"I had a lot of nightmares writing this book,” 49-year-old author Kevin Powell says of his recently released memoir, The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy’s Journey into Manhood. “It’s hard to think about the rats all over the place, roaches in your food, your father disowning you or your mother beating you because she is so wounded by the world.” Having known Powell for over 20 years—since the moveable feast Roaring ’90s, when we were both writing for leading hip-hop publications The Source and Vibe—reading his brutally candid autobiography was often painful.

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