Greg Powell
Greg has been teaching since he was a teenager leading youth ministry. Along with his ministerial calling, teaching has been one of the constant threads running through the tapestry of his life. So, launching the Down to Earth Bible Talk series was a natural extension of what he's been doing all along through various responsibilities at church, several community initiatives, at home with his sons, and with me, Stephany Scott, Creative Director of Down To Earth Bible Talk.
His work has appeared in Essence, Jet, The Black Nation, the Black American Literature Forum, The Community College Review, Race Today, Haymarket, and other periodicals. Greg Powell is poet, drummer, teacher, and community based minister of encouragement. His roots hail from Chicago’s Pullman community, where he grew up with his younger sister in a tightly knit working family. Many of Powell's poems, like Dear Old Dunbar, reflect his parents' legacy and experiences coming of age in South Side Chicago. Encouraged by mentor, Quincy Troupe, he earned an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University.
You'll find his poetry and perspectives at Being Hueman.
New York
After Columbia, he taught language arts at CIS-229 in the Bronx and writing at the College of New Rochelle. After returning to Chicago, Greg served as a specialized adolescent case worker for Catholic Charities of Chicago. There, among other duties, he organized camps and excursions for youth. Adventures included trips to the Grand Canyon, Rocky Mountains, McComb Plantation, Washington Monument, and Harlem.
Today
Greg currently serves as Minister of Pastoral Care at New Faith Baptist Church International. He also supports Youth Ministry at the Matteson, Illinois church. On occasion, Powell teaches poetry at the Michelle Obama School in Park Forest IL.
Among a wide variety of performance and speaking engagements, Greg considers himself ".. immeasurably enriched by opportunities to study under and perform poetry with Quincy Troupe, Sterling Plumpp and the late Amiri Baraka."
He's been married to Deborah Ann Powell for 25 years, and together they have two sons, Jair, 23 and Jonathan, 16.
