Noted writer and activist Kevin Powell is to facilitate a series of conversations with young black middle and high school students when he travels on his “New Directions Tour” of eight Georgia cities, including Bainbridge. The November tour is at the invitation of the University System of Georgia’s (USG) African-American Male Initiative (AAMI).
Powell is to be at Bainbridge College’s Charles H. Kirbo Regional Center 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Nov. 10. The 3 p.m.-4 p.m. community sessions is open to the public at no charge. From Bainbridge Powell will go to the tour’s final stop at Valdosta State University. The tour, which starts Nov. 2 at Columbus State University, aims to foster “New Directions” conversations and empower youth.
The sessions in Bainbridge 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Kirbo Center are planned for designated groups, some of which will come from Albany. Powell is to meet first with younger boys from Albany State University’s Early College Program (ECP), then meet with the AAMI and ECP leadership teams.
Editor of The Black Male Handbook and author of nine books, Powell offers audiences across the globe wisdom on surviving, living, and winning. He is known for his work uplifting and empowering African-American males and for addressing violence against women.
“Kevin Powell has a gift for connecting and conversing with young black men, and for getting them to discuss with him their possibilities for a better future,” said Arlethia Perry-Johnson, USG AAMI project director. “We want to inspire our students to think about ‘new directions’ for their lives, and we are looking forward to the strong impact we know Kevin will have in motivating our youth to achieve – both educationally and personally.”
About AAMI & ECP
The USG’s AAMI initiative, housed in the External Affairs Division at Kennesaw State University, focuses on enhancing the recruitment, retention and graduation of black males from the system’s 35 colleges and universities. Since the program’s inception in 2002, USG enrollment of black males has increased by 36 percent, from 17,068 students in 2002, to 23,225 in 2008. Black male graduation rates have improved significantly, and improvements in retention also have been achieved.
Powell’s tour is to include stops at the University of West Georgia, Augusta State University, Middle Georgia College, Waycross College, and two Atlanta area high schools that are ECP sites.
Early Colleges, which are on USG college campuses, are innovative and highly effective schools for students who may not be well served by traditional schools and are traditionally underrepresented (low income, first-generation and minority). ECP students can earn a high school diploma with the potential to earn an associate’s degree or one-two years of transferable credit toward a bachelor’s degree. Each USG ECP site is a partnership between a local school system and a USG institution. All ECP schools strive to remove the financial, academic, and psychological hurdles that prevent too many students from entering and succeeding in college.
About the Speaker
A gifted and highly sought after speaker, Powell has lectured on many topics, including multiculturalism, building corporate responsibility, American and black American history, the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, civil rights, American politics and civic engagement, sexism from a male perspective, leadership, social activism, the state of hip-hop, redefining American manhood, and being black and male in America.
He has spoken at hundreds of colleges and universities, community centers, prisons, religious institutions, conferences and festivals and in corporate settings. He routinely offers his insights on a variety of matters to broadcast and print media and Internet outlets in America and abroad.
Powell has written numerous essays, articles, and reviews through the years for publications such as Esquire, Newsweek, The Washington Post, Essence, Rolling Stone, The Amsterdam News and Vibe, where he was a founding staff member and served as a senior writer, interviewing and profiling, among many others, General Colin Powell and the late Tupac Shakur. Powell also has been a Writing Fellow for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and a Phelps Stokes Fund Senior Fellow.
