Anyone who is acquainted with Brenae Arthur-Jones knows she often can be found outlining and sketching her plans for fashion design marketing and management.
As director of the Ezekiel Project, she now will be mapping steps to take action on concerns that include justice in law enforcement, education, the economy, the environment, health care and whatever issues may come to the table.
This will be quite a different agenda from the world of fashion, but Brenae sees a common thread.
“I’ve never met a problem that couldn’t be resolved through critical thinking,” she says, explaining the outlook she brings to her new role.
Saginaw’s Ezekiel Project, with offices at 403 South Jefferson, formed during the 1990s as “an interfaith interracial, congregation-centered organization that addresses social justice issues and moves for systemic change, led by a board with clergy and lay representatives from our member congregations. We are a part of the Gamaliel Network, a network of community organizing projects that provides training, program assistance, and professional development.”
The group generally has remained low-profile, with the exception of a 2003 convention that drew more than 1,000 participants to Victorious Believers Ministries for a take-action assembly that drew an array of prominent guests, including Jennifer Granholm, newly elected Michigan governor at the time.
Arthur-Jones attained her fine arts college credentials from the Illinois Institute of Chicago, and the Windy City so happens to also serve as the national base for Gamaliel, known for occasional confrontation tactics such as picketing and boycotting. President Barack Obama’s early years as a South Side organizer were influenced by Gamaliel.
As she gains insight, Brenae aims for a more cooperative approach as she gains the Ezekiel reins from Jessica Hernandez O’Brien, director for the past five years.
“Loving everybody — I’m more of a ‘lovey dovey’ in that regard,” she says. “Advocacy is important, but as the saying goes, you can attract more flies with honey. And Saginaw is so very much of a tight-knit community, and so our approaches here may not be the same as those in Chicago.”
To build upon this theme, she will aim to expand Ezekiel’s reach beyond Saginaw’s borders into the Great Lakes Bay approach for regional teamwork.
Married to Christopher Jones Sr., Brenae is a Saginaw High School alumnae and the granddaughter of Darlean Carpenter, longtime leader of her alma mater’s PTA. For more info, see theezekielproject.com.
