Jack Powers may have decided to dedicate his life to helpinghis fellow man on his seventh birthday when, he recalled recently,he went to bed and 'cried myself to sleep because I figured if Ilived to be 100, I only had 93 years left to do everything Iwanted.'
As the years passed and he escaped the poverty of his lifein a Roxbury housing project through his love of poetry and music,Powers knew he would someday help others fill their needs throughthe things that touched the spirit as well as those that nourishedthe body. One friend asked: 'How many people are there who give aparty to celebrate Beethoven's birthday? Jack does.'
Now 49, Powers is a tall man with curly black hair speckledwith gray, worn long in the style of the '60s. He is apt to appearanywhere in the city, sowing seeds of goodwill and hope, like somegenial Johnny Appleseed with a gift of language. To some of hisfriends, he is a 'mensch,' a reliable, sensible person -- a solidcitizen. As special projects director in the mayor's office ofBusiness and Cultural Development, headed by Rosemary Sansone,Powers sees himself as a 'facilitator,' someone who finds resourcesfor people to help them make their own way.
It was in the early '60s, after he returned to Boston fromsix months in San Francisco, that Powers began actively helpingothers. 'In those years I began to feel that we were challenging arunaway boat. I got to thinking. My ideas are smart, but Ihaven't done anything to make them work. I create opportunities forpeople to come together and exchange ideas, but we're essentiallynot doing anything. We're letting the parade go by,' Powers saidin a recent interview.
He soon remedied what he felt was his lack of involvement.He volunteered his time over a two-year period to tutor children atthe Columbia Point housing project in remedial reading. Whilethere he found there was no supermarket, and that at the nearestsupermarket 'the basic food prices went up at the end of the monthwhen the welfare checks came in.' He started the Columbia PointFood Co-op in which 50 families took part.
During the Vietnam War, Powers got involved in the antiwarmovement through the Beacon Hill Vietnam Peace Action supportgroup. He worked with the Friends of the Deacons for Defense andJustice, a support group for freedom riders going south to help inthe civil rights movement. It was through the antiwar and civilrights movements of the '60s that Powers met Kip Tiernan, thefounder of Rosie's Place for homeless women.
Their paths had actually crossed earlier in Boston clubsthrough their mutual love of jazz. 'If I were to say one thingabout Jack,' Tiernan said recently, 'it would be about hiscommitment to poor people. He has always made himself available tofragile populations. Millhands and millionaires are all the sameto Jack, which is very important when you're doing community work.Jack has always been available to the sparrows of the city.'
Last fall, Powers asked his friend, poet Allen Ginsburg, todonate a reading here and raised $17,000 for Oxfam America to feedthe hungry. Two years ago, Powers was asked back to San Franciscoto give a reading of his own poetry at Lawrence Ferlinghetti's CityLights Bookstore.
In the belief that man does not live by bread alone, Powers in1971 founded the Stone Soup, a gallery for poetry readings andworkshops in the Beacon Hill Free School on Cambridge Street. Itlasted eight years. He started the Free School a year before tooffer forums and as many as 50 courses to people of all ages. 'TheStone Soup movement was very important in giving a platform andencouragement to unheard-of young writers,' Tiernan said. Powersalso served monthly dinners there for senior citizens.
For three years as part of his work with Summerthing, Boston'ssummer festival of arts, Powers organized a 'poetry-mobile' to gointo the neighborhoods. 'A child should get as much encouragementif he writes a good sentence as he does if he's good at sports,'Powers said.
From 1971 to 1972, Powers was volunteer director for HillHouse, a community center on Beacon Hill where he started cookingand serving meals for the elderly, an activity he pursues to thisday at St. John's Church on Beacon Hill, which now sponsors themeals.
Ten years ago, Powers cofounded Boston Urban Gardeners, whichhas been instrumental in getting free topsoil for Boston'scommunity gardens.
Powers has never let earning money interfere with hisvolunteer work. From 1961 to 1974, he worked as shipping clerk forGoodspeed's Bookstore, turning down a promotion because it wouldhave interfered with his volunteer activity. 'I'm very solid onvolunteerism,' Powers said, 'because the extraordinary weight ofproblems that visits the modern industrial society can't be metwith dollars alone.'
For the last three years, he has held a paying job at CityHall in the Mayor's Office of Business and Cultural Developmentdoing a variety of jobs the office is concerned with and othersthat might have nothing to do with it. As part of his job lastyear, Powers donned his three-piece suit to welcome guests toFaneuil Hall during the visit of Philippine President Corazon C.Aquino.
Powers is an expert at shaking the corporate tree to help theneedy in the community and in getting volunteers to help incommunity projects. Now, firms know that if they have extra turkeysat Thanksgiving or trees to plant in spring, Powers will know whocan use them and where they can be used.
He is a peripatetic man. His day starts at 5:30 a.m. Later hemight be found at an old warehouse on Causeway Street overseeingthe transfer of furniture donated by business firms to nonprofitneighborhood groups and shelters, often moving the furniturehimself. That same day could find him cooking a meal for theelderly at St. John's; spreading new soil to prepare communitygardens for spring; on the telephone trying to locate a crib andnew mattress for a new mother who can't afford them; talking tosome young people about civics; delivering food to the hungry;serving as host at a poetry reading; directing a clean-up of BostonCommon, or getting the answer to a problem some citizen called CityHall about, luckily getting connected with Powers. If he can't helpyou, he'll find someone who can.
Powers has helped some 40 groups acquire furniture and otheritems through the Business to Neighborhood Resource Bank, operatedthrough Sansone's office. The Bank of New England brought the ideaof the resource bank to the city last summer when it was renovatingits offices.
Bank of New England gave the intial $9,000 grant and morethan 2,000 pieces of used office furniture. Other firms followedsuit with the Hotel Bradford donating 3,500 items from 290 rooms offurniture, according to Antonio Nunziante, liaison between the cityand business firms.
When he was involved with the Clean City Commission, Powerssought and got 3,000 meals from McDonald's for the clean-up crewsafter Hurricane Gloria.
Born in Boston, Powers was the eldest of six children wholived with their parents in the Orchard Park housing project inRoxbury. His father had been a semiprofessional boxer and worked asa furniture mover. His mother, he said, 'had a lot of respect forwhat happened in your head.' He attended Dearborn School and St.Patrick's School, both in Roxbury, and graduated from CathedralHigh in the South End.
He started working at 15, first as a hotel busboy, then asporter and receiving clerk. He left Northeastern University afterone semester and took a full-time job at the hotel and worked foran oil company in Kenmore Square.
When he returned to New England from San Francisco, Powersworked briefly as a reporter for a New Hampshire daily newspaper.It was about the time John F. Kennedy was running for president.'He got me interested in the social process and made me realizethings could be changed for the better,' Powers said.
Six years ago Powers found time to get married and lives onBeacon Hill with his wife, Tamara, an artist, and their sons, JohnNicholas Dylan, 5, and Andreas Alexander Amadeus, 2.
With his 13-hour days and weekend projects, he doesn't see hisfamily as often as he'd like. Last weekend he worked with some 200volunteers from Sterling Institute to put in soil and a fence toprovide a playground and community garden for the day care centerat Women, Inc., a resident drug rehabilitation in Roxbury.
But Powers doesn't plan to slow down. The way he sees it,'When you do useful things, you get back more than you give.'DROHAN;03/14 CORCOR;03/16,20:16 POWERSHE
