Malcolm X Day
speakers
Nubia Kai Poet, Author, Playwright
Nubia Kai is a playwright, poet, and novelist from Detroit, Michigan, who now lives in Washington, D.C. A lecturer at various American universities, she has published Solos and I Spread My Wings And I Fly and contributed to journals such as Essence and The Black Scholar. A student of anthropology and Black studies, she has a PhD in African literature and film.
Aside from her degrees, Kai has taught in the History Department at George Washington University. She was also an assistant professor at Howard University‘s Department of Arts. Kai taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland-Baltimore in Africana Studies.[3] She has won three Michigan Council awards, three D.C. Commission for the Arts awards and three Tompkin awards. Along with those, she also won two McCree Theatre awards, two National Endowment for the Arts awards, and a Larry Neal Writer’s Competition for Poetry award. Nubia Kia has been published in magazines and journals such as Essence, Black World, the Black American Literature Forum, the Journal of African Literature Association and the Journal of Black Poetry.
Nancy A. Parker Detroit Justice Center
Nancy is the Executive Director of the Detroit Justice Center. Immediately prior to this, Nancy served as the Managing Attorney of the Movement Lawyering Practice, where she focused on providing legal support to grassroots organizations fighting for racial justice in the city and surrounding communities. Nancy was proudly part of the dedicated legal team that successfully sued the City of Detroit and its police for the unconstitutional civil rights violations that were exacted upon nonviolent protesters fighting for Black lives and police accountability. Nancy also worked in coalition with community partners to organize around ending the city’s use of the expensive and inefficient surveillance technology, ShotSpotter. Nancy has engaged in direct representation of clients in various courts, conducted know-your- rights trainings, presented on prison industrial complex abolition, provided research/analysis, and generally provided any other support needed to move abolitionist campaigns and projects forward.
Mark Crain Dream of Detroit
Mark is the executive director at Dream of Detroit, an initiative to combine community organizing with housing and land development to revitalize a neighborhood and build a thriving, healthy community on the Westside of Detroit. DREAM organizes local residents as well as folks from throughout the metro-area Muslim community in the fight to achieve racial and economic justice in Detroit’s neighborhoods. Prior to DREAM, Mark honed his skills in digital strategy and community organizing at MoveOn, the Obama 2012 campaign, and the Inner-City Muslim Action Network. He also has significant organizational development experience and currently serves on the boards of the Detroit Justice Center and Emgage Foundation.
Kwasi Akwamu The Shed @ Martz Park
Kwasi Akwamu is a Detroit-based conscious citizen of the Republic of New Afrika. He declared his citizenship in 1992 while in prison for black-on-black crime, and has since championed the need for personal transformation as a core and indispensable element in the movement for the liberation of New Afrikan people. Back in the community since April 2000, he has been active in various capacities, all in service of New Afrikan self-determination.
Kwasi went into prison as a high school dropout but devoted himself to self-study and personal development. In this capacity, he served for several years as a writer and editor with an award winning local newspaper, The Michigan Citizen. Over the past 20 years he also published several independent newspapers of his own, covering hip-hop, promoting black business, and advocating for New Afrikan self-determination. He also authored a book, Stop Snitching, which sought to explore the impact of this topic beyond the narrow mainstream narrative.
Finally, Kwasi is practices self-determination and economic independence through his operation of two businesses; UNIQUE BANNER & SIGN, a large format printing company; and, THE SHED AT MARTZ PARK, a retail store focusing on a curated selection of black books, original art and screen-printed apparel, all aiming to cultivate the spirit of New Afrikan culture and liberation.
Malcolm X Day
Detroit
May 19, 2024
4605 Cass Ave
6-9P
