Kevin Powell, 44, has been a reality television star on MTV, celebrated journalist with Vibe Magazine, public speaker and activist, and now he wants to add Congressman to his resume.  He is currently in a hotly contested political race running to represent his beloved Brooklyn, New York, in the  U.S. Congress.  Powell talked with us about his political aspirations, his life’s mission and the challenges that informed his insight on the African-American community.

What are the issues that most concern you? Why are you running?

I am running on 26 years of doing political and community work. That’s what I’m running on. I’ve [delivered] services to constituents for a long time without the title honestly and that comes from working the schools, having been an educator, working on after school programs for kids here in Brooklyn. I’ve been active around issues of affordable housing. I’ve been dealing with the issues of health and wellness. In urban city areas unfortunately we have high levels of HIV/AIDS, obesity and the list goes on and on and on.

We work with a lot of people looking for jobs, job training, and people who have been in prison. We have a full campaign platform on our website KevinPowell.net that covers everything from the environment to education, jobs, job training, the economy, and how we can get out of these wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on a real basic level -  it’s not just about legislation because we know that’s a glacier process at best. If you have a staff and office space and access to resources there are basic things you can have on a community level. There are folks in our community that don’t even know where to go for basic health services. That should be a function of a public servant to be a resource and bridge to information.

Read the rest of the interview at The Atlantapost.com