To the Editor:
I’m running to represent District 7 on the Boston City Council. I was born and raised in Roxbury, in the Lenox Street Projects, and I am a proud father of three, a descendant of American Freedmen, and someone who has faced— and overcome — real-life challenges.
I know what it means to be counted out. I also know what it means to fight your way forward. After being released from incarceration, I made a conscious decision to dedicate my life to being part of the solution.
That path began at the Boston Jobs Coalition, where I gained firsthand experience in community-led
advocacy and witnessed how organizing can create tangible change. For the last decade, I’ve worked in violence prevention and youth empowerment, starting as a mentor at Mission Safe and later as a Streetworker for the City of Boston.
I’ve walked with our young people through the hardest moments, helping them find alternatives to violence, guiding them toward education and opportunity, and ensuring their stories were heard — not just punished.
I’m also a co-founder of the Nubian Square Foundation, where we are building a model for community-led development – centered on self-determination, cultural pride, and sustainable investment. Our foundation believes in the power of grassroots leadership to heal and transform our neighborhoods.
My campaign is grounded in a few clear priorities: Support for youth and seniors, ensuring every generation is protected, empowered, and heard; reparative justice for the descendants of American Freedmen; affordable housing and pathways to homeownership that allow families to stay and build wealth; and development that uplifts our neighborhoods without displacing the people in them.
But above all, I’m running to bring a voice from the community back into City Hall – a voice that understands struggle, leads with integrity, and stands firmly with the people of District 7. I am not a politician by design. I am a servant by decision. I didn’t come to this work for titles or accolades. I came because this is my home, and I’ve already been doing the work. Now I’m ready to do it with the power of the council seat behind me.
To the voters of Roxbury, South End, Fenway, and Dorchester: I humbly ask for your support, your voice, and your vote.
In solidarity,
WaWa Bell
