Kingmakers of Oakland
Making Black Love Visible
Client: Kingmakers of Oakland — a fellowship program centering Black love in educational spaces
The Challenge:
Kingmakers of Oakland knew their work was transformative — their fellows were experiencing something powerful in the program — but they didn't have language to name it or evidence to measure it. They wanted to understand how Black love showed up in their spaces, what impact it had on fellows, and how to sustain and deepen that work. But love isn't something you can easily quantify or capture in traditional program evaluations.
The Approach:
I worked with Shiree Teng’s Measuring Love Team and conducted in-depth interviews with Kingmakers fellows who had graduated from the program, creating space for them to reflect on their experiences and the love they received. The interviews weren't extractive — they were designed to honor the fellows' stories and center their voices as the experts on their own transformation.
From those conversations, I identified and compiled quotes that captured how Black love showed up concretely in the program — in mentorship, in affirmation, in being seen and held. These weren't just feel-good testimonials; they were evidence of a pedagogical and relational approach that most educational spaces don't even have language for.
The Impact:
Kingmakers gained a clear narrative framework for talking about their work — not just "we support Black students" but "we practice Black love as pedagogy"
The compiled quotes became both an affirmation of what was working and a diagnostic tool for what needed attention
We presented the findings and quotes from the young people were presented at Kingmakers' Spring Symposium, bringing their voices directly into one of the organization's most important gathering of the year
The fellows' voices became the center of Kingmakers' storytelling, shifting the organization from talking about their work to letting the work speak for itself
