It’s just after 11 a.m. on a hazy Memorial Day in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. Outside Tillie’s of Brooklyn, a trendy café near the corner of DeKalb and Vanderbilt avenues, a multiracial group of a dozen young men and women arrange themselves in a semicircle to be briefed on their itinerary for the afternoon.

Standing before them is the author and activist Kevin Powell, 42, who holds up a voter registration card. “You all have a working knowledge of local politics,” Powell says. “You’re gonna hear people say, ‘I don’t think my vote matters,’ but you gotta have a quick response.” Soon after, the lively group splits up and veers into different directions, hauling campaign literature, voter registration news materials and bottles of water. (more…)