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North Philadelphia Activist Starts Civic Engagement Lecture Series


Last Saturday morning in the basement of Berean Presbyterian Church at North Broad and Diamond Streets, about a dozen people re-learned how separation of powers shape our federal government’s structure.

 The information presented can be overwhelming and tough to keep track of, but for 26-year-old Malcolm Kenyatta, teaching these eighth-grade concepts to the public is essential.

 “You have so many folks who assume it’s on auto-pilot,” Kenyatta said about engagement in politics.

 “Every four years, we put on our jersey for our team, but we assume ultimately, it will be fine. And I think we’re in a very different environment right now … you have this great desire of folks to get engaged and know what’s going on.”

 In order to further this, Kenyatta created Civic Saturdays, meetings which help re-teach critical concepts of how our government works to Philadelphians. After an opening lecture on the founding of the United States and how its founders created the framework of our federal government, audience members worked in groups to act out scenarios for how each branch of government shapes public policy.

 All of the meeting was streamed on Facebook Live, and those in attendance were asked to reflect on what they learned in the two-hour session.

 Gregory Wright, 28, is from West Philadelphia and attended Temple University with Kenyatta. He’s been following Kenyatta’s efforts around the city, and said he wants to help his community become more involved with state representatives.

 “Just learning what you have the power to do, and the reach to do, is definitely an important step,” he said.

 Kenyatta told those gathered on Saturday that citizens have a role to play in the political world alongside elected officials. Holding those officials accountable is only possible by being informed about what they do, he added.

 Two of those elected officials, state senator Sharif Street and state representative Curtis Thomas, attended Saturday’s session and spoke with individuals about topics ranging from energy use to gerrymandering.

 Sen. Street, the son of former Philadelphia mayor John Street, told the audience one of the most difficult aspects of being a politician is having to juggle several issues on a daily basis: “It’s like speed-reading everything in the world,” he said.

 In order to be more civically engaged, Street said he attends as many public events like Civic Saturdays as he can, along with posting clips of state hearings on social media.

 “People are less patient in the way they want to receive information,” said Street, 42. “My grandparents would sit and watch C-SPAN for two hours if they wanted to find the 15 minutes of what they want. Today’s people,at least who are under 50, they won’t do it.”

 One of those younger constituents is Rachel Linstead Goldsmith, a 35-year-old from Point Breeze. She attended Saturday’s meeting to re-learn the democratic process with other people.

“I want to find a way to be involved that feels meaningful and direct,” she said. “I’m one of those people who gets up everyday and makes a phone call to my representatives, and it doesn’t feel like enough. So this is one way to make it feel like I’m doing more.”

 Kenyatta said one of the challenges he faces while discussing politics with people is the emphasis on the president, versus the role of Congress and state and local politics.

 “I think there’s this misconception that the president decides everything,” he said. “That we have a system more like a king. Maybe our current president thinks he’s a king. But we know through this [discussion] that he’s actually not a king, and the founders very intentionally made the legislative branch the most powerful.”

 Despite the current divide in today’s politics, Sen. Street wants both sides of the aisle to continue to be open-minded. He told the audience that talking to the other side can lead to finding solutions that benefit everybody.

 “Then people can see the commonality in their issues,” he told Spirit News. “And all of a sudden, a guy that represents a coal-mining town and a guy that represents North Philadelphia can find we have more in common than we do apart, in terms of our constituents.”

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