Early on, Jalyn knew he had a love for art and storytelling. These notions that you could pause or revisit time, make art to share ideas that would live on after we’re gone, reimagine the world around you, or wield a medium to change minds, soften hearts and start important conversations, felt worth exploring further.

Jalyn has dedicated the last several years to sharpening his craft, building a brand and business, and mentoring youth in the Metro-Detroit area through the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance (a mentoring program founded by the Obama Foundation) and Capturing Belief (a visual storytelling & mentoring program).

In 2019, he was invited to the Obama Foundation Summit in Chicago, IL to speak about his relationship with storytelling. He spoke on what it’s taught him about being a leader, about how true connections are made, and how some impacts are often still felt years later, like the influence of his fifth-grade teacher, who’d expressed years ago how she knew he was destined to tell stories.

That experience has since ignited a passion for sharing stories intent on giving a voice to those whose stories remain untold and whose perspectives have been overlooked. As a narrative film director, his goal has been to breathe life into stories that often mirror many of his own, stories that are seldom discussed or should be explored through a careful and responsible lens. In that, he hopes to challenge certain ideas about the black experience and the human condition and to continue re-writing his own narrative in the process.

As an artist and a mentor, he continues to share what he’s learned about the power of digital media and the freedom found in owning one’s narrative to inspire young people to shoot for the stars and author their own destinies, despite where their stories began.