Hello,

I am writing this newsletter from Bodrum, Turkey, where I’ll be a featured speaker for Harvest Series’ 10-year celebration. Being here on the Aegean Sea has me reflecting on the path that carried me from Detroit to global rooms I once didn’t even know existed.

But that’s the power of being present. When you stay in alignment with big ideas, magic can truly happen.

This year of imagination began back in my hometown Detroit, inside the newly renovated Michigan Central Station, at the opening of the Shaka Senghor Literary Lounge.

The lounge is part of the Boys & Girls Clubs’ new club inside Michigan Central, alongside spaces founded and funded by Usher and Big Sean. That made the night even more meaningful. It wasn’t just about my name being on a room. It was about Detroit continuing to evolve as a hub where artists, storytellers, and visionaries can come together to create something meaningful for the young people of the city.

For me, the lounge is a culmination of my life’s work.

A room built around books. Around story. Around imagination. Around the belief that young people from Detroit deserve spaces that remind them their voices, art, and creativity matter.

What stayed with me most from that experience was looking out at the young people in that room and knowing the lounge would still be there for them long after the cameras were gone.

That moment set the tone for my year.

Since then, I’ve spoken at the University of Michigan, Harvard, and a Golden State Warriors community event. I also traveled to Sint Maarten, where I went inside a prison, spoke at a university, met with government leaders, donated 500 copies of How to Be Free to Art Saves Lives, and filmed a mini documentary.

But this year so far has not felt like a highlight reel. It has felt more like the opening of new doors to create meaningful art and opportunities for others to see freedom as I do.

Every room has brought me back to the same truth: the prisons we carry are real, and they have doors.

Some are made of concrete and steel. Some are made of grief, anger, shame, fear, and old stories we have carried for too long. I know both kinds. I served real time behind real bars, and I have also had to fight my way out of the prisons in my own mind.

That is why I keep writing. That is why I keep showing up. That is why this work matters.

Now, as I prepare to speak here in Turkey, I’m reminded that freedom is not just an idea we carry. It is a practice. It is something we build. In rooms. In books. In conversations. In communities. In the lives of young people who deserve to know that their story is not a mistake.

For now, 2026 is teaching me that scale and depth can coexist. That service and creativity belong together. And that the truest version of yourself is always worth fighting for.

The paperback of How to Be Free is out now. If you’ve been waiting for a sign to pick it up, give it as a gift, or share it with someone you love, this is it.

Let's Get Free.

Shaka