The highlight of the year so far and the coolest phenomenon is to see African-American men of all ages and their sons gathered together for a school breakfast. I consult for a few schools in Baltimore City. I love my education contracts because the schools are a direct link to the kids, our hopes, dreams and future. I did a brief stint as a neighborhood school as a Media and Technology instructor. That is a completely different discussion so I won't go too far into that here but what I can say is that I quickly identified the limitations our the public education system. I quickly resigned and returned to the private sector in order to have a more direct, creative way to reach our youth.
Back to the breakfast in honor of the father and son relationship. What a pleasure to witness and record the rare side of the African-American male. Black men are often portrayed as misogynists, angry, absentee dads on a mission to nowhere. Instead what I recorded was a gentle expressions of manhood. We are strong, We hug, support, encourage and are unified as fathers in love with our sons. A stark contrast from the violence reported in rap songs on the news or the daily talk dish.
As a black man, father and Fellini it is my personal mission to capture the real essence of who we are truly, both good and bad. Take a glimpse for yourself and you will see, we are varied in shape, color, strength, size and power but the real measure of our value is captured in the warmth of our smile which displays the size of our hearts!
