When We Free the World:

Kevin Powell, a GRAMMY-nominated poet, is one of the most celebrated political, cultural, literary, and hip-hop voices in America. He is also a human and civil rights activist; a journalist; a filmmaker; a former two-time candidate for the United States Congress in New York City; a public speaker who has been to all 50 American states and 5 of the world's seven continents; and he is the author of 16 books, including his most recent title, The Kevin Powell Reader: 30 plus years of his life work as a writer, public speaker, and social justice advocate. One of Kevin's next books will be a biography of Tupac Shakur, who he interviewed several times while a senior writer for Quincy Jones’s Vibe magazine. Kevin's writings have also appeared in a wide range of publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Ebony, Essence, NPR, The Guardian, Complex, Newsweek, and HuffPost. Up next for Kevin is the launching of a new national organization focused on voter education and voter engagement. A native of Jersey City, New Jersey, Kevin is a proud and long-time resident of Brooklyn, New York.

Evangeline Lawson is a multi-talented photographer, writer, and filmmaker committed to creating and telling culture-preserving stories. She was the guest photographer for African Voices’ massive exploration, in print and digital, of hip-hop culture, “Hip-hop at 50: Where Do We Go From Here?” Evangeline’s photography also appears on both the poetry book and spoken word poetry album covers of Kevin Powell’s Grocery Shopping With My Mother, and throughout the documentary film When We Free The World, a meditation on Black manhood and Black fatherhood in America, of which Evangeline is also co-producer and co-writer. Her writings have appeared in The Washington Post and The Guardian, among other publications. A native of America’s West Coast, she currently lives between Southern California and Brooklyn, New York. You can see more of Evangeline’s photography, and her writings, too, at www.evangelinelawson.net