Culture, Place-making, and Creativity in Detroit Today with Njia Kai

in Introduction by

Njia Kai loves artistry. The life work of Njia has placed her in spaces to best present performance, projects, and programming related to culture. The way she helped make flyers and programs for high school events has now transitioned to the African World Festival, Campus Martius event planning, and so much more. Our first interview (2018) discussed her background and journey and this interview connects her ideas for the future. This is a deep conversation and fruitful perspective looking at how we can all reconnect with culture moving beyond this crisis.

What began as a journey engaging hip-hop audiences, has grown into a career as a marketing consultant. As business people have seen my work, I was propositioned many times to provide graphic design, photography, videography, event planning, website development, and social media campaigning. These initial business contracts inspired me to build Creative Differences Marketing. I’ve balanced my entrepreneurial experience with formal education from Walsh College of Business and Accountancy. My degree in Marketing serves me well in understanding many of the formal, universal, and theoretical marketing approaches used in corporate environments.Formulating this business model has been anchored by the success of my BLOG ‘Detroit is Different.’ I create all content for Detroit is Different. This serves as a prototype of the ways I can design events, websites, graphics, music, podcasts, social media campaigns, and e-mail campaigns. ‘Detroit is Different’ focuses on the people and places of Detroit that add to the culture. Through these people and places, themes are driven. These themes will partner with, sponsor, and advertise for businesses and organizations using this innovative multilevel marketing approach.