The End of Men

I've read articles similar to this one over the years. The part of the article that mentions the boys eyes as "glazed over" is the reason I do what I do for a living. One of the main culprits to the decrease in the number of males seeking post-secondary education is the format of our educational system. The educational system is more suited to the learning style of females (passive, listener). Teachers, predominately, continue to stand and lecture in classes from elementary school through high school. Males are most suited for active engagement in the learning process. For a variety of reasons, people learn best by doing, but considering the way children are raised, females adapt better to being auditory learners when necessary than boys. One of the possible solutions to meeting the multiple learning styles and intelligences of learners is through technology-based interventions which is where I come in. I won't digress.

Society has become more driven by information and the skill of communicating that information. Research has long shown that females are more verbal than males. The reason for this could be debated with the classic "nature vs. nuture" theory/ born that way or developed that way. For those of you who are married, this may carry over to your household. Honestly, everything doesn't have to be a debate with spouse and shouldn't be, but it can be if you allow it sometimes. Sometimes it's best to just agree to disagree and keep moving.

So, one of the issues to consider initially is relationships. Relationships in the classroom, workplace, and home with females. They all start early in the life of males.

Just my initial thoughts. Feel free to join in or not.  :)

Still reading the remainder of the article.

TIME TO VOTE!

Here are the books, in alphabetical order, nominated for our January 21 meeting. Please vote for no more than three (3) books:

Rob Bell, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived

Milan Ford, 83 Things I Wish the Black Church Would Stop Doing

Toure, Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?: What It Means to be Black Now

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN

Nominations are hereby open for our January 21, 2012 selection. Nominated books should be "TOPICAL" OR "ISSUES NONFICTION this time. You are free to nominate two (2) books. Nominations will stay open until Wednesday night. On Thursday and Friday we will vote on the nominated books.

This Saturday, of course, we will meet at 5pm in the usual space to discuss Is Marriage for White People, by Richard Ralph Banks. Looking forward to it!

Women Choose Flexibility Over Big Titles (NBC Nightly News Story)

Interesting story considering the current book we are reading. Applies to black women?
Click here.

Good Meeting

Enjoyed our meeting, as usual, last Saturday afternoon. As revealed at the meeting, the book we'll be discussing on November 19, 2011 at our 5 p.m. meeting will be Ralph Richard Banks, Is Marriage for White People?: How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone. It should really be interesting...

Blog Posting/Commenting Issues

After having the experience of not being able to respond to a post or publish a new post to the blog I did some serious investigating.

If you continue having posting/comment issues, do the following:

(See the image below)
1) Sign in to the blog with the email address you gave me to grant you membership to the blog.

2) Enter your password.

2) Before clicking on the "Sign in" button, uncheck the "Stay signed in" box above the "Sign in" button.

3) Click the "Sign in" button.

4) Try a new post to the blog.


Let me know how it goes for you.

TIME TO VOTE!

Here are the books, in alphabetical order, nominated for our November meeting. Please vote for no more than three (3) books:

Ralph Richard Banks, Is Marriage for White People?: How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone

Rob Bell, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived

Michael Dawson, Black Visions: The Roots of Contemporary African-American Political Ideologies

Gerald Early, A Level Playing Field: African American Athletes and the Republic of Sports

Milan Ford, 83 Things I Wish the Black Church Would Stop Doing

Robin D. G. Kelley, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original

Randall Kennedy, The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency

Ronald R. Sundstrom, The Browning of America and the Evasion of Social Justice

TIME TO VOTE!

Here are the books, in alphabetical order, nominated for our November meeting. Please vote for no more than three (3) books:

Ralph Richard Banks, Is Marriage for White People?: How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone

Michael Dawson, Black Visions: The Roots of Contemporary African-American Political Ideologies

Gerald Early, A Level Playing Field: African American Athletes and the Republic of Sports

Robin D. G. Kelley, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original

Randall Kennedy, The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency

Ronald R. Sundstrom, The Browning of America and the Evasion of Social Justice

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN

We're back in business next week, as we gather at UR on Saturday, September 17, room 500 in Ryland Hall at 5 p.m., to discuss Blonde Roots, by Bernardine Evaristo. I'm looking forward to it.

Our next meeting after that, on Saturday, November 19, will feature WIDE OPEN NON-FICTION, which means exactly that: no fiction, no poetry, no plays. Everything else is in the mix as a possibility.

Please nominate no more than two (2) books. Nominations will stay open until Wednesday night, then we'll vote on the nominations for the next book selection. If there's a tie---and only if there's a tie; even a one-vote margin is a legitimate victory---we'll break the tie by secret-ballot vote at the meeting.

The Jackie Robinson of Cycling

If you watched the Tour de France this year you may have heard this story. If not ... . Click the here.

WANTED: Thoughtful Black Men Who Read

We need to recruit, my friends. I propose we make this a transition year, a year to pump up the membership (after all, as we have seen, even one of our most dedicated, most enthusiastic members can suddenly leave, due to opportunities elsewhere). For one solid year---at least---I propose we regularly, aggressively invite brothers to join us around the table. So let me spin out for a second my thinking about the matter, and if anyone has something to add or amplify, please do so in comments below.

As far as I can tell, there are two key, important reasons why Black Men Read?! is such a pleasurable experience: one, brothers do read the book so we can talk about the book; and two, we have no narrow-minded, ideologically-driven brothers who are hostile to---and will shout down---any ideas that don’t mesh with their own. That’s it, in a nut-shell. The brothers in this book group don’t need prodding to read, they came to the group as readers---the five books we read a year are just five more books than we already read.

So when I’m out in the world, and I’m chatting with a thoughtful brother, a black man whom I’m enjoying talking to (say, at a reception, at an art gallery, in any social situation where I’m meeting and chatting with some brother somewhere), if I’m enjoying the conversation, at some point I’ll casually ask, “Hey, what’re you reading? Y’got some book you’re working on?” And if he easily and quickly volunteers whatever book he’s reading, that’s all I need. I’ll make the offer to come to a Black Men Read?! meeting, and I follow up with an invitational e-mail. (Please give me the e-mail address of whomever you’re inviting, so I can send him the official invitation e-mail and give him the standard spiel.)

It’s that easy. I just wish it was that simple. For one, I just don’t run into Brothers Who Read as often as I feel like I should. So there’s only so many thoughtful-brothers-who-read out there. But then the question is whether they have the time, or the interest. It’s a numbers game. I’ve invited a good four or five brothers to meet with us over the last year or so, and one (I’m grinning at you, Eric McNeely) has become a regular, and another is supposed to meet with us in September. The others are too busy, or just would prefer not to, for some reason or another. But as you can see, I’m ALWAYS on the look-out for new members. For the next year, I’d like the rest of us to be on the look-out, as well.

The goal is twelve. With that many members, it’s almost a given that someone won’t be able to make any given meeting, but my sense is that even if as many as three or four guys can’t make it we’ll regularly---every single time---have eight or nine brothers around the table. Whereas nowadays, with eight or nine regulars, we’re sometimes down to as few as four or five around the table. So. Let’s pump up the volume.

What do you guys think? If some of you have thoughtful-brothers-who-read in mind already, please squeeze off---there’s absolutely still time to buy and read Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo, before our September 17 meeting. Do it.

The Summer Screening was terrific this year, for those of you who couldn’t make it. We looked at Night Catches Us in a great screening room in the Business School. Decent film, which prompted a full, satisfying discussion.

Enjoy the rest of your summers, eh?

A Farewell-to-Hobbs Summer Screening

Yeah, sadly, you read that right---

Our own William Ashanti Hobbs is "taking his talents to South Beach," as he's accepted a faculty position at Florida Memorial University. He'll begin this fall, so that means the last time we'll have this good brother around our table is during our annual Black Men Read?! Summer Screening. So I hope you can make it.

On Saturday, July 23rd, in the new screening room in the Business School at the University of Richmond, we'll screen and then discuss Night Catches Us, a critically acclaimed independent black film starring Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington---and featuring a score by the Roots. (I haven't seen it, by the way, and will view it for the first time along with you guys; I've been looking forward to it for a long time.)

The film's 90 minutes long, so we'll meet this time an hour earlier at 4 PM, watch the film, and then begin to discuss it at 5:30. The usual hangout is in play afterwards for any who can make it.

As is always the case, our wives are welcome for the Summer Screening, but even if you BOTH can't come, I hope any of you brothers who're in town will come out to bid best wishes to our boy---

easy,

B.

For Our First Fall Meeting...

... on September 17, 2011, the novel we'll read is Blonde Roots, by the British writer Bernardine Evaristo. For a sneak preview---in the author's own voice---go here: http://www.spokenword.org/program/1108012

She appeared on the Book Slam Podcast three years ago (this is where I heard of the book). Click on the blue Book Slam icon. You'll have to listen to approximately two-and-a-half minutes of nonsense by the two hosts, but Evaristo begins reading an excerpt from Blonde Roots about 2:30 in....

I'm writing this from Trinidad. I'll be headed to Cuba when you guys meet. Have a good meeting discussing Thomas Sowell's Black Rednecks and White Liberals on Saturday, May 21st, and remember that even though you'll meet on campus at our usual place at 5 p.m., Aubrey Pettaway will then lead you to the meeting place. So being on time would seem to be important, because if not you won't know where to go...

Blonde Roots looks like an interesting read so it gets my vote.

Aubrey

TIME TO VOTE!

Here are the three nominated books for our September meeting. Please vote for ONE (1) of the three by Sunday evening:

The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown

Blonde Roots, by Bernardine Evaristo

God Says No, by James Hannaham

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN

Since I won't be around for the May meeting, I thought we might do our business early---while I'm still here. So as of now, NOMINATIONS are open for our NOVEL selection that we'll be discussing in SEPTEMBER of this year.

You may nominate up to TWO (2) novels; on Thursday I will assemble the nominations and we will vote on them.

easy,

B.

TIME TO VOTE!

Vote for no more than three (3) of the below nominations. We will discuss Pryor Convictions on Saturday, March 21, at our usual meeting time (5pm) and place (room 500) at UR. See you then!

Black Rednecks and White Liberals by Thomas Sowell

Breaking Free from Financial slavery by DeForest B. Soaries

Decoded by Jay-Z

Have A Little Faith: A True Story by Mitch Albom

The Known World by Edward Jones

Satch, Dizzy & Rapid Robert; Interracial Baseball Before Jackie Robinson by Timothy M. Gay

The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN

Submit your nominations now, my friends, for the book we're going to discuss the third Saturday in May. May is, as you'll recall, the wide-open, wild card, genre-free selection---if it's got pages and is between two covers, then it's available for nomination.

Please nominate no more than two (2) books. Nominations will stay open until Wednesday night, then we'll vote on the nominations for the next book selection. If there's a tie---and only if there's a tie; even a one-vote margin is a legitimate victory---we'll break the tie by secret-ballot vote at the meeting.

By the way, I'm going to be out of the country when the group meets in May, so let's consider where the meeting can be held in my absence. I hope we can have a play in place by the meeting this Saturday.

Black Men Read Program at Richmond Elementary School

Just FYI.


http://www.wtvr.com/entertainment/wtvr-annual-black-men-read-program-looks-for-a-few-good-men-to-read-to-students-20110202,0,5678734.story

Book Talk Podcasts Posted

I have posted a link to the podcasts of our book talks. The link is at the top of the blog under the blog title and Google ad. Look for BMR?! Book Talk Podcasts. The latest book talk will be added to the list once Hobbs does his thing.

Invitation to a Reading

I'm officially inviting all of Black Men Read?! to attend a reading by Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, on February 4, 2011 at the Library of Virginia: click here for more info

My copy just arrived today; I can't wait to dig into it. For a sense of what she's writing about---and her approach---check her out on Radio Open Source, and on Fresh Air, among other places.

You can tell from what a terrific interview she is that she'd be a good person to hear read.

In fact, why don't we make a night of it? Wilkerson's reading from 6-7:30. Whoever's interested could also float west on Broad Street to the First Friday Artwalk, and then we could have dinner at Mama J's Kitchen or something...

Whether you can make the extracurriculars or not, I hope you can make the reading. I'm expecting her to be great....

TIME TO VOTE!

Here are the books, in alphabetical order, nominated for our March meeting. Please vote for no more than three (3) books:

1. Actor & Gentleman by Louis Gossett and Phyllis Karas
2. A Mouth Sweeter than Salt: An African Memoir by Toyin Faloba
3. Decoded by Jay Z
4. I Am the New Black - Tracy Morgan
5. Pryor Convictions by Richard Pryor

My nominations for March are:

1. Actor & Gentleman by Louis Gossett and Phyllis Karas
2. A Mouth Sweeter than Salt: An African Memoir by Toyin Faloba

Aubrey

NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN

Nominations are hereby open for our March, 2011 selection. Nominated books should be MEMOIRS this time. You are free to nominate two (2) books. Nominations will stay open until Wednesday night. On Thursday and Friday we will vote on the nominated books.