Playing basketball with the wrong set of people or frequenting the wrong gas station could land you on a Wichita Police Department list of gang members. Community activists say police make snap judgements that label people as gangsters without any criminal record. That’s about to change. Judge Eric Melgren, chief judge of the U.S. District […]
progeny
Defying a “gang list” label to find his voice and lend it to others
There is the life you are born to — and the life you create. Desmond Bryant-White is creating his chosen life through words: written words and spoken words, filling books and covering whiteboards. Words rising out of pain, struggle and injustice, uttered at poetry slams, press conferences and policy panels. And now leaders of Wichita’s […]
Marquetta Atkins is opening the doors of entrepreneurship for Wichita youth
When Wichita native Marquetta Atkins merges her activism and entrepreneurship, the result creates pathways for youth from underserved communities to thrive. Atkins is the executive director of Destination Innovation, a hub for three programs that focus on youth — Progeny, Camp Destination Innovation and Root the Power. In 2015, she founded Camp Destination Innovation, a […]