Kamau K. Franklin, Founder
Kamau Franklin is the founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders, Inc. Kamau has been a dedicated community organizer for over twenty years, beginning in New York City and now based in the Atlanta. For 18 of those years, Kamau was a leading member of a national grassroots organization dedicated to the ideas of self-determination and the teachings of Malcolm X. He has spearheaded organizing work in various areas including youth organizing and development, police misconduct, and the development of sustainable urban communities. Kamau has coordinated and led community cop-watch programs, liberation/freedom schools for youth, electoral and policy campaigns, large-scale community gardens, organizing collectives and alternatives to incarceration programs. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife and two children.
MamYrah PROSPER, PAN-AFRICAN SOLIDARITY NETWORK ORGANIZER
Mamyrah Prosper is an organizer in the United States and Haiti. She received her Ph.D. in Global & Sociocultural Studies with a concentration in Cultural Anthropology as well as graduate certificates in African & African Diaspora Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies from Florida International University. She also holds an M.S. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from Nova Southeastern University as well as a B.A. in Political Science and Africana Studies from Barnard College, Columbia University. Her doctoral work centered on a coalition of social movement organizations calling for an end to the ongoing “non-governmental” occupation of Haiti. She is interested in the construction of neocolonial nationalist ideologies and collective identities in relation to race and class, gender and sexuality, education and language, and religion. Prosper has served as an organizer with land and housing rights organizations Take Back the Land-Miami.
KALONJI JAMA CHANGA, ORGANIZING AND YOUTH DIRECTOR
Kalonji Jama Changa is an award-winning political activist. As the founder and national coordinator of the social justice organization FTP Movement, Kalonji has aided in the growth and development of programs such as International Feed The People, Urban Survival Preparedness Institute, Siafu Youth Corps, National Coalition to Combat Police Terrorism, and Mama's Army, to name just a few. He is author of the bestselling book, "How to Build a People's Army" and co-producer of the documentary "Organizing is the New Cool". Kalonji has been featured on numerous media outlets including CNN, FOX and the BBC networks.
Yafeuh Balogun, Dallas Chapter LEAD Organizer
Yafeuh Balogun has always been surrounded by the socially conscious movement through his parents and extended family who were active in the Black Power era. He was taught the value of community by his father’s consistent example of love for his fellow neighbor. Yafeuh has developed many social programs in Dallas including Community Unification Day to detour fratricide, seek unity and to promote a holistic lifestyle and healthy living. He is a co-founder of Guerrilla Mainframe (GMF) and the Huey P. Newton Gun Club. He and his comrade Rakem Balogun were targeted by the FBI for advocating community self-defense. Rakem was arrested by the FBI under the guise of the Black Identity Extremist Label. Yafeuf started the Balogun Defense Committee which helped in the dropping of all charges against Rakem. Yafeuh is a graduate of El Centro College with a Degree in Applied Science. Yafeuh has been interviewed about his work within the community by some top publications, include:· CBS,· NBC, · New York Times.
Yusef Bunchy shakur, Detroit chapter Lead organizer
Yusef Bunchy Shakur, is a father, author, educator, community organizer, and entrepreneur. He grew up in a struggling single parent household surrounded by violence and crime and eventually co-founded the notorious street gang “Zone 8”, which led to his incarceration at the age of nineteen for a crime he says he did not commit. He met his father for the first time in prison where they were both serving time. During his sentence he began a journey of transformation, in large part thanks to his father, from a gang member into an revolutionary who would eventually leave prison and continue on a path of redemption. Today Yusef travels the country to speak to youth about his experiences and to steer young people away from a life of violence and crime and to organize for change in the neighborhood of "Zone 8" where members of his family and many friends still live.
MAurice PERSON, FOOD SUSTAINABILITY DIRECTOR
Maurice is an agrarian land steward, aquaponics expert and food sovereignty activist. They created the business Kansas City Aquaponics to bring diverse approaches using DIY methods to obtain knowledge through community building and educational projects. Kansas City Aquaponics creates custom aquaponic installations from models to commercial size, workshops for schools, landscape designs, edible garden planning and traditional soil growing. Maurice also practices holistic tincture making with locally cultivated herbs.