Our Summer with Malcom

I am a Black father raising a Black son. He's about 12/13 years old. He attends school in a district as a minority among many who have more. The world can sometimes feel strange to him. I want to raise him to be more then what his surroundings have told he could be. I aim to provide him with more of a surrounding that builds confidence.

This is a summer book club for Black boys & their Black fathers. One book, one summer, read together. We read. He writes, reflects and teaches it back to the father. He surrounds himself with other Black boys learning to think the same. A young fraternity of thought.

We’re foundational black american families: our roots in this country run, on both sides, through the experience of American slavery. We raise our boys into men inside this shared inheritance. Our first book: The Autobiography of Malcolm X. A Black man who rebuilt himself from the ground up, more than once, after this country repeatedly tried to decide who he’d be. Our sons are learning to author that same kind of self.

We will gather several times over the summer for the boys and men to commune and break bread. We will end the summer watching together the Spike Lee Joint.

We hold the circle to twenty-one. Enough that every face is known, none a stranger. The Black man is remade more than once in his life. Here, we create the surroundings for the remaking.

This group may not be specific to you. Please pass it closer to someone you know it may be better made for. Thank you for reading. You are appreciated.