Before I offer reflection, I want to begin with gratitude. Last week, I attended the Youth Development Resource Center (YDRC) Summit, the culminating convening connected to this year’s Equity Accelerator for Youth Development experience. Being selected as a participant in this cohort was both affirming and stretching in ways I am still processing. Like any meaningful experience, it held moments of inspiration, challenge, growth, exhaustion, connection, and opportunity. But above all, it held...

Dr. King reminded us that “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable.” What he understood—and what we often forget—is that power without moral grounding is not power at all. It is domination. Control. Performance. And somewhere along the way, we began confusing Godly power with worldly power. That truth is what’s been sitting with me this MLK Day. Last week, Garlin Gilchrist announced that he would be stepping out of the Michigan gubernatorial race and would instead pursue...

This was my first time voting in a Detroit election. Not the Kenya who voted from a dorm in East Lansing just excited to exercise my right. Not the Kenya whose Oak Park address was mostly about making everyday logistics easier while her real life moved across the region. Not the young adult who voted wherever her mail happened to land that season. Back then, my vote lived wherever I lived temporarily — campus housing, my parents’ home, the in-between places that didn’t fully shape my...