“Change” has swept America at the end of this first decade of the 21st century, and Kevin Powell, one of our nation’s leading voices, has been both participant and observer. Open Letters to America is Powell’s redemption song for the society he believes possible in the aftermath of Barack Obama’s historic election.

In the first essay, Powell issues a passionate plea to young America to build a progressive, multicultural movement rooted in history, action, and love for each other. The second essay is a brutally honest yet necessary conversation between Powell’s generation and a Civil Rights era leader. And in the emotionally climatic “Open Letter to an American Woman,” Powell reveals himself a staunch ally of women’s rights, an admirer of female leadership, and the proud product of mothers and aunts who’ve survived all forms of physical and emotional violence to be, still, the backbone of America.

Blending personal reflection with the eye and ear of a journalist, Open Letters to America reaffirms why Powell easily ranks as one of the most courageous writers of these times.

Kevin Powell is the author or editor of ten books, including this essay collection. An activist, writer, and public speaker, Powell was also a 2008 Democratic candidate for Congress in Brooklyn, New York, where he has lived for the past two decades. He can be reached at contact@kevinpowell.net.