Ten local men were presented a prestigious honor this week — including an LGBT community member who plans to use the award to empower local youth.
Malcolm Kenyatta was inducted into the Philadelphia BMe Leaders program Monday night, an effort that provides participants $10,000 grants to spearhead programs that support BMe Community’s mission of community-building led by black men.
Kenyatta, 24, is a North Philadelphia native and resident who is going to use his grant to establish the Kenyatta Foundation, in honor of his grandfather, Muhammad Kenyatta, a civil-rights activist who ran against former Mayor Frank Rizzo in 1975.
The foundation is expected to launch later this summer.
“The foundation looks to engage young people to be better writers and speakers and allows them to see a problem, target it and fix it,” Kenyatta explained.
He is working with state Rep. Curtis Thomas to institute a “scholars program” throughout schools in the North Philly area, to train and empower youth to identify and problem-solve issues within their schools.
“That has been my life so far: finding issues, targeting them and working to fix them,” Kenyatta said.
He noted his grandfather was a “huge inspiration” in his work thus far.
He followed his grandfather’s passion for politics, currently serving as Liberty City LGBT Democratic Club’s youngest board member. The 2012 Temple grad, who majored in public communication with a minor in political science, recently ran Sherrie Cohen’s City Council campaign.
Kenyatta said he’s eager to take on this next leadership role with BMe and the Kenyatta Foundation — especially as an out LGBT person.
“Representation is important for any young person. I’m a 24-year-old black guy in North Philly living with my husband and working every day to find ways to make a difference, and that’s important for young people to see,” he said. “I’ve been able to do some good things, whether it’s running a campaign and talking about issues of poverty, discrimination and economic equality, or working to make Liberty City more inclusive and holistic of the LGBT community. And now I have the opportunity to launch this foundation to help young people not get beat down or discouraged. I want to show them that if we all work hard and put our minds together, there’s nothing we can’t do.”
For more information about BMe Community, visit bmecommunity.org.