Carl Powlett

A St. Lucian born naturalized American citizen, Carl Powlett arrived in the U.S. at the age of thirteen, months after the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy, and two months before Nixon won the White House.

On the first day of his sophomore year at Boys High School in Bedford Stuyvesant, his English teacher, Mrs. Kephart, advised the class, all Black and Brown boys, that truly educated young men were regular readers of The New York Times. Taking that advice to heart would have a compounding effect on Carl's already strong desire to learn, and imbued a lifelong thirst for knowledge, facts, and truth.

The social and political tumult of the late '60s had left an indelible mark, which colored Carl's outlook, shading the mythical American "Streets of Gold" ethos that so many immigrants embraced. Then came Watergate.

It was a time of immersion and fascination with the American political process and Constitution. However, the result was the further degeneration of the rose-colored outlook of a no longer wide-eyed, foreign-born teenager. The constitutional directives were followed, but the punishment for the wrongdoer fell short with Ford's pardon of Nixon.

During this time, Carl became eligible for citizenship. He took that opportunity. Soon after being sworn in as a citizen, Carl registered to vote. Through almost five decades, innumerable local and national elections, too many electoral disappointments to count, he continues to feel the empowerment he earned the day he signed his voter registration card and will never take that for granted.

"Ode to a Very Stable Genius" is Carl's first published work. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and teenage son.