Young Kings Conference Brings Young Black Men to ArtCenter Campus

The Young Kings Conference, an annual gathering that brings young Black men to college campuses across Pasadena for a day of mentorship and career guidance, will be held Friday, February 13, at ArtCenter College of Design’s Hillside Campus, according to the NAACP Pasadena Branch.

The conference — also known as the Young Black Males Conference — has rotated through some of Pasadena’s most prominent institutions since its founding in 2008 by Pastor Tyrone Skinner of Metropolitan Baptist Church in Altadena. In recent years, it has been held at Caltech and Pasadena City College. This year, the NAACP Pasadena Branch’s Youth and College Division is organizing the event, which runs from 9:0 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

The move to ArtCenter’s Hillside Campus — a modernist steel-and-glass landmark at 1700 Lida Street designed by Craig Ellwood Associates and designated a Pasadena historic monument — continues the conference’s strategy of placing young Black men inside institutions where they are often underrepresented. ArtCenter sits on 165 wooded acres in the San Rafael Hills above the Rose Bowl and houses undergraduate and graduate programs in art and design.

The conference targets students from 8th grade through college and has historically drawn more than 200 young men, primarily from Pasadena Unified School District and surrounding areas, according to prior conference organizers. Past conferences have featured workshops on financial literacy, mental health, career exploration, homeownership, and creative expression, along with resource fairs and guest speakers.

Stephán McGrue, the Pasadena-bred educator and organizer who has led the conference in recent years, said after the 2025 event at Caltech that the gathering serves a purpose beyond programming. “This conference was not just an event — it was a place of safety and empowerment,” McGrue said in a statement following the 2025 conference, which was held weeks after the Eaton Fire displaced many Pasadena and Altadena families. “Even in our darkest moments, we can come together to rebuild and rise.”

McGrue, who worked at Pasadena City College for more than 15 years before transitioning to other projects, has described the campus-rotation approach as intentional. “Representation matters,” he said in a 2025 interview. “If you see yourself in a space, you feel like you belong.”

The NAACP Pasadena Branch, which was chartered on September 8, 1919, as the 16th branch issued by the national organization, has a century-long history of civil rights advocacy in Pasadena. Brandon Lamar serves as branch president.

The Young Kings Conference will be held Friday, February 13, 2026, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at ArtCenter College of Design, Hillside Campus, 1700 Lida Street.

Additional information is available through the conference’s Instagram account, @ybmc_socal, or at ybmc.live.

“I may have lost my home, but I will never lose my commitment to our youth,” McGrue said after the 2025 conference.