This is Gamma House
Where brands leave beta. Product development, studio, workspace, and a model storefront — the whole build, in one place in South Dallas.
>> Doors Open · MLK Day, January 2027
Gamma House is the first building the Marcus Graham Project has ever owned. The building is ours and the roof is on. Your gift gets the doors open, and opens the door of opportunity for those coming next. fund the build →
For nineteen years, this work happened in borrowed rooms — built from scratch every summer, with the keys handed back in August. Every year we started over. Every year we left.
Not anymore. Gamma House is the first building the Marcus Graham Project has ever owned. The building is ours. The goal is $250,000, and $100,000 is already in. The $150,000 left opens the doors on MLK Day: the first-floor build, everything that goes inside it, and the house’s first six months. That is the whole argument for this campaign.
Founded in 2007 by Lincoln Stephens and Larry Yarrell, the Marcus Graham Project (MGP) is a national nonprofit
that prepares emerging talent — especially those from underrepresented communities — for careers in advertising,
marketing, and media. Named for the fictional character from the film Boomerang, MGP has spent nearly
two decades proving that talent thrives when learning connects to real work, real mentorship, and real professional standards.
Through the iCR8 Bootcamp, MGP Academy, and a national network of corporate partners, MGP has launched careers
across the country. Now, with Gamma House, we're giving that work a permanent home in South Dallas.
Our first home — 2509 MLK Jr Blvd, South Dallas. The first building the Marcus Graham Project has ever owned.
Alumni at
Apple · Google · and the country's top agencies
For nearly two decades, the Marcus Graham Project has expanded access to careers in marketing, media, and advertising by building clear, supported pathways for emerging professionals.
GAMMA HOUSE is the physical extension of that work — a dedicated creator and maker space where emerging and next-generation talent can develop ideas, sharpen craft, and bring creative work to life in the markets where opportunity concentrates.
The marketing, media, and advertising industries are not limited by talent — they are limited by access. Early-career opportunities often concentrate in a small number of major markets. Entry points favor those with existing networks. Ideas with real potential stall without space, tools, or professional proximity to move them forward.
Lowering barriers between emerging creators and real industry opportunity
Providing the space, tools, and environment needed to turn ideas into execution
Cultivating peer and mentor networks that accelerate growth and collaboration
Transforming creative potential into durable career outcomes
GAMMA HOUSE is intentionally located on MLK Blvd in 75215 to align with a growing corridor of literacy, mentorship, arts, and workforce investment. As Forest Theater expands cultural programming, Guide Right and Kappa League deepen educational pathways, and DISD strengthens career readiness, GAMMA HOUSE provides the execution layer — professional creative infrastructure that allows emerging talent to apply skills, use modern tools (including AI), and produce real work. This is place-based development that grows people and possibility together.
"South Dallas has the talent. It has the history. It has the energy. What it has been missing is the infrastructure — a permanent, professional space where that talent can become economic force. Gamma House is that space. And we are building it right now, together."
>> Γ · GAMMA // οἶκος · OIKOS
Gamma is the stage after beta. Beta is potential — the practice, the someday. Gamma is what comes next: real work, shipped into the real world. Most programs get young people to potential and stop there. We move them to production.
Oikos is the ancient Greek word for house — and the root of the word economy. Economy didn't begin on Wall Street. It began at home: the place where people turn what they have into what they build. Gamma House is that home for South Dallas.
We teach the way we were built — through fraternity. You're not enrolled; you're brought in. Mentored by someone a few steps ahead, and expected to reach back for someone behind you. The network is the curriculum. Belonging is the method. We call it the Pedagogy of Fraternity.
And we didn't land here by accident. Gamma House sits on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd — next door to the Dallas Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi, the fraternity of our founders, and on the same street as chapters of Delta Sigma Theta and Omega Psi Phi. Three pillars of the Divine Nine, one corridor of Black excellence. We didn't build near a legacy. We built inside one.
Beta is the idea. Gamma is the product on the shelf.
Beta is the promise. Gamma is the proof.
This is the house where South Dallas builds its own.
75215 — the zip code where Gamma House sits — is one of the most culturally rich and historically significant corridors in Dallas. It is also one of the most underserved. The young people walking MLK Blvd every day have creativity, drive, and potential. What they have lacked is a professional environment to develop it.
More than double the DFW metro average of 10.5%
About half the DFW metro median of $90,275
Compared to 39% across the DFW metro area
14 points below the regional rate of 87.6%
Schools in the Gamma House footprint
James Madison High School
Lincoln Humanities/Communications Magnet High School
Billy Earl Dade Middle School
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Arts Academy
St. Philip's School & Community Center
The King's Academy
These students walk past 2509 MLK Blvd. Gamma House gives them somewhere to walk into.
75210, 75215, and 75216 are consistently among the lowest-income zip codes in Dallas — a corridor where economic mobility has stalled not from lack of will, but from lack of infrastructure. The creative economy offers a real pathway out. Gamma House is how we open that door.
Gamma House doesn't treat South Dallas youth as a population to be served — it treats them as the next generation of creative professionals to be developed. Every apprenticeship, every client project, every portfolio piece is economic participation, not charity.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-Year Estimates · Census Reporter · ZIP Code 75215
We are at a pivotal moment in the creative economy. Demand for creators who can think strategically, produce at speed, and adapt to new tools is accelerating — while the infrastructure that helps emerging talent move from potential to professional execution has not kept pace.
AI is now standard across how creative work gets made — ideation, design, editing, distribution. The creators who'll define the next decade pair creative instinct with fluency in these tools, not just the concepts.
Professional-grade tools, mentorship, and real project experience rarely reach communities like 75215 — and as technology outpaces traditional training, that gap widens. Hands-on beats the classroom every time. Gamma House closes the distance.
Brands and organizations need creators who can work at the intersection of culture, technology, and storytelling. GAMMA HOUSE prepares creators to meet this demand — teaching them to use modern tools, AI included, to turn ideas into real, market-ready output. The skills gap is the business opportunity. Gamma House is the bridge.
Not a studio inside a house. A house that is a studio.
Every room keeps its name and its primary use — and every room is built to shoot, record, and teach. One identical kit per room: acoustic panels on one wall, a light, a tripod, mics, an interface, cables, and a rolling cart that holds all of it.
It's also a clean way to build with us: fund one room's kit, or all seven →
Every room in this building is designed around a specific outcome — not inspiration, but execution. Four named rooms across two floors, plus offices, an edit bay, and support space: twelve rooms, 2,338 square feet, all of it owned.
Interior images are renderings.
In product development, beta is testing. Gamma is what comes after — execution, delivery, real impact. Here is what Gamma House delivers when the doors open.
BEYOND BETA.
Emerging talent takes real briefs from real brands — product, content, and campaigns carried from idea to shelf, to professional standards.
South Dallas SMBs get professional branding, content, and campaign support from MGP's creative lab.
The next generation learns to produce with modern tools — AI-enabled content, digital campaigns, and social commerce.
Once activated in Dallas, the Gamma House model is built to replicate in cities across the country.
Since 2007, the Marcus Graham Project has moved young creatives from potential to production. Our alumni work at Apple, Google, and the country's top agencies. Now that work has a home on MLK.
Other programs send young people home with a portfolio. Ours puts their brand on a shelf.
Young builders take one product all the way. They develop it in the test kitchen. They name it, package it, and shoot it in the studio. Then they sell it in the shop and on marketplace days. Real product. Real customers. Built with Lemonade Day.
One real brief from a real brand. The fastest way to find out if you have what it takes.
An evolution, not the end. The bootcamp is growing into a model built on doing real work for real clients. More soon.
The Shop at Gamma House helps you build your brand. Tell us what you need.
Neutral finishes. Rooms that convert. Bring your brand in for a shoot, a launch, a pop-up, or a workshop.
We declare that South Dallas has the talent, the history, and now the permanent home to turn creative potential into real careers and real businesses. We Declare is Phase 1 of the Road to 20 — MGP's build toward its 20th anniversary in 2027. This is a community-funded build, and we're raising $250,000 to open the doors on MLK Day: the first-floor build, everything that goes inside it, and the house’s first six months. $100,000 is in. $150,000 opens the doors. Every dollar is a pair of virtual hands.
Capital Campaign · Gamma House Building Fund
Marcus Graham Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Contributions are tax-deductible.
Prefer to give something other than money, or just have questions? We'll follow up personally.
One of one hundred. Your name etched on the Builders Wall before the doors open. Give once, or $250 a quarter, or about $167 a month.
A lead gift that moves the whole build. Cornerstone builders anchor a phase of the house and are recognized on the Builders Wall.
The deepest way to build: put your name — or someone you honor — on a room in the house. Let's talk about what's available.
A check is one way in. Hands are another. Equipment, appliances, materials, and skilled labor all count — valued at cost and documented for your records.
Cannot give right now? Open a door. Not everyone can give $1,000, but everyone knows one person who can help. One introduction can build a wing. Either way, you are a builder.
Where your gift goes
Your gift funds the next phase of completing Gamma House — the work that gets the doors open. Programming for the next generation of builders is already funded through the generosity of our local program partners, so every dollar you give goes straight into finishing the house.
Corporate or institutional partner?
For two decades, corporations have partnered with MGP through our iCR8 Methodology to develop the creative talent their teams and brands depend on. Join us in continuing to provide a pipeline of that talent — we shape every partnership around your talent and brand goals.
Can't give $1,000? Open a door instead — one introduction to someone who can. Or offer in-kind: equipment, appliances, materials, skilled hands — tell us how you'll build.
2509 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd at Malcolm X, Dallas TX 75215
There's more than one way to build with us — become a founding builder, offer in-kind support, open a door with an introduction, or simply stay connected. Tell us how you'd like to plug in.
We'll be in touch about how you can get involved. Thank you for showing up for South Dallas.
