Kevin Powell Interview - Minnesota Lawsuit

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Kevin POWELL

Responds to

Minnesota Lawsuit

By Charlie R. Braxton

Recently Kevin Powell, writer and longtime activist and community organizer, along with his wife, Jinah Parker, dancer, choreographer, playwright, and educator were sued for defamation of character by a Minnesota resident by the name of April Sellers, who, according to reports is a White female dancer and choreographer. The lawsuit stems from what appears to be a simple case of mistaken identity. Here’s what happened.

During the weekend of October 20 th of 2017 Parker received an email from a woman named April Sellers lambasting her and her husband for their recent work SHE, a Choreoplay that tackles issues of sexual violence against women. According to Powell, the missive was not only unjustly critical of their work, but it was especially hurtful and hateful toward them as a couple married just four months at the time. After doing some research Powell came across an April Sellers who was a dancer and choreographer in Minneapolis, Minnesota and, naturally, assumed it was the same person. In the midst of all of this, Sellers’s letter appeared on Facebook. When this happened Powell felt he had to respond. On November 4, 2017 Powell wrote an open letter responding to the Sellers’ dispatch and sent it to about 35 people in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area—this included the Twin City arts and media community. Sounds logical, right? Well, the only problem is that the April Sellers Powell was addressing in the letter he wrote was not the April Sellers who actually wrote the letter in question. That April Sellers was a Black female who lived just outside of Cleveland, OH, which was not discovered until an affidavit appeared in June 2018, nearly half a year later. It was a case of mistaken identity, an unintentional accident that could have been cleared up with a public retraction and apology. Perhaps the three parties involved could have went on a national dialogue tour where they could’ve have used the unfortunate incident as a teachable moment to honestly discuss issues of race and gender issues.

Unfortunately, according to Powell, neither he nor Parker was ever given the chance to retract or apologize to the aggrieved party. Instead they were hit with a massive defamation lawsuit demanding that they fork over $500,000. After trying diligently

to settle the matter out of court to no avail, the two were forced to hire an attorney and fight the suit in a Minnesota court. Sadly they lost just this past December, 2018. April Sellers was awarded over $210,000 dollars by a white judge and predominantly white jury. The couple vows to raise funds and appeal the decision. Recently, we sat down with Kevin Powell to talk about his views on the case, its impact on him and his wife, and the deeper implications for race relations in this country.

Q: You and your wife Jinah Parker just lost a defamation lawsuit in Minnesota, where local dancer and choreographer April Sellers was awarded more than $200,000. How do you feel, and what is the status of your appeal?

KP: We certainly feel the decision was very biased because of who we are, because of who I am, we have lost faith in aspects of the legal system, and are exploring all options, including an appeal.

Q: Why did you send an open letter to the wrong April Sellers in the first place, which started all of this for you and your wife?

KP: We need to clarify which April Sellers you are referring to. Within 30 days of the open letter I sent to April Sellers we received the complaint from her lawyer, Aaron Scott of the law firm Fox Rothschild, demanding more than $500k.

Q: Did you ever attempt to reach out to April Sellers about any of this?

KP: Once we received the letter from Ms. Sellers’ lawyer in December of 2017, we were precluded from speaking directly to April Sellers.

Q: Take us back to how this entire thing began. What was your initial issue with the other April Sellers’ original email and Facebook post?

KP: We feel the chronology of events needs to be clear, as it has been continuously distorted, in court, and by some media. First, an ugly and hate-filled email was sent to Jinah the weekend of Oct. 20, 2017. It attacked

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KEVIN POWELL... cont.

Jinah, it attacked me, it attacked Jinah’s work, SHE, a Choreoplay, and it attacked our marriage. It came from someone named April Sellers. We waited two weeks to respond, and only because whoever April Sellers was also happened to post the original hate email to Facebook (a space with one billion people), and only after speaking with Rohan Preston of the Star Tribune, my colleague of 25 years or so, who said the email sounded like something April Sellers in Minnesota would send, because he knew her, had observed over the course of years. Between my conversation with Mr. Preston and the research we did at the time where April Sellers in Minnesota was the only name who continually came up, we thought we had the right person. Why would someone not a dancer or choreographer, we thought at the time, send such an email? I did all of this protect my wife, please let me be clear about that. Second, I sent the open letter Sat. Nov. 4, 2017, with my BCCing it to about 35 people, none of whom ever responded in any form. April Sellers in Minnesota responded that day, and again perhaps a week later. And like the first April Sellers email of Oct. 20, this April Sellers posted to Facebook, a public forum. We did not know what was happening, why this was done twice now, and were frankly scared because I routinely gets death threats, abusive outreach of all kinds, because I have been a public figure since the early 1990s, and because we did not know if this person was emotionally unstable and thus, dangerous. That is why we did not respond. And the next time we heard anything was in late December 2017, from Aaron Scott, April Sellers’ lawyer, saying we were being sued for over $500,000. There was no offer from April Sellers’ lawyer to make an apology publicly, no offer to make a public retraction, nothing. Just a demand for money. So it is patently false to say that this could have been remedied from the beginning with a simple apology. The lawyer never asked for one, he asked for money. It was not until June of 2018, around the time of our depositions in New York City, that we were finally told there was a different April Sellers, based in Ohio, who signed an affidavit saying she was the person who in fact sent the hate-filled email to Jinah Parker in October of 2017. From June 2018 to right before the trial in December 2018, we offered several times an apology and a retraction, and every single time Aaron Scott, the attorney for April Sellers, rejected it, saying money had to be attached, as much as $200,000-$300,000. Even moments before trial begun, Aaron Scott and April Sellers rejected an offer to accept an apology. And one of the greatest and most insane ironies of this entire thing: the April Sellers who says she is the real April Sellers who wrote the original hate email to my wife was brought to the trial by the opposing lawyer, Aaron Scott, to testify against us, as the star witness for their side.

Q: What made you decide to send an open letter to April Sellers and some 35 people in the Minneapolis- St. Paul arts and media community?

KP: This situation put me in an emotional place I’d never

been before. Someone was attacking my wife of only four months at the time, frightening her, and using me to do it. I guess you can say I acted from an emotional place, which is not the norm for me, not at this stage of my life. I, we, are both very sorry for any pain and embarrassment we caused April Sellers of Minnesota and are willing to do this publicly. But the story being told now is positioned to gain a financial settlement we are unable to pay.

Q: Do you feel that you and Jinah were treated fairly during this entire episode, including the trial?

KP: We had to fire our original attorney, but were able to hire the right attorney, Lee Hutton, just weeks before the trial. We believe that too much damage to our case was done to save it, honestly, by the first attorney. However, this is a case about what is punishable financially. Saying something appears to be racist apparently has more protection than using the N word. And it was not lost on us that the judge was a White woman, and 99 percent of the jury were White, with one Asian woman. Not a single Black person was even a part of the jury pool selection. All of this in a state, Minnesota, which is majority White, where there have been many articles written about it being one of the least desirable places for Black people to live in America. So, no, we feel the entire process was biased against us from the beginning, and that the legal system was used abusively to come after us, especially me. I seriously doubt there would have been a lawsuit against my wife if it were just her. Or if I were not a public figure and, to some, a so-called celebrity.

Q: How has this entire thing affected you and Jinah Parker, how are you coping with what has happened?

KP: 2018 was the single worst year of my entire life, and my wife would say the same. This entire matter led to both of us having health issues from the stress, me a bladder issue and my wife an outbreak of shingles and two hospital visits just before the December 2018 trial. And we continue to receive hate messages on social media from racist trolls because of the local media coverage and the outcome, finding myself having to constantly block people calling me all kinds of names, including “rapist.” Me, a man who has been a pro-feminist male doing redefining manhood work since the early 1990s, all over the country, and globally too, as an organizer, as a speaker, as a writer, all of which is well documented, including YouTube speeches of mine on re-defining manhood, as well as public conversations I have had with major feminist women leaders like Eve Ensler and bell hooks. But these messages are coming from angry White men and angry White women, some using their names, some

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hiding behind fake names, all because they believe, or have been led to believe, that Black people, a Black man, has done something very bad to a White woman. No matter how you slice it, there is forever a racial overtone throughout this situation. And the hatred via social media and email is coming from some incredibly racist people in the state of Minnesota, not a state Down South like Mississippi. Minnesota, the state that gave us cultural bridge-builders like Prince and Bob Dylan, yet the ugliness of the messages my wife and I have received since the trial, and because of the two newspaper articles, from these folks in Minnesota is far worse and far more racist than anything I have ever experienced in the American South, either directly in person or via social media or email. Finally, the Star Tribune and City Pages articles, because of how biased they are, how they were written, actually create a climate of danger to my wife Jinah Parker and I. Yes, we think now of our safety because of all the hate messages. Look at the very recent physical assault of “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett because he is Black and gay. These kinds of attacks are always fueled first by words and ideas put out there very carelessly, they enrage and ignite people, then the hate crimes and violence in various forms happen again and again. Or look at how very recently two White Minnesota males admitted to bombing a Muslim mosque in that state, to terrorize Muslims into leaving their state. This is the climate of America, where we other people all over the place, and then people act on what they are being told or taught. That is why even when I sent my open letter to April Sellers, I was clear it was just going to be an email, and only to those 35 people or so, and it ended there. Nothing on social media, no media interviews of any kind. And not once during the trial did April Sellers ever say she received hate messages because of my open letter, because that simply never happened. Meanwhile, those Minnesota newspaper articles which malign Jinah and I are read and shared by millions of people, online, offline, everywhere. Huge difference, and far greater harm has been done to us because of what the Star Tribune and City Pages published, literally fanning the flames that should have burned out with the judgement into a massive fire where are now, very seriously, concerned for our safety.

Q: If you are not a rich and famous writer, as some seem to think, a celebrity, then who are you, what are the misconceptions about you?

KP: One of the biggest misconceptions is that just because someone is or has been in the public eye, that automatically means they have money. I said this at the trial. People like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates have money, professional athletes have money, famous Hollywood folks have money. People like me are average Americans just trying to make ends meet. But the opposing attorney simply saw a person who has been on tv, who does speeches, who writes books, and made this very false assumption of wealth on my part. Meanwhile, I owe the IRS hundreds

of thousands of dollars in back taxes, I have a $200,000 debt from having to postpone my wife’s theater production in 2018, and even my wife has over $100,000 in student loan debt. I literally borrowed money hours before we had to arrive for the Minnesota trial, just to pay for our plane tickets and hotel and meals in December. At the end of the day I am just an activist and writer whose entire adult life has been dedicated to serving and helping others, to be a truth-teller. It is unglamorous work, there is no regular salary, no benefits, no healthcare, in fact I have not had health benefits since I worked at Vibe magazine in 1996, 23 long years ago. If I need to go to the doctor, I have to pay for it, period. And most writers never make money from books at all, I have never had a bestselling book to date, and I have never made a single dime from any of my 13 books. I write because it is my great passion of life other than being an activist. And we know freelance journalism does not even pay much. So for the opposing lawyer to not even bother to research who he was suing, what income I actually have, what taxes and debt I actually owed, was really mind-boggling to me, to us. And for him to be relentless in pursuing money in spite of that felt like a personal vendetta against me, for God only knows what reasons. I sat there and listened to all kinds of lies and half-truths about me during that trial, when I know I have built a reputation in this country, as both a leader and a writer, of very serious transparency, honesty, integrity. But when folks are pursuing money at all costs, things like justice and truth get thrown out the window very quickly. The picture that was painted was that I was some sort of immoral monster, a person who waged a calculated campaign against April Sellers of Minnesota, which is all false, as if I or my wife have nothing better to do than try to injure people. No, we were simply responding to an ugly email, and we responded to the wrong person. This all got blown completely out of proportion. But this is also, again, very racial to us, and is so similar to how Black people, especially Black men, have been painted historically in this country. We are quick to be demonized, villainized, even when basic facts are missing in action, intentional or not. Meanwhile here I am doing speeches and community work all over the country, helping people of all races and cultures all over the country, daily, weekly, yearly, bringing people of different backgrounds together constantly—the complete opposite of how I was depicted at that trial. And the same goes for my wife, and her life work, healing, empowerment, bringing people together. It is an outright lie and highly irresponsible to even remotely suggest we want to see anyone’s life or career destroyed. That is not just terrible karma, toxic energy, but the exact opposite of who we are as human beings. And if folks actually bothered to do their research, real research, there is absolutely nothing to suggest that we even operate in that way ever, individually, or as a couple. But in the era of social media, short attention spans, and click-bait headlines, this is what happens to people, and then they alone have to navigate through the madness of it all. This is why I never even thought to put that open letter to April Sellers in any form other than email. Meanwhile here folks are sharing those Minnesota newspaper articles about us all over social media. April Sellers testified at the trial that she thought in her head folks might not want to have

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KEVIN POWELL... cont.

anything to do with her, but no concrete proof was ever presented. Meanwhile Jinah and I are dealing now in real time with complete strangers trashing us every chance they get, saying the most disgusting and disrespectful things, their words and behavior spurred on by those articles in the Star Tribune and City Pages. And many of these folks coming after Jinah and I with emails and on social media are very clearly right-wingers, very clearly supporters of Donald Trump (one even had a Trump banner in the background of their profile pic), very clearly racial bigots who hate Black people, hate people of color, hate anyone who is different than them, because they are using the same exact language and the same exact tactics people like me have experienced for many years: yelling, screaming, bullying, mocking, cursing, belittling, and taking all kinds of liberties with fact and fiction; and they see this situation with April Sellers, thanks to the two Minnesota newspaper articles, as a huge window through which to unleash their anger and hatred upon my wife and I.

Q: What have you learned from this entire experience?

KP: Number one, and no matter what, I choose love over hate any day. This has simply made me even more determined to serve and help others, to be a better leader, activist, a better writer, to fight even harder for freedom and justice and equality for all people. I could be very hateful right now, very bitter, and with good reason. And those thoughts certainly crossed my mind during the trial. But, again, I do not want to be a part of what is happening in America, the hate, the violence, the fear, the ignorance, the finger-pointing, the division. This trial represented all of what is happening in the country, and here we were, my wife and I, smack dab in the middle of something foul and toxic. So to me this entire journey is a reminder of the classic case of divide and conquer: progressive person versus progressive people, White woman versus Black wife and Black husband, artist versus artists, activist-educator versus activists-educators, person with no money versus married couple with no money. Aaron Scott, the lawyer for April Sellers, looked up my name, saw MTV’s “The Real World,” which was made in 1992 and of which the seven cast members received a grand total of $2000 or so, and no royalties of any kind since. Aaron Scott also saw my books and writings and various speaking engagements and made a very terrible assumption of wealth. As I said above, most writers and most activists and most educators have no money, live paycheck to paycheck, and that is the case with us. But, again, not once were any of our financial records ever requested or subpoenaed in any form. Not once during the entire year of 2018, including at the trial itself, were Jinah or I ever asked about any personal or collective debt. As I said during the trial, there is a huge difference between being a public figure and being famous. The harsh reality is that we are in the same financial boat as April Sellers of Minnesota before the trial, and we are in

the same financial boat as April Sellers of Minnesota after the trial. This entire episode brought unnecessary stress and was an incredible abuse of the legal system there in Minnesota. And we feel, because we are Black, and because there was a White woman with a White lawyer suing us, and because it was a White judge, a jury where all but one person was White, that this entire thing was biased against us from the very beginning, that it was a no-win situation. And based on all the hate messages we have gotten from White people in Minnesota because of the local newspaper articles, it is strongly suggested that we as African Americans are not even permitted to be whole human beings, to have feelings about this that feel an awful like many other chapters of America’s terrible racial history. That we are exaggerating, that race has nothing to do with any of this, like we do not even have a right to our own souls, historically and present-day. So the question also begs itself now, for us: where is the apology to us for being dragged through this for a year, for the thousands of dollars we had to spend, borrow, raise, simply to deal with this? And where is the apology to us for having our reputations slandered and smeared over and over again? Yes, we greatly empathize with April Sellers of Minnesota, we would love to apologize to her directly, but two wrongs do not make things right. The lawsuit and dragging us through an absolutely unnecessary trial were completely wrong, and inhumane. And as is what we have had to deal with given all the relentless and racist trolls because of the articles in the Star Tribune and City Pages since the trial.

Lastly, as a professional journalist I also knew that the main local media in Minneapolis-St. Paul, namely the Star Tribune and City Pages, were going to write sensationalistic pieces, whether we spoke with them or not. This is what I have watched American journalism become in the 32 years I have been a journalist myself, in all forms of media. We chose not to respond to either publication’s inquiry for an interview because of how traumatized we were and are by the entire Minnesota experience, and because I wanted to do an interview where I felt we could say very clearly and chronologically what happened. The whole truth not fragments of the truth as both these newspapers reported, or as was done by the other side during the trial. Plus the Star Tribune and City Pages are owned by the same company, and one of their writers, the very same Rohan Preston, actually testified against my wife and I at the trial, yet here these publications are writing articles about the trial. The journalistic integrity and objectivity are simply not even there. Plus both reporters from each publication barely were at the trial, yet they write articles about the whole thing? It was drive-by journalism with click-bait headlines. That is why we did not respond to their interview inquiries, the clear conflict of interest and the absence of a serious deep dive into the entire matter, from all angles. And what the folks at the Star Tribune and City Pages fail to realize is that merely by publishing those articles they have fanned the flames of a matter that should have ended with the judgement of $200,000 in favor of April Sellers in December 2018. Instead, my wife Jinah Parker and I, because of those very biased articles,

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have been ruthlessly harassed with racist and sexist and hateful people, pretty much all White sisters and brothers, attacking us via email, on Facebook, on Instagram. Per our lawyer we are saving all of these messages and will certainly have the proper people trace them all, especially the ones clearly coming out of Minnesota. These are the same kinds of messages I have gotten since my days on MTV, and in these times, whenever I appear on CNN or Fox News Channel. They are messages calling us names, cursing us out, mocking us, you name it. The theme is always the same: hate. As the rapper Childish Gambino said, this is America. Indeed it is. That is the great tragedy of our times, and the great tragedy of this situation, because it is so typical of where we are as a nation. This whole thing began with an ugly and hatefilled email to my wife, and here we are all these months later, my wife and I, getting ugly and hate-filled emails and social media messages. There are no real winners here in any form, not even close. We all lose when things like this are allowed to fester and rot, instead of what we really need, healing and honest dialogue where people are talking with each other, not at each other.

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