Kevin Powell

In 2018, Powell and his wife were sued by Minneapolis choreographer April Sellers because the couple had issued an open letter slandering her and ruining her career due to an email his wife received from somebody also named April Sellers. This resulted in a verdict against Powell for $210,000.

In 2017, Powell sued the creators of Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez On Me for copyright infringement claiming it derived from Powell's interviews with Shakur. In his complaint, Powell admitted that, "While some of the content [in the articles Powell wrote in Vibe Magazine] was factual, some portions of the article were changed or embellished by Plaintiff." The suit was later dropped.

Beginning with his days as a teenager at Rutgers University, he participated in the student-led anti-apartheid movement – the drive to end white supremacy in South Africa. Powell has worked on issues of police brutality and racial bias cases and he has worked for years around voting rights.

Powell lost this race 67%–32%, receiving 11,046 votes compared to 22,586 for Edolphus Towns. Powell announced that he would run again in 2010. Powell lost again in 2010 and later ruled out running in 2012.

African-American social networking tool BlackPlanet featured Powell as "Riser of the Month" in February 2011 for his support of the African-American community.

On July 9, 2008, comedian David Chapelle failed to appear at a Powell fundraiser, despite promises to the paying guests. This was followed by Powell hosting an event at Brooklyn favorite haunt Junior's, where he invited the media to witness him respond to what The Brooklyn Paper described as a "mean spirited column" in the Daily News focusing on his history of violence. As reported by "Page Six," at a dinner on July 28, 2008, Powell "slipped up" when he told an audience of some "40 representatives of Williamsburg's ultra-Orthodox Satmar [Hasidic Jewish] community" that if elected, he would "bring home the bacon." Bacon is not permitted as part of a kosher diet.

In 2006, Powell launched his first bid to unseat Edolphus Towns in New York's 10th congressional district, located in Brooklyn, discontinuing his campaign in July of that year. In 2008, Powell ran for Congress again, in a campaign that was backed by celebrities such as Chris Rock and what ABC News described as "big names from Brooklyn's 10th district". During the campaign, Towns made frequent reference to Powell's self-professed early history of violence against women, issues Powell has discussed in his early writings and has indicated he has overcome through therapy. These references were addressed by Powell in an open letter to Ed Towns, where he also appealed to Mr. Towns to focus on issues. In a June 2008 interview with Theodore Hamm in The Brooklyn Rail, Powell addressed media coverage focusing on his past: "My issue of violence against women happened between 1987–1991, which is now seventeen years ago. I've written about it very prominently [...] I think if you're going to be a public servant, regardless if you're an elected official ... you have a responsibility to be transparent and accountable for everything you do."

Powell produced the 10-city "State of Black Men National Townhall Meetings" tour (2004), numerous Black male think tank sessions, and "Black and Male in America, a 3-Day National Conference" (2007) (www.blackandmaleinamerica.org). He holds an annual holiday party and clothing drive every December in New York City to benefit the homeless teenagers of the SafeHorizon non-profit organization. He co-founded the grassroots community townhall series Hiphop Speaks! (with social entrepreneur, activist, and writer April Silver), which he describes as "a series of forums and MC battles geared toward using hip hop as a tool for social change." Powell participated in Gulf Coast disaster relief efforts, facilitating the delivery of goods and services to the affected regions, and being a co-founder (with social commentator Jeff Johnson) of "Katrina on the Ground," an initiative that sent over 700 college students to work in the devastated region.

Powell has hosted and produced programming for HBO and BET; written a screenplay; hosted and written an award-winning MTV documentary about post-riot Los Angeles; and, in 2001, was the Guest Curator of the Brooklyn Museum's "Hip-Hop Nation: Roots, Rhymes, and Rage" — which originated at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.

Since 1993, Powell has published 11 books, including Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, and the Ghost of Dr. King: Blogs and Essays. Powell's childhood memoir, My Own Private Ghetto, and The Kevin Powell Reader were published in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

Powell appeared in the first season of MTV's reality television series, The Real World: New York in 1992. He was the oldest member of The Real World cast. From 1992 to 1996, he was a senior writer for Vibe magazine.

Powell's hometown is Jersey City, New Jersey. He was raised in a poor background by a hard-working single mother from the South. In 1992, he was a cast member on The Real World: New York, the first season of the MTV reality television series in which a group of strangers live together for several months. During the course of his stay in the house, Powell had a number of discussions with his housemates about stereotypes and race, some of which resulted in heated arguments.

Kevin Powell (born April 24, 1966) is an American political activist, poet, writer and entrepreneur. Powell appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in March 2009 for a show titled "Oprah Talks to Men Who've Beaten Women." He has made three unsuccessful runs for the United States Congress in New York's 10th congressional district.