For Yusef Bunchy Shakur, the Mama Akua Community House is an extension of the life he has rebuilt for himself over the past 24 years.
Within a two-story, mint green house in Detroit’s Northwest Goldberg neighborhood, the community center is unapologetically Black.
Civil rights activists like Harriet Tubman, Ella Baker and Assata Shakur dominate the black and white wallpaper near the front entrance. A prominent painting of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. playing basketball hangs on the wall as does a picture of the man Shakur decided to take his middle name from: Black Panther Party member Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter.
“I wanted to have a museum feeling without actually being a museum,” Shakur told BridgeDetroit during a recent visit. “We wanted to have an intersection of African history and Black history but also, show the Black struggle.”
The community house’s namesake, Akua Budu-Watkins, is also dear to Shakur’s heart. The Detroit activist, educator and organizer was a mentor and friend after Shakur was released from prison in the early 2000s.
Now, more than 20 years into his own career as a neighborhood organizer, Shakur has come a long way from the troubled teen he was growing up on Ferry Park Street, the same block where the community house stands today.
The educator, author and filmmaker, who earned a Ph.D and released a documentary about his life, recently achieved another milestone when he was appointed as the new executive director for social justice nonprofit Michigan Roundtable For Just Communities. The promotion makes Shakur, 52, the first Black and formerly incarcerated person to lead the 84-year-old Detroit organization.
Longtime roundtable leader Steve Spreitzer is retiring in August after serving as co-executive director with Shakur since last year. Shakur said Spreitzer created a pathway for him to become a leader.
“What I’ve learned in leadership and in life is, you bring your own unique skills,” he said.
“You take the good, look at the bad, look at the in-between, but ultimately you have to find your own way, your own relationships, and feel confident,” Shakur added. “What personally drives me is Black maternal love, workforce development, neighborhood engagement and serving our young people. Those are some of my leadership pillars that will fit in with our mission.”
Lacy Dawson, who holds Shakur’s previous position as director of programs at Michigan Roundtable, has known the Detroiter since 2012. She said she’s witnessed his trajectory as he’s ascended within the organization.
“With Dr. Shakur, it is his tenacity and his energy and his passion around making stuff right for the community that fuels him and fuels the people around him and it fuels the vision for this institution,” Dawson said. “A lot of people see him as being rough around the edges, which is definitely a thing. But at the same time, he’s a big teddy bear because he doesn’t turn anybody away.”
Michigan Roundtable’s Neighborhood, Community and Youth Coordinator Izzi Figueiredo said the promotion has been a long time coming.
“He’s done a lot of preparation for this,” Figueiredo said, “including surrounding himself with really great leaders that he can call on should something come up that he needs support on.”
Shakur said his mother, Ava Jo Williams, who died in 2022, knew from a young age that he was destined for great things in life.
“My mother told me when I was a little boy, ‘You’re gonna be the president of the United States.’ I ain’t the president, but I’m the executive director,” he said.
Providing a ‘care package’
As executive director, Shakur said he will continue to follow the Michigan Roundtable’s mission, which is working on eradicating racism, discrimination and systemic inequities by cultivating multigenerational communities across the state.
A future initiative he wants to work on to address that includes a workforce development program for teens and young adults. Shakur said he’s especially focused on ways to help young people who have been criminalized like himself.
In the early 1990s, Shakur was involved in a gang, charged and convicted in an assault and eventually served nearly a decade in prison.
“I want to create jobs for those who are locked outside of the workforce, who find themselves at the margin of selling dope, robbing and things that we identify as criminalized behavior, and help them transfer those skills,” he said. “When I was in prison, I would get a care package. The care package would help me until my money came. That’s what this work would do; giving people care packages, getting them through the rough times, to get over the hump. Some guys just may need $50 for the day, some guys may need $100 for two days to go buy some diapers, buy some food.”
Shakur and Dawson are also working on a project together called Battle Creek Rising, where the team works with Black leaders in the city to create plans for community, workforce and economic development, she said.
Even as President Donald Trump and his administration continue to attack diversity, equity and inclusion, Shakur isn’t too worried about it affecting Michigan Roundtable.
“Justice is necessary,” he said. “It’s not a post-racial society, it’s not a post-sexist society and we’re not about to act delusional as if those things don’t happen. There’s going to be challenges and we’ll face them.”
Letters to his father
Shakur said he likes to think of his childhood in two phases, the first full of the good times as he was raised by his mother and hung outside all day with his friends. His father was absent from Shakaur’s life and was eventually incarcerated.
The second phase was when the crack cocaine epidemic hit Detroit, destroying communities and bringing gang activity along with it. Shakur co-founded the Zone 8 gang, another name the Northwest Goldberg neighborhood is known for. In the early 1990s at the age of 19, Shakur was charged and went to prison for assault with intent to rob, a crime he said he did not commit.
“I was an active gang member, but I just wasn’t active in that situation,” Shakur said.
While in prison, Shakur developed a relationship with the one person that was missing from his life: his father. The two began exchanging letters, a practice that lasted the majority of Shakur’s nine-year sentence. At times, the father and son would be placed in the same prison.
In the beginning, Shakur could not read and write well, often misspelling words in the letters to his dad, he said, but after his father encouraged him to read the dictionary, Shakur began working on his literacy skills. Eventually, he became an avid reader.
Shakur started learning about the civil rights movement, reading books on activists like Malcolm X, Carter and Bobby Seale. Shakur was released from prison in 2001 but his father remained behind bars and is currently serving his 44th year. Shakur said he’s working to get him out of prison.
“It was a love tap that started to create the path that I can begin to walk,” he said. “He began to describe to me how he changed his life and they became building blocks. He produced a new version of himself and I took that and created a new version of myself.”
Back to life, back to reality
When he returned to Detroit, Shakur wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, but knew he wasn’t going back to prison, he said.
Around that time, he connected with Budu-Watkins who began mentoring him, her daughter, Sherri Smith, who also helps manage the Mama Akua Community House, said.
“When he first got out here trying to make a difference in the community, she made sure that he was supported in his tasks,” Smith said.
In 2001, Shakur launched his annual backpack giveaway for the children in his neighborhood, which is named after his mother. Ten years later, he launched the Urban Network, a bookstore, recording studio and community center on Grand River Avenue and McGraw. The idea was born out of wanting to have a place in the neighborhood that sold books after the nearby liquor store stopped selling newspapers, Shakur said.
However, after a few years the building changed ownership and Shakur and his team were forced to leave. Soon after, a neighbor familiar with his work gifted Shakur the house on Ferry Park that became the Mama Akua Community House.
Smith is honored that Shakur named the community house after her mother.
“I feel like her legacy can continue through this space,” she said. “She does come to visit when she’s able. She’s able to see her work and her impact through the house, so that brings me joy.”
While doing his community service work, Shakur earned his associate’s degree from Wayne County Community College and published his first book, “The Window 2 My Soul” in 2008. Since then he’s written three more books: “My Soul Looks Back,” “Scribes of Redemption,” a collection of the letters from Shakur and his father; and “Redemptive Soul: The Yusef Bunchy Shakur Reader.”
Shakur has also gotten further in his education journey. In 2017, he graduated from the University of Michigan-Dearborn with a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies with a concentration in African American studies, psychology and sociology. Two years later, Shakur earned a master’s degree in social work from the University of Michigan and completed his Ph.D. in public policy and social change at Union Institute & University last year.
In 2024, Shakur also released a documentary on his life called, “Redemption Road.” The film has been selected for over 30 festivals and earned 17 awards in categories such as best documentary, best social impact film and best inspirational film, he announced on social media. This week, “Redemption Road” will make its debut at the International Black & Diversity Film Festival in Toronto.
As Shakur reflects on his life and the accomplishments he’s made since leaving prison, he wishes he could tell his younger self that he is worthy and lovable and not to be so hard on his mother.
“There’s a whole world out there for you,” Shakur said. “The world is your canvas and you can paint it to be whatever you want to be, but you have to just believe in you. Life is going to present obstacles and struggles, but you can’t be mad at the world. If you’re mad at the world, you’re going to miss out on opportunities.”
Editor’s note: Shakur is a member of BridgeDetroit’s Community Advisory Council, which helps the newsroom better connect with issues facing Detroiters.