Write On

A Black History, A Black Future

Four people who made Black History Month special for me.

February is never enough for Black history. No twenty-eight days—or even thirty-one—can be a proxy for millennia of history. But each year at the close of Black History Month I ask myself: how has it been marked? In what ways is my beloved history and heritage being lifted towards the future? Who is feeding the flame?

I had the honor of speaking with four people who give this fire all they’ve got. Two are my colleagues Maurice Williams and Lisa Browne, and both are Mighty Writers instructors: Maurice runs a class titled Mighty Brotherhood; Lisa’s workshop is titled Mighty Brown Skin Girls.

 

A Mighty Brotherhood

Mighty Brotherhood is a workshop for boys aged 8-12, designed to help young Black men grow into their best future selves. For Maurice Williams, the CEO and founder of Born With aPurpose, it’s about creating a safe space for young men to be empowered and encouraged.

Each session starts with Maurice asking the boys how they’re doing— honestly. “Saying ‘I’m fine’ isn’t necessarily true, and it’s not healthy to say that if it’s not real,” he notes. As boys check in, the others lift each other up with heart emojis and supportive messages.

Then there’s a topic of discussion to explore. The boys might learn to tie a necktie, or talk about when online teasing goes too far. And in every workshop, the young men repeat a mantra: “I am a king, I am a leader, I am smart, I am my brother’s keeper.” Maurice says, “They have lived up to these words.”

I could see this when speaking to a young writer who is part of Mighty Brotherhood. “I think of him like an uncle,” twelve-year-old Anthony Wallace says of Williams.

He says they talk about how important it is to respect women and that it’s admirable to be someone other than the stereotypes they might see portrayed. “We’re all each other’s brothers,” Anthony says. Hearing this smart young man’s kind and introspective voice gave me a jolt of hope for the future.

Perhaps when Anthony Wallace grows up, he’ll have the same thoughtfulness and drive as MontaQue Ruffin, an animator with Pixar Studios.

With films like The Incredibles 2 and Finding Dory on his resume, MontaQue found special meaning in being an animator for his latest big film, Disney Pixar’s Soul, during which a Black band teacher finds a sense of purpose. Here, MontaQue describes to me how he began his career, and the role of imagination and empathy in the work he does—it’s far more than just capturing a fictional person’s physicality. You have to understand their motivations.

What MontaQue learns as an animator applies to life.

Beyoncé Would Be Proud

Lisa Browne has been running Colorful Stories, a learning and affinity space for Black girls, for years, and recently began working with Mighty Writers for her workshop Brown Skin Girls. Friendly and full of charm, Lisa describes her vision: “I want to unpack what it means to be a brown skin girl; to teach the girls to ask critical questions—I want it to be super meaningful.”

For Browne, this means being responsive with no set curriculum. Like Maurice Williams’ Brotherhood, her workshops are driven by what the girls want to talk about. Every week, she invites a guest speaker, a Black woman who is “killing it in her field.”

For instance, in one class girls spoke with a set designer who had several Netflix films under her belt, learning about a cool career they never knew existed.

And whether relaxed or natural, hair is often a topic of discussion, not just because many girls care about their curls but because just as many, even at such a young age, have faced hair discrimination. Overall, Browne wants to create a safe space, one that celebrates the beauty of brown-skinned girlhood. “There are these lies that are told about Black women… that we don’t build, we don’t uplift each other,” she says. “But we do.”

Browne wasn’t the only awesome sister I chatted with this past month. Zooming with Afro-Boricua poet Dr. Raina León, I felt like we were meeting for a mug of coffee and cup of real talk. With her work inspired by the Black Arts greats: Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, León sees the urgency of poetry in a world that’s still fraught and deeply divided along lines of race, and that still seeks to erase Black, brown, and Indigenous histories.

Black History Month always goes by quickly, but the work that seems never-ending is getting done. My colleagues Maurice Williams and Lisa Browne, along with people like Montaque Ruffin and Raina León, are keeping the flame lit.