Buy the block is a phrase often spoken. Mama Shu was fulfilling this mission and purpose before the concept was trendy. Avalon street is a community that, in the mid to late 2000s, saw so much more attention and intentionality. During her many journeys, Mama Shu was drawn to the street owning and operating the Black Hole community space in unions and in partnership with others. Avalon started as a property she exclusively believed in and now welcomes tens of thousands annually to s actual space. Learn more of Mama Shu’s background at Kettering HS, Alkebulan Village, Aisha Shule, and even working at the Belle Isle Big Boys. Mama Shu is a staple in her neighborhood and has a can-do spirit to meet and match the creativity, vision, and passions through providing access and opportunity. Mama Shu’s willingness to dream big, think big, and act big has inspired many, many more (like myself) to engage the community. All this is through the lens of two sons tragically murdered, which pushes her through in spirit towards success.
Mental Health is a buzzword today. The cohesive nature that makes up us all easily forgotten is Mental Health. Mental Health for Black men is genuinely an unspoken condition to heal, deal with, and prosper. Prostell Thomas joins Detroit is Different to open up about how to deliver in this space through the synergy of connecting with others. Learn about his time on Detroit’s historic North End, Aknartoons, Northern HS Jayhawks, etc. Prostell shares his process of spending mornings with music, technique, and thought to build up his resolve to engage the world. Please find out how he fills his tank to engage with many who feel like no one cares.
Join HEAL: A Community Mental Health Conversation @ Avalon Village on April 24, 2022, 12 pm – 4 pm. Give to the GoFundme drive HEAL: A Mental Health Conversation as well.
If you have a business ready for national and international distribution, Buy Detroit is the event you need. Keyra Cokely of the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation had a vision of making the procurement and buy process between large-scale businesses and small Detroit businesses easy. The bonding, insurance, financials, and work are given a process Keyra has made plain for you. She opens up about how her grandfather’s view of plain business inspired this vision. Learn how Keyra’s understanding of fund development and process was groomed from real-life experience and wisdom. Her young age is anchored to the experience of reading everything she has seen working with the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation for years. Buy Detroit is a program that fits the niche for miscommunications and misunderstandings between businesses and industry. Learn how the event in July is only a start to changing the footprint of many Detroit small businesses.
All Things Detroit is a holiday honoring the event Jennyfer Crawford designed to help small businesses. What began in an apartment now has a partnership with Chase bank, welcomes thousands of buying guests, and sells out vending space for hundreds of vendors in days. All Things Detroit is a cultural experience because it’s an extension of the passion Jennyfer has for Pop-Up shops. Sunday, April 10, 2022, 10 am – 4 pm visit Eastern Market and see what All Things Detroit is all about. Watch the interview with Jennyfer Crawford to see how an idea becomes a plan than a reality. After the passing of Jennyfer’s father, her commitment to the mission and goal strengthened in the storm of the pandemic to keep going. How a woman grew her business that was 85% live events when live events were non-existent is phenomenal.
The Spirit Says podcast is a space and place where we are welcomed into a conversation of two women driven to inspire the minds of young people and follow their spirits. Bria Warmsby & Korey Butler host the Spirit Says podcast. The focus of the podcast is welcoming listeners into the journey of where the Spirit moves Bria and Korey through life. Here meet how the Eastside culture of Detroit impacted both women. Inner City Sub Center, Eastland, Chandler Park, and Alkebu-lan Village are all highlighted in this interview. Connect to the essence of classic Detroit stories and Eastside Detroit culture.
As a professional Personal Fitness Trainer, Health/Wellness coach, stretch/yoga instructor, lifestyle+Mommy blogger; I understand that a big part of wellness can be attributed to physical fitness, however, it takes having balance in your Physical, Mental, Spiritual, and Emotional health to gain overall complete wellness and self-care.
A large part of self-care commitment is not only doing something “nice” for yourself but making sure we are replenishing all of the care and love we give so freely and effortlessly to our community, children, partners, family, staff, jobs, career, daily.
I have a combined 17 years of experience in health, wellness, and fitness. From following my first love as a professional dancer in world-renowned dance ensembles to training under master yoga instructors, to gaining fitness certifications, to spending years learning massage therapy, crystal healing, and much more. I take pride in knowing multiple angles of how to help incorporate wellness and healing practices for my fellow healers and community. I am passionate about helping people transform the lives of others by showing them how to gain the tools to practice wellness daily, live a happy/healthy, and fulfilled life. I offer custom workout regimes, tailored meal plans, and individualized coaching to help build healthy habits. Best of all, all these healing techniques and practices can be learned and absorbed virtually as well. This means you can fit in your workouts, meditation, and healing sessions with confidence in the comfort of your own home all while achieving the fitness/wellness goals you deserve.
What began as a movement of heightened love of self for many Black Americans in the 1930s re-emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. My name ‘Khary,’ is an African name found in a book of names from West Africa. Breaking the lineage and ties to American enslavement was an intentional action that many parents instilled into their children’s lives.
Detroit had an anchor of Pan African thought, organizing, and leadership in Kwame Kenyatta. Before his passing in the physical realm of March 15, 2018, he joined me for one of my best interviews to date on Detroit is Different on February 18, 2018. Less than a month before his passing, he opened up about his life story and love of Detroit, Black people, and life’s work.
Today I present his interview in full in honor of his legacy, his family, and as a fundraising effort for an organization he loved, the Malcolm X Grassroots Organization. Please support the organization by sending a CashApp donation to $MXGMATL.
This interview was a key stepping stone for me to understand how Detroit was a beacon and gateway for African Centered Education in the 1990s and 2000s. As a member of the Detroit School Board, Kwame Kenyatta ushered in a collection of child psychologists, theorists, educational developers, and thought leaders that eventually shifted the winds of change. Kenyatta and his community support made an impact on all of Detroit Public Schools to empower Black students to learn from Black scholars, writers, and theory. Nikki Giovanni, Amiri Baraka, and Maya Angelou became literary giants instead of Mark Twain.
Kwame Kenyatta shares his journey of protest in high school for Cooley HS to get an African History course (which was and is a historical precedent at what was once Eastern HS, Mumford HS, and Wayne State University). How in locking the school down, he was expelled from all DPS schools to later become a Detroit School Board member instrumental in guiding African Centered Education to be taught throughout Detroit Public Schools.
Learn and listen to hear more of his relationship with giants like Imari Obadele, Imani Humphrey, Chokwe Lumumba, and more. How his life’s work led him back in the Republic of New Afrika path, where he eventually settled in Jackson, MS, after the Mayoral post of Chokwe Lumumba.
Remember, give to Malcolm X Grassroots Organization in honor of Kwame Kenyatta and his work. Also, a special thanks to Kwame’s son Kofi Kenyatta and all his effort and love for our people.
The National Business League Detroit Chapter (NBL), the Detroit Black Chamber of Commerce (DBCC), and the Booker T. Washington Trade Association (BTWTA) will announced new leadership and their coming together as the Detroit United Front at the 12th annual State of Black Business Summit on March 7.
These three top Black business organizations have joined forces to speak out against the ongoing benign neglect of Black businesses by the philanthropic, public, and private sectors. The Detroit United Front will provide real and independent representation to serve as a true economic advocate for Black businesses in the city for those who may not have a voice while simultaneously holding the systems, institutions and structures perpetuating lack of equity and exclusion, accountable.
Committed to breaking “the chains of financial bondage” in the pan-African community, CRYSTAL L. GUNN is a fiscal strategist whose female-focused economic organization has transformed lives throughout the Midwest. She is founder and CEO of the Amazing Woman Network, a nonprofit with a stated goal of “reclaiming personal power through mind, body and spirit.” In her leadership role, Gunn advises clients on how to forge advantageous social relationships and amass wealth over a broad spectrum of investments and strategies, including home ownership, estates/inheritances, entrepreneurship and more. Her people-first business approach is summated in a quote by Black baseball legend, Jackie Robinson: “A life is not important except on the impact it has on other lives.”
Gunn holds a Bachelor’s of Business Administration from Michigan State University. A member of Delta Sigma Theta Sortie, Inc., she launched her career over 20 years ago, beginning with a stint in mortgage banking and management, later branching out into speaking, authoring, coaching and activism. She is the creator of the online financial planning courses Becoming Financially FLAWLESS and Amazing Woman Entrepreneur. She hosts the financial talk show, Crystal-Clear Conversations. Now, as Chairman of the Booker T. Washington Trade Association, Ms. Gunn relishes the opportunity to further empower Black businesses through impassioned advocacy.
