Repa Mekha: Changing lives

By Pulane Choane Contributing Writer

It is hard to imagine the wise, articulate and charismatic Repa Mekha, today a community leader in the Twin Cities, as a troubled 20-something-yearold sentenced to more than five years in prison. Yet on YouTube’s

The Conversation With Al McFarlane, he admits bravely that his journey today as a life-changing community leader began in Milwaukee, where he made a series of bad decisions that fatefully led him to where he is today.

Today, Mekha leads Nexus Community Partners, whose $50 million grant trust fund will support Black wealth building and historic Black communities in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Centering on entrepreneurship, home ownership and education, the trust fund initiative launches in the first half of 2023. Nexus will also launch a program aimed at teaching communities ways of resting in a new and unconventional way.

“Both my parents transitioned to ancestor hood when I was young. And so, my 18-year-old sister raised us. But