Abolition activist Mariame Kaba to deliver MLK keynote address Mariame Kaba. The abolition activist will give the keynote address during Northwestern’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Dream Week in January. December 18, 2020 Abolition activist Mariame Kaba will give the keynote address during Northwestern’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Dream Week in January. Kaba, who studied sociology at Northwestern and has taught courses at the University in the past, is a prison industrial complex abolitionist and educator. She founded Project NIA, a grassroots organization that aims to end youth incarceration, along with several social justice organizations based in Chicago. Among other projects, Kaba is a lead researcher at the Barnard Center for Research on Women for the Interrupting Criminalization initiative.