Kevin Coval

Kevin Coval is an American poet.

Born in Chicago, in a Jewish working-class home in the suburbs, Coval was a fan of hip-hop in his youth. An early memorable moment happened when he discussed the lyrics of a KRS-One song, "Why Is That", in which KRS-One claims that Abraham and Moses likely were black men. He calls himself a "breakbeat poet" whose love of hip-hop "brought [him] back to Judaism". Besides a poet, he is an activist, and the director of the Robert Boone-founded Young Chicago Authors, and the Louder Than a Bomb slam poetry festival

His 2017 collection A People's History of Chicago, whose title is inspired by Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, comments in 77 poems, one for each neighborhood in Chicago, on the city, its history, and the people that live in it, from its Native American beginnings and its appropriation by whites to the present day, the inauguration of Rahm Emanuel and the World Series win by the Chicago Cubs. Along the way he comments on Robert de LaSalle's mispronunciation of the Native American word "checagou", which he bastardizes with his "misshapen mouth", erasing its original history.