and I touched it

Pain knotted my fingers and I couldnt let go of the radiator. It ricocheted through my hand, up my wrist, and shocked my entire right arm into submission. I was stuck and all I could do was scream.

Next page
Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «The education of Kevin Powell : a boys journey into manhood»

Look at similar books to The education of Kevin Powell : a boys journey into manhood. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.


Reviews about «The education of Kevin Powell : a boys journey into manhood»

Discussion, reviews of the book The education of Kevin Powell : a boys journey into manhood and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.