Downtown Phoenix Voices is an ongoing series of profiles on the many diverse and inspirational voices in the downtown Phoenix community. To read the last installment in the series,
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In the five years he has been in Phoenix, Arizona State University graduate Braden Kay decided to improve the city’s sense of community, from planting sunflowers for a biodiesel fuel project to developing sustainability strategies along the Metro light rail.
Kay has been involved in many groups in Phoenix. He was a Teach for America participant, corps member in St. Louis and a teacher with the Knowledge Is Power Program in Gary, Ind. He also became a Fellow from ASU’s School of Sustainability at the Bioscience High School and joined the board at Roosevelt Row, an organization dedicated to the creative district in downtown Phoenix.
Lynn Palacios, who teaches at Bioscience High School, remembers working with Kay at the high school on multiple projects.
One of the projects both Palacios and Kay worked on together was called Connections Endeavors, which gave Bioscience High School students an outlet to voice their concerns and identify problems in the community and society.
“He has a very down-to-earth demeanor that is engaging and serves to attract people. He understands change processes, and he cares about creating healthy, vibrant, sustainable communities,” Palacios wrote in an email. “In this way he has been able to help us at BHS — and, I believe, others with whom he works — create plans or paths, and articulate the actions, behaviors and interventions necessary in order to move towards such goals.”
Kay looks forward to the ever-changing Phoenix. He is a part of the Valley of the Sunflowers project, which helps use art as a development tool in the Roosevelt district, and the creator of A Teen Voice, a group in which four local high schools voice what teens want to see happen in their neighborhoods.
“What will end up being five and half years (in Arizona) is to create a Ph.D. experience by, ‘yes, I am writing journal articles and putting out academic output,’” Kay said. “But I am working with district community organizations and community members to try and make sustainability happen in Phoenix.”
John Harlow, Kay’s former classmate and co-worker on projects like activating vacant lots in downtown Phoenix, said Kay brings a special enthusiasm to each project.
“He is extremely energetic and has an incredible work ethic,” Harlow said. “He is dedicated to producing high-quality work in whatever he does, and he is really giving and really takes care of his team.”
Kay grew up in Washington D.C. in a diverse neighborhood with the privilege of a close-knit community.
“It was a very idyllic neighborhood where there was a really strong sense of being good to your neighbor and create connections and opportunities through your neighbors,” Kay said.
Kay said he used to spend a lot of time at the youth garden in his neighborhood when he was young. A daytime shooting there motivated him to teach and create a better sense of community.
“I lived in a neighborhood where one, two, three blocks away you have a very different existence,” he said. “I was always motivated to be like, ‘Just because you live on the different side of the street or in a different zip code doesn’t mean you should have a completely different life than the person on the other side of the street.'”
Kay looks back on all the privileges he had as a child and how he can use them to improve a community.
“You can have the most privileges in the world and (when you) really look across the street you realize we have so much to do to create opportunities in communities for all of us together,” Kay said. “For me, privileged isn’t good enough unless you figure out how to have it be more equitable.”
Kay continues to work on projects around the Phoenix area. His current project consists of improving communities along the light rail by developing sustainability plans and solutions.
He also sees how little changes can make big impacts on communities — he mentioned Valley of the Sunflowers and the Grow House as good examples of how the arts district made the area safer and more interactive over the past 10 years.
“Whether it’s growing things or whether it’s selling things or whether it’s celebrating events we have on the street, that’s part of the issue in Arizona,” Kay said. “People don’t spend time outside together.”
Kay said he believes a person cannot solve issues in a community until “you emerge yourself in the community to get together to make changes.”
He said he plans on spending the rest of his life with people who want to care for others and the place where they live and work. He remembers a quote his best friend once told him.
“There’s nothing in the twenty-first century that’s worth doing by yourself,” he said.
Contact the reporter at Chelsa.Thomas@asu.edu
