Deep joy. Connection. Kinship. Blessed. Aligned. These are the feelings I am holding as I type these words. There is a growing body of Black men around the country Brandon Marshall, Norega, Lebron James, myself, and many more — who are creating spaces for themselves and other Black men to be heard, feel energized and inspire others.
Black male athletes, musicians, entertainers, entrepreneurs and EDUCATORS alike are creating and holding space where their friends, comrades, and family members can be safe enough to be vulnerable, challenged, and unedited, so that they can “give each other their flowers”, talk about the unique issues they face personally and professionally, and to simply exhale for a moment.
I speak about this more in this month’s video below. I would be remiss, if I didn’t mention that we wrapped up the Fall 2021 Cohort of the BMEsTalk Leadership Lab. Woot! Woot! For this cohort we had over 20 Black Male Educators registered from across the country and around the globe.
Men joined us from Milwaukee, Denver, Atlanta, Ethiopia, China, Cayman Islands, and the UK.
While I share amore in the video, Kwame, an educator based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia said this:
“I love the fact that the facilitators created space for us to take ownership of our learning throughout this experience. The laid-back, conversational nature of this experience really allowed for brothers to open up and really contribute to the conversations in an authentic way.”
Big SHOUT OUT to James Price, my co-facilitator on this project. He is a member of the CommunityBuild Ventures Cooperative.
Resources mentioned in the video:
–) Let me finish – https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/let-me…
–) Creating Spaces for Ourselves – https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/creati…
–) When the Blacks get together, ALL students win – https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-b…
Sign up now to get advanced notice about upcoming BMEsTalk Leadership Labs – https://forms.gle/2rhaSqTy29mVfLzJ7
