Two River Theater, in collaboration with the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, will host poet, activist, and author Kevin Powell on Sunday, January 19, at 2 p.m. for an interactive program titled What Would Dr. King Say Now? How to Heal America. The event will take place in the Joan and Robert Rechnitz Theater, and admission is free.
A pre-event reception with light refreshments will begin at 1 p.m. Following the program, Powell will sign copies of his book, The Kevin Powell Reader, a collection of his writings.
Powell reflected on the current state of America, saying, “America is going through a very heavy period of division, hate, violence in unseen ways, a search for its soul. If there was ever a time to revisit the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, it is now. To move forward, we must look back. This gathering is about how we, as a community, can go forward, even in difficult times.”
Gilda Rogers, Executive Director of the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, praised Powell’s voice, calling him “a resounding voice of humanity and sensibility in an unstable chapter in the American story.” She added, “As a truth-teller in the spirit of Dr. King, Powell embodies the compassion and passion of a modern-day change agent.”
