Richard J. Powell, Interviewed by Aaron Bryant, 13 and 30 April 2022

“I remember going to a party at Jeff’s house where I met Jean Pace, whom I had seen in Chicago as a high school student. I also met Nina Simone at Jeff’s house. Just being in the room with these larger-than-life figures was extraordinary. Another person I remember meeting during this period was Toni Cade Bambara, who came to that 1976 Black Writers conference at Howard, and ended up being somebody with whom I was in regular communication through the late 1970s and early 1980s. Howard University and Washington, DC, were meccas for Black culture. Jeff was very instrumental in bringing all these interesting people together. Washington, DC, was the Black diaspora personified, even in a bigger way than Atlanta. I was meeting people from Africa, the Caribbean, and from all over the Black world.”