"When We Fight, we win!"
Kendrick Sampson, Actor & Activist

OUR MISSION
BLD PWR engages pop culture, education, and activism to build and train an inclusive community of entertainers and athletes to advance radical social change. BLD PWR partners with grassroots causes and organizations at the intersections of gender, immigration, economic, educational, environmental and racial justice movements.
OUR FOUNDER
Kendrick Sampson is an actor, activist and advocate for justice. Growing up in the suburbs of Houston, Texas, Kendrick gravitated to the arts and sought to bring to life nuanced portrayals of black men in his projects. He is most known for the Vampire Diaries (CW), Gracepoint (FOX), How to Get Away with Murder (ABC), White Famous (Showtime), Supernatural (CW), The Flash (CW) and most recently his portrayal as Nathan in HBO’s critically acclaimed Insecure.
Kendrick’s activism challenges by example to boldly use our voices to uplift the most vulnerable among us. With a primary focus on intersectional racial justice and undoing systemic oppression in the criminal legal system, Kendrick created the BLD PWR initiative as a call to action and invitation to others to join him in taking a stand for social justice.

OUR BOARD
COMMUNITY COUNCIL
Dr. Melina Abdullah – Professor, California State University, Los Angeles
Marya Bangee – Executive Director, Harness
Kelly Lytle Hernandez – Director, Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA
Tarsha Jackson – Co-Founder, Texas Families of Incarcerated Youth
Christina Jiminez – Executive Director and Co-Founder of United We dream
Kelly Lytle Hernandez – Professor of History, African American Studies, and Urban Planning at UCLA
The Thomas E. Lifka Endowed Chair of History
Director, Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA
Director, Million Dollar Hoods
2019 MacArthur Fellow
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Bamby Salcedo – President of [email protected] Coalition