Davey D continues his week long focus on Black men and mental health with writer, activist, and filmmaker Kevin Powell, framing the conversation around how Black men can become fully human in a society that constantly puts them in a box. Davey opens by noting Powell’s long record of speaking openly about therapy and healing long before it was common language in the culture.
They begin with writing and technology. Kevin explains that he still drafts everything himself, using his phone like an old notebook, and only leans on tools like spell check and transcription. Both he and Davey stress that AI can be useful for research, but cannot replace the mental muscle you build by reading, writing, and doing deep primary work. They warn that algorithms can erase key parts of Black cultural history, using examples like Roberta Flack’s anti war song on Vietnam, or the absence of Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, and Sly Stone from mainstream lists of songwriter poets.
From there, the conversation moves into manhood, pain, and representation. Kevin traces his journey from an angry young activist and Real World cast member numbing himself with alcohol, to a man in long term therapy who embraces yoga, nature, and emotional honesty. He links his transformation to reading Malcolm X, Black Panthers, radical Black women writers, and seeing how unresolved trauma, father absence, and rigid ideas of masculinity destroy lives, including artists like Tupac, Biggie, Nipsey, and D Angelo.
Powell describes his film When We Free the World, built over six years with about seventy Black men from teens to elders. The film centers Black men talking frankly about depression, addiction, violence, body image, sexuality, and joy, insisting that Black males must talk to survive. Together, he and Davey close by offering practical tools for mental health: therapy, small trusted circles of brothers, clear boundaries, journaling as self reflection, movement, and protecting Black boy joy and Black male complexity in the face of an unhealthy celebrity culture and a toxic, narrow model of manhood.
Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.