Who's Gonna Take the Weight: Manhood, Race, and Power in America [Paperback]

Kevin Powell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 19, 2003

“A mighty wind of fresh air. His pitiless self-examination—and his equally honest exploration of the racial, sexual, cultural, and class fault lines that thread our psychic and social landscape—is not only brave but necessary if our nation is to survive.”
—Michael Eric Dyson

“Kevin Powell is pushing to bring, as he has so brilliantly done before, the voices of his generation: the concerns, the cares, the fears, and the fearlessness.”
—Nikki Giovanni

In three mind-jolting essays by one of the most passionate and eloquent voices of his generation, Who’s Gonna Take the Weight? by Kevin Powell leads us to the heart of the searing issues facing us today, from manhood, violence, and gender oppression to celebrity culture and hip-hop. Using compelling personal stories as the connecting thread, he examines what this nation has become since the monumental upheavals of the 1960s and where it might be headed if we’re not careful.

Written one hundred years after W.E.B. DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk and forty years after James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, Who’s Gonna Take the Weight? is an impassioned witness to the burning problems that have accompanied us on our journey through the twenty-first century.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

?A mighty wind of fresh air. His pitiless self-examination?and his equally honest exploration of the racial, sexual, cultural, and class fault lines that thread our psychic and social landscape?is not only brave but necessary if our nation is to survive.?
?Michael Eric Dyson

?Kevin Powell is pushing to bring, as he has so brilliantly done before, the voices of his generation: the concerns, the cares, the fears, and the fearlessness.?
?Nikki Giovanni

In three mind-jolting essays by one of the most passionate and eloquent voices of his generation, Who?s Gonna Take the Weight? by Kevin Powell leads us to the heart of the searing issues facing us today, from manhood, violence, and gender oppression to celebrity culture and hip-hop. Using compelling personal stories as the connecting thread, he examines what this nation has become since the monumental upheavals of the 1960s and where it might be headed if we?re not careful.

Written one hundred years after W.E.B. DuBois?s The Souls of Black Folk and forty years after James Baldwin?s The Fire Next Time, Who?s Gonna Take the Weight? is an impassioned witness to the burning problems that have accompanied us on our journey through the twenty-first century.

About the Author

KEVIN POWELL is a critically acclaimed writer, lecturer, and activist. He is the author or editor of five previous books and a major contributor to the New York Times bestseller Tupac Shakur. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 1 edition (August 19, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609810448
• ISBN-13: 978-0609810446
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.4 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #255,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Just okay, October 16, 2005

By 

teegreazy "greazy" (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who's Gonna Take the Weight: Manhood, Race, and Power in America (Paperback)

This was a fairly easy read, but lacked an instructional model for follow through. This was more of an autobiographical depiction of what race and manhood means to Kevin.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a compelling look at the truth of manhood, race and hip-hop, October 4, 2003

By 

Lenwood D. Compton (Pontiac, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who's Gonna Take the Weight: Manhood, Race, and Power in America (Paperback)

Beyond the scope of any other book detailing the perils and prosperity of being both a man and a hip-hop head, Kevin Powell sheds a hidden understanding of the myths and glaring truths associated with these two misunderstood complexities in life. Using his life experiences and the starking parellels that he shared with the late Tupac Shakur, KP helps the reader disect the meaning of power and how many of us walk in the frozen images of power that is given to us by society when we never took a chance to understand power or our powerlessness and vulnerabilities of being a man.
Simply put, this book opens the objective reader to a tainted, yet reasonably truthful and analytical picture of manhood, race, power, and hip-hop that has been painted by artists who created a messed up display...they just wanted others to look at the depiction as beauty.
This book is a must read!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The truth, July 28, 2004

By 

soulonice (Arlington, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who's Gonna Take the Weight: Manhood, Race, and Power in America (Paperback)

I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Powell at the Essence Music Festival this year, and made sure to let him know his book is the truth. It's not for everyone, meaning you have to be able to expand your mind and be willing to be objective. It's obvious he speaks and writes what he writes, because these are very important issues, and also uses himself in many instances to show he isn't merely just running his mouth and criticizing others. His concerns about where black men are and where we are headed are right on point and should be taken seriously.